Unrated | 1h 33min | Musical, Romance | 24 March 1955 | Color
Director: Charles Walters
Stars: Leslie Caron, Michael Wilding, Keenan Wynn, Estelle Winwood, Walter Pidgeon.
Roland Petit ... choreographer: ballet
I'm not a fan of the Cinderella story, and this does nothing to improve that. I'm also not a fan of LC; she's good for the tomboy part, and for balletic dance (during daydreams here), but I never care whether she gets the boy at the end, not even in An American in Paris ('51).
EW is delightful, as nuttily distracted as usual, good for a fairy godmother.
EL is wasted as the stepmother. Even when she's onscreen, WP does the talking, as the unseen narrator, who even says characters' dialog instead of letting them speak. Guess that's supposed to remind us of being read the story as children?
KW is 3rd billed, and gets almost nothing to do. He's cast poorly into this setting anyway.
MW is fine as the prince, but boring. In this story, he meets LC well before the ball, brings her an invitation, and teaches her how to dance the various social dances that will be expected of her. He even calls her by name at the ball; she's the only one with tomboy cropped hair. But he brings the abandoned glass slipper directly to her, saving us time, thankfully.
I can't imagine that I would feel better about this if I saw an official, non-blurry print that might actually be widescreen.
MGM, dir. Walters; 5
