| Was watching "Can-Can" movie for first time in many years/Gwen Verdon comparison (long) | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 03:28 pm EST 11/23/24 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 03:11 pm EST 11/23/24 | |
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| The DVD I took out from library has 2 DVDs, one including a documentary which has a minute or two of silent color video of Gwen Verdon doing a bit of the quadrille (also on YouTube), as well as footage of her as Eve in "Adam and Eve Ballet" and looking smashing in a red outfit doing a bit of the Apache number (which famously had the audience literally stopping the show and demanding she return to the stage for a bow, becoming a star and stealing the show). Now, as a film, it's actually quite entertaining. There's a decent amount of the score left, supplemented by some other Cole Porter standards. Shirley MacLaine's role is both part La Mome Pastiche, originally played by German-French star Lilo on Broadway, and also includes the Apache and Adam and Eve dances (and some of the Can-Can finale) originally danced on Broadway by Verdon, though the wonderful Juliet Prowse actually plays the role Claudine which was the name of Verdon's character. Prowse has some dancing, but MacLaine has taken over most of that character's big dances. Now, MacLaine is a fine, trained dancer. Problem is -- as an actress she's a star, as a singer she is serviceable, but she's not a star dancer, like Verdon was (plus Verdon was a superb actress and started off with a big voice in "Damn Yankees" which diminished over the years due to smoking). MacLaine has 3 male co-stars: Louis Jourdan whose role matches that of Peter Cookson's Judge in the original, Maurice Chevalier as another judge, and Frank Sinatra as her lawyer/boyfriend. Sinatra's and Chevalier's roles were created for the film, which excludes the roles played by Hans Conried as Claudine's sculptor boyfriend and Eric Rhodes as the art critic in the secondary plot line. All relatively reasonable for a film that wants more stars, though I notice Sinatra doesn't do "I Am In Love" with its rather operatic high note and pretty high tessitura, which Peter Cookson does quite admirably on the OCR; one does hear a bit of the song in the orchestra before Sinatra instead embarks on "It's All Right With Me", though not going for the high notes in that song. Maybe personal preference, but {spoiler alert: Shirley ends up with Sinatra and the film kind of leaves Louis Jourdan flat] I mean, Jourdan is a very nice gent in this and looks gorgeous; he even sings a bit, though of course not up to SInatra standards. She gets the Jourdan character in the original show, but I guess since Sinatra is top-billed he gets the leading lady (and for Frank's ego --- though in real life, he got Juliet Prowse around that time.) It's strange, but I don't even think there's a full sung-through version of "I Love Paris", one of the show's most famous numbers, though it's in the orchestra at times and the voice-over chorus ends the film with that tune. All in all, a fun film, but one I rarely if ever hear people discuss. The DVD had the road show presentation, starting with a blank screen during the overture, an intermission card, and blank screen during entr'acte and during the walk-out at the end. This was a very big hit in its time, and the filming of it made international headlines with Russian premier Khrushchev attending filming. One of the documentaries on the additional DVD shows him smiling meeting the cast afterwards, then mentions the next day him issuing a statement saying that the film represents basically the fall of civilization. WTF! The choreography is enjoyable, especially the quadrille (can-can), by Hermes Pan, probably most famous for his work with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I wish the original Michael Kidd dances had been somehow taken down by Labanotation though; I think Claudine's dances must have been a lot more showy when Michael Kidd choreographed them for Gwen Verdon. MacLaine is mostly passively thrown around during the Apache, though her ballet skills are on display as Eve. I think the American Dance Machine at least has recreated the Quadrille, but don't know if any of the other Kidd choreography, other than the few minutes of Verdon and original company dancing on video, has survived. As far as the Broadway show, how did Lilo have such power to have Gwen Verdon's numbers cut? Apparently she also arranged to have Verdon off-stage by the end of Verdon's dance numbers so she wouldn't receive applause at the end of her numbers. (Of course, the audience had a thing to say about that ultimately.) The documentary said Verdon originally had 7 numbers cut down to 4. Was Lilo such a big thing back then -- perhaps famous in France and Europe -- maybe her contract had special provisions, or she threatened to walk. Didn't Cole Porter or Michael Kidd or director Abe Burrows or producers Feuer and Martin have more authority? Lilo certainly was threatened (rightfully, it turns out) by Verdon's presence. But the show's title "Can-Can" demanded that dance and by ladies' in those skirts, be a major part of the show. Lilo's couldn't dance, though she had a strong voice based on the recording. Does anyone know what numbers Verdon was removed from or had removed from her character? Anyway, feel free to discuss -- it's still a fun movie on the whole. Plenty of other Broadway musicals have been disrespected and messed up more in their film versions. |
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