These aren’t filmed ballets but fully cinematic conceptions us- ing the MGM machine under producer Arthur Freed. Jacques Ibert’s “Circus” stars


Kelly as a commedia dell’arte Harlequin whose heartbroken stage act carries into real life, since his co-star (Claire Sombert) loves wire-walker Igor Youskevitch. The setpieces are a spectacular clown chorus and a carefully lit pas de deux beginning on a net. There’s a direct quote from CHILDREN OF PARADISE as Kelly is lost in the throng of a receding camera, and the final shot of everyone fro- zen in shadowed De Chirico poses oddly foreshadows LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD.


This story is an aggressively old-fashioned, Old World senti- mental tragedy, while “Ring Around the Rosy” is a witty mod- ern masterpiece about a flashy bracelet passed from one speci- men of urban nightlife to another.


It’s a jazzy American take on Arthur Schnitzler’s REIGEN, which had been recently filmed as Max Ophuls’ LA RONDE (1950). André Previn wrote the music to replace a Malcolm Arnold score that wasn’t working. A quick and dirty survey of blogs and boards implies this segment isn’t much liked; as ever, we’re surrounded by philistines. Hilari- ous characters include a blasé model (Claude Bessy) who munches a sandwich while dancing with a flamboyant art- ist (Youskevitch), a stage-door johnny (Tommy Rall) in check- ered suit, a femme fatale (Belita) with a Veronica Lake curtain of hair, and a crooner (Irving Davies) who’s probably spoofing Johnnie Ray more than Frank Sinatra. Tamara Toumanova plays a pros- titute (“the girl on the stairs”) who vamps Kelly’s marine. The latter gives a hell of a leap. All this sexu- ally expressive dancing combines


with the symbolism of the ring- like bracelet for a piece as saucy as any movie of its era. Freed expressed reservations about whether it would face censorship in New York. Brilliantly abstract sets by Alfred Junge and Rolf Gerard embody sophistication and emptiness.


The last and most famous segment, Roger Edens’ highly Hollywood take on Rimsky- Korsakov’s “Sinbad the Sailor,” features animation by Fred Quimby, William Hanna and Jo- seph Barbera. Scheherezade (Carol Haney) tells of a modern American sailor (Kelly) who ac- quires a boy genie (David Kasday). They go into an ani- mated storybook and dance with Arabian Nights figures. Kelly’s dancing here is his simplest and most iconic: athletic sailor-suit jumps. His integration into lovely, even psychedelic anima- tion was a key selling point. This


Two years before THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, Gene Kelly played the legendary sailor opposite animated creatures in INVITATION TO THE DANCE.


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