Silk Stockings (1957)

Film: Silk Stockings (1957)
Stars: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Oscar History: Despite the film's rather storied place in musical history, it received no Oscar nominations.  It did, however, get two Globe citations for Best Picture & Best Actress (Charisse).
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2019 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress of Hollywood's Golden Age.  This month, our focus is on Cyd Charisse-click here to learn more about Ms. Charisse (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

We enter Week 4 of our look at the career of Cyd Charisse with what will be our final musical from the actress.  As has been noted before, Charisse's career at MGM led to a series of much-lauded musicals, many of which are still beloved today (like Silk Stockings) but the films were not particularly financially-successful, and shortly after Silk Stockings came out, Charisse largely retired from musicals and from dancing in general.  As a result, she ended up with a quintet of truly beloved musicals during this time all but one of which we've chronicled here (In Singin in the Rain Charisse wasn't the lead, and weirdly I've never reviewed the picture on the blog, something I'll rectify the next time I see it, though it's pretty much a perfect film so its place at the top of this pantheon is appropriate).  Next week, for our final outing with the actress, we'll be looking at one of her rarer non-musical roles, but this week we conclude her run as the best hoofer on the MGM lot during the 1950's with Silk Stockings.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers around Steve Canfield (Astaire), a film producer who wants a Russian composer to help him score his next picture.  The problem is that the Soviet government doesn't want Boroff to leave, and is worried that he'll defect to the West (they're accurate in assuming this-he has every intention of leaving), and so they send a trio of bungling government agents (including Peter Lorre) to Paris to monitor Boroff's involvement in the film.  The men become entranced with the city and the western indulgences (and western women), and as a result Ninotchka (Charisse), a stern government agent, is sent to the city to monitor them, but in the process also falls in love with Steve.

If that plot sounds very familiar, it should.  Ninotchka was a 1939 film where Greta Garbo filled the role played here by Charisse, and was a smash hit in 1939 for MGM; George Tobias, best known today for his role as Abner Kravitz in Bewitched, actually appears in both films.  Like our last outing with Astaire & Charisse, there's a lot to offer here.  The musical and dance numbers are sublime, with particular attention to be paid to Charisse's wordless poetry in the title sequence, where she dances with (and eventually puts on) silk stockings.  There's also a great moment late in the film where Astaire smashes his top hat, which wasn't just literal but also a metaphor in the film.  At this point in his career Astaire had basically given up on musicals and was ready to retire from dancing.  Though he'd appear in television specials in the next few years, this was basically it for the spats-and-top-hat look for Astaire, and his penultimate musical.  He'd play an Irish rogue eleven years later in Finian's Rainbow opposite Petula Clark, but otherwise would only do straight or comedic roles for the rest of his career.

I've bagged a bit this month on Charisse's abilities as an actress, which feels mean, and it's not like she doesn't have talents for film, it's just that they only come across in her dancing, not her acting.  This is arguably the best performance we've seen from the actress so far this month, and while I wouldn't have nominated her for anything, she shows a comedic ability that we haven't really noticed prior to this.  However, it's hard to focus on Charisse when Janis Paige is starring opposite her.  Paige is magnificent in this role, and should have gotten an Oscar nomination for her work as Peggy Dayton, a scandalous picture star who is trying to play a serious part (but can't seem to commit to it, constantly throwing in musical numbers for herself).  Paige was never really a leading lady like Charisse, otherwise I might throw her in later in this series as I was that enamored with her work here, but I'm definitely going to be seeking her out in the future, as this is one of the better performances we've seen so far in the Saturdays with the Stars series.