An American In Paris 1951

The Film:

I've known this film for as long as I've known that films can have real people in them, rather than just being cartoons! My Dad introduced me to musicals at a very early age - if they were on telly over a weekend, we would watch them together. And when we got our first video recorder (pretty early on in the great scheme of things - I was only about 8 or 9) these were the sorts of films he would record to build up some semblance of a video library.

Most of my early musical memories included Gene Kelly. (Rogers and Hammerstein - apart from Sound of Music - were a bit too grown-up for an eight year old!). Bing, Frankie, Judy, Doris, Fred, Howard and Gordon also got a good look in. But Gene Kelly was the one that hooked me in early on. Having said that, I'd always much rather be watching On The Town or Singin In The Rain than this one - and those two are the two of Kelly's big three films that I can practically recite all the way through, not this one!

My varied reactions towards Leslie Caron are weird and totally illogical (and will be explored here in greater depth in 1958!) and that may go some way to this one not really being a favourite. But I really love Gershwin and the ballet here is my favourite of the "big three". And there's Oscar Lavant (lots of Oscar Lavants!) to look forward to again. So I am looking forward to this one, far more than Andy is!

It was a shock winner - and here (in colour!) is the moment it was announced:

The Ceremony:

The awards were given out at the Pantages Theater again this year on March 20th 1952. They were hosted by Danny Kaye - and from the clips I've seen he was a great choice!

I've found a great picture of ticket, pass and programme from the year - but I've not got a great deal more information about the night itself!








Other Notable Winners That Night:

Bogie - enjoying the ceremony, despite spoiling the fun for the
Streetcar party

The awards were pretty much split three ways. Freed and Kelly got the big prize. George Stevens took Best Director for A Place In The Sun. And A Streetcar Named Desire looked set to do something that has still never been done - take all the Acting Awards!

However, the previous year Bogie had missed out on a nomination and everyone was up in arms. Possibly because of this, he beat Brando to Best Actor and spoilt the potential clean sweep. (Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter all won in their categories!)


Edith Head was right in the middle of her big run of eight Oscars for Costume Design, the most ever won by a single person. (She was nominated 35 times!) This year she won for A Place In The Sun. To most people older than me she is best remembered for dressing Audrey Hepburn - to most people younger than me she is best remembered for being immortalised as Edna Mode in The Incredibles!


Best Song:

"In The Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" from "Here Comes The Groom". Because everything in American in Paris was an old Gershwin song, none of it was eligible. And so we get Bing singing with Jane Wyman - from a late-era Capra film which I've never seen but now really want to......

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Stella!!!! Gene Kelly stole our Oscar!!!!

Out of the five nominations, there were three films that shared honours on the night. Quo Vadis and Decision Before Dawn were never really contenders. But consensus among people who hold opinions on such things still holds that both A Place In The Sun and A Streetcar Named Desire should have won Best Picture.

I'm really not sure on this one. I've seen them both and they are both fine dramas - well filmed, well acted etc. But I do think there was something new and different going on with An American In Paris that needed to be recognised, to see in the 50s properly and show that film-making was changing. It's actually quite bizarre that it is only the second winner in colour - twelve years after Gone With The Wind. And, whilst a well-acted and well-directed piece of character-based drama or comedy makes for the sort of film I love (Grand Hotel, Casablanca, All About Eve etc) film was starting to show that it was much more than that.

Maybe Streetcar was a better film in many of the traditional measures of such things - it's certainly dated less than AAIP - I'm going to stick with Gene and Leslie here. And not just for my own nostalgic and sentimental reasons. It is a great example of something different and new that was happening with film - and it's something that the public loved! (And Marlon Brando just needs to wait a few years, and he'll be fine!)

Our Verdict:

Adam knows something they don't.....

So it beat classic Tennessee Williams - what is all the fuss about?

The story (such as it is) - Gene Kelly is Jerry, an American artist scratching a meagre living in Paris. He lives in a typical Parisian apartment opposite Adam (Oscar Levant) who is a struggling would-be concert pianist. A bored and wealthy American woman takes a shine to Jerry and/or his art and becomes his benefactor, at around the same time as he meets and falls for Lise (Leslie Caron) who just happens to be the reluctant fiancee of Henri (Georges Guetary), a musician friend of Adam's.

I got!!!

All of which is not quite as incidental a plot as it should be, or far more incidental than it could be, depending on your point of view. It's convoluted and intriguing enough to be the plot of a good romantic comedy, or even a potentially fairly dark melodrama. But this film is all about the music, so it never really does either. It sometimes drives the film, but more often than not gets in the way of it.

Old school glamour (with a hint of irony)

Looked at another way, this film is showcasing three great things - the fabulous music of Gershwin, the wonderful choreography of Kelly and the musical/dance talents of its lead players. All in glorious technicolor with no expense spared. 

And it does all those things really well. There are some wonderful songs, most of them delivered along with some of Gene Kelly's best dancing (I've Got Rhythm is fab - and dancing on the piano to Tra La La is great!). There is a brilliant sequence with Oscar Levant conducting an orchestra of Oscar Levants (think Being John Malkovich with music!). And a great version of Stairway to Paradise which wonderfully parodies all that old Ziegfeld nonsense.

A fine bromance - although I bet Padorewski wouldn't
let anyone dance on his piano!

I will also concede that Leslie Caron is great in this as well. This was her first film and she had only just learnt to speak English. Apparently she was hired purely for her dance skills and her Frenchness. Watching the film again after some time, I think she acts really well and plays some good comedy moments - and she doesn't annoy me anywhere near as much as she did when I was younger (whether the same is true in a few films' time remains to be seen!)

It's still not one of my favourite musicals. I'd have much rather seen Singin In The Rain win the following year. But I'm glad that one of the big MGM Freed-Kelly films won Best Picture. And I really enjoyed watching it again.

The main attraction with this film, particularly in terms of its status as an American Classic, is the last 20 minutes of the film. No dialogue (sung or spoken) just Gershwin and dancing. Whatever anyone else thinks of the film as a whole, it is a great thing indeed that this visual interpretation of one of Gershwin's best pieces has been captured on film in colour, at this time, with these dancers. Here's one of the best bits. As Gershwin once said - S'Wonderful!