When producer Arthur Freed decided to film a Technicolor musical utilising the George Gershwin songbook, he could not have predicted he would win the 1951 Academy Award for Best Picture, or that his star Gene Kelly would receive an honorary Oscar for advancing the art of choreography on the screen.

Kelly plays a struggling artist in post-war Paris, befriended by sourpuss Oscar Levant and Gallic charmer Georges Guetary. To partner him in dance, Gene picked a virtual unknown from Roland Petit's “Ballet in Paris”: Leslie Caron in her movie debut.

Gene performs “I Got Rhythm” with a bunch of French children, Guetary builds a “stairway To Paradise”, and Leslie and Gene romance to “Our Love Is Here To Stay”. But the highlight is Kelly's fabulous 16 minute “American In Paris” ballet. Brilliantly directed by Vincente Minnelli with screen play written by Alan Jay Lerner, this is a unique musical treat.

Accolades

Best Picture Oscar Winner 1951.
Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) Golden Globe Winner 1951.

Review

A GI (Gene Kelly) stays in Paris after the war to become an artist, and has to choose between the patronage of a rich American woman (Nina Foch) and a French gamine (Leslie Caron) engaged to an older man. The plot is mostly an excuse for director Vincente Minnelli to pool his own extraordinary talent with those of choreographer-dancer-actor Kelly and the artists behind the screenplay, art direction, cinematography, and score, creating a rapturous musical not quite like anything else in cinema. The final section of the film comprises a 17-minute dance sequence that took a month to film and is breathtaking. Songs include "'S Wonderful," "I Got Rhythm," and "Love Is Here to Stay." --Tom Keogh