Blast from the Past: Fred Astaire’s Last Role as Romantic Lead
The musical “Silk Stockings”originated from Melchior Lengyel’s story “Ninotchka,” which in turn was adapted into a 1939 delightful classic, directed by Lubitsch and starring Garbo.
The musical premiered on Broadway in 1955, and during its run, producer Arthur Freed acquired the rights, making it his first independent project.
Grade: B- (**1/2* out of *****)
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Theatrical release poster
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Since MGM held the right of first refusal as it had owned the 1939 film, Freed purchased the rights for $300,000.
As the script was being written by Leonard Spigelgass, Freed selected Rouben Mamoulian to direct, having previously worked with him on Summer Holiday (1948), which was a success.
This was Mamoulian’s first film in almost a decade, whereby he returned to Broadway to restage a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Oklahoma!’ (1943), and produced two other musicals and a play.
Mamoulian was displeased with Spigelgass’s draft and added outlines of new scenes. Spigelgass was then taken off the project, and Harry Kurnitz was hired to revise the script. Freed later hired Leonard Gershe to complete the script, just one month before the shoot.
Cyd Charisse, best known for her performance in Minnelli’s The Band Wagon (1953), was cast. Freed asked Charisse to choose between starring with Gene Kelly in Cukor’s Les Girls (1957) or with Fred Astaire in Silk Stockings; and she chose Astaire.
Astaire, who had finished filming Funny Face (1957), was ambivalent as he felt too old. Astaire worked with frequent collaborator Hermes Pan on the choreography, and asked Cole Porter to compose a rock and roll number to prove he was au courant with contemporary music. Porter then created the new number, “The Ritz Roll and Rock.”
Mamoulian wished for the film to rely less on dialogue and instead dramatize the relationship through dance numbers: “I had two of the best dancers in the world, and what interested me was to give greater importance to the dancing than to the action proper, which was merely a repeat of ‘Ninotchka.’ The psychological and dramatic development existed only in the dances.”
Unfortunately, Mamoulian did not succeed in improving Cole Porter’s Broadway production, and his effort to give it emotional depth and verve resulted in a rather dull, only sporadically entertaing movie.
Despite mixed critical reaction, Silk Stockings failed to fimd appreciative audiences, earning $1,740,000 in the U.S. and $1,060,000 in other markets, forcing MGM to declare a loss of $1,399,000.
Silk Stockings became the last picture of Fred Astaire, then age 61, as a romantic leading man.
Silk Stockings turned out to be Mamoulian last completed work–three years later, he would be fired from the production of Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor. And the rest is history, as they said.
Cast
Fred Astaire as Steve Canfield
Cyd Charisse as Ninotchka Yoschenko
Janis Paige as Peggy Dayton
Peter Lorre as Brankov
Jules Munshin as Bibinski
Joseph Buloff as Ivanov
George Tobias as Vassili Markovitch, Art Commisar
Wim Sonneveld as Peter Ilyitch Boroff
Songs
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter
“Too Bad”
“Paris Loves Lovers”
“Stereophonic Sound”
“It’s a Chemical Reaction, That’s All”
“All of You”
“Satin and Silk”
“Without Love”
“Fated to Be Mated”
“Josephine”
“Siberia”
“The Red Blues”
“The Ritz Roll and Rock”
Credits:
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Screenplay by Leonard Gershe, Leonard Spigelgass, Harry Kurnitz (uncredited, based on Silk Stockings, 1955 musical by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, Abe Burrows
Produced by Arthur Freed
Cinematography Robert J. Bronner
Edited by Harold F. Kress
Music by Cole Porter; Conrad Salinger (uncredited)
Distributed by MGM
Release date: July 18, 1957 (U.S.)
Running time: 117 minutes
Budget $2.6 million
Box office $2.8 million
