Home
search
more | tips
IMDb > Silk Stockings (1957) > IMDb user comments

IMDb user comments for
Silk Stockings (1957) More at IMDbPro »

Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Page 1 of 3:[1] [2] [3] [Next]
Index 30 comments in total 

26 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
Charisse is a bonus to any film, a compliment of any arm, a true gem..., 18 August 2002
9/10
Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Cyd Charisse, along with Vera-Ellen and Ann Miller, was one of the premier dancing stars of the 1940's and 1950's...

Known for her cool sex appeal, Cyd Charisse has a beautiful face, a perfect figure, and a thrilling musicality... She is the American cinema's lyrical dancing beauty with a lovely flow of movements and crystalline footwork, a bonus to any film, a compliment of any arm, a true gem... The sensitivity and eloquence of character she projects as a dancer found great echo in her roles as an acclaimed ballerina capable of expressing herself to the entire audience with a flick of the wrist, tapering her high extensions into a musical phrase like a painter controlling a fine sable brush...

When she danced 'La Bamba' and 'Flaming Flamenco' with Ricardo Montalban in Richard Thorpe's "Fiesta," she excelled in technical dynamics... But in 'Broadway Rhythm Ballet,' number from "Singin' in the Rain," Stanley Donen's camera followed the leg up to the figure of a seductive Dancer, a gangster's moll: Charisse was beautiful, bewitching exotic nightclub performer and city vamp, teasing Gene Kelly by balancing his straw hat on the end of her foot, and leaving us all breathless...

In 'Silk Stockings' she is a humorless, unromantic and cold, a seriously-austere Russian envoy who is sent from Moscow to check three Russian emissaries who, in turn, have orders to bring back with them a Soviet composer about to lend his talents to an American movie producer...

A 'beautiful dynamite,' Charisse warms to the appeal of romance, and Fred Astaire, to luxury, jazz, and French champagne... The chemistry was there when they danced the 'Paris Loves Lovers,' number in which the suave Astaire awakens her interest in life and the City of lights, but in the title song where she throws off her cold uniform for her first fine pair of silk stockings and laces, Charisse, (the very serious and dedicated Ninotchka), turns into an explosion of talent and glamor, with the qualities of a scintillating star, radiantly charming and sweet, filling the screen with bravura, energy and spark...

Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin and Joseph Buloff are the three Kremlin agents, the trio of 'clowns' who become fond of freedom and the pleasures of Paris...

Janis Paige is delightfully amusing as the temperamental movie star for whom producer Astaire was preparing a musical about Napoleon and Josephine...

'Silk Stockings' has definite virtues, the foremost being Fred Astaire... Although worried about being ageless for the role, Astaire sings 'All of You' to Charisse with all of his old ardent feelings, dances beautifully with her in a deserted movie studio to 'Fated to Be Mated,' and joins Janis Paige, playing 'America's Swimming Sweetheart,' in Cole Porter's delicious 'Stereophonic Sound.' His solo to 'The Ritz Roll 'n' Rock,' in which he wears his trademarked top hat and tails, is a proof of his grace, sophistication and talent...

For all its merits, Mamoulian's 'Silk Stockings' has a degree of elegance and sophistication, but mostly a sweet sadness, the end of a living legend, in which Fred Astaire appears in his last great musical role...

Was the above comment useful to you?

16 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Now on DVD - CinemaScope once more!, 30 April 2003
Author: Greg Couture from Portland, Oregon

Like so many films produced in the mid- to late Fifties and early Sixties, when CinemaScope and other widescreen processes enhanced a production, directors and cinematographers were usually unafraid to take full advantage of the wider ratio. They weren't so concerned about how the final product would look on TV's square screens and probably didn't anticipate the visual desecration of "formatting" and "pan-and-scan" reductions. So it's nice to know that this musical, filmed when M-G-M was about to throw in the musical towel and bid an undeserved farewell to the Arthur Freed "unit," can now be enjoyed again close to its original theatrical aspect ratio on DVD.

Astaire and Charisse are a team to be treasured (so wonderful together in "The Band Wagon" a few years earlier, under Minnelli's astute guidance) and all of the others listed in this film's credits are professionals of the highest caliber. Astaire has a fun solo (with a chorus of top-hatted dancers) in the "Ritz Roll 'n' Rock" number; Cyd gets to put those legendary legs to dazzlingly opulent use in the "Red Blues" production show-stopper; and even Janis Paige gets to raunch it up in an amusing example of clever Cole Porter risking something risqué (for its day) in a song about the Empress Josephine, "commonly known as Jo"! And there's that first reel number, "Stere-oh-phonic Sound," that cleverly spoofs the contemporary moviemakers' attempts to lure people from their TV sets with widescreens, sound coming from every corner of the auditorium and eye-glazing color processes. It may not be prime Porter but it's all far-and-away more fun and enjoyable than anything we're likely to get today with the threatened revival of the movie musical with barbarians like Baz Luhrmann given the directorial reins.

Was the above comment useful to you?

20 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Old-fashioned grace., 11 October 2002
8/10
Author: movibuf1962 from Washington, DC

"Silk Stockings" is something of an enigma. Its release came at the moment much of America had switched over to viewing television and the musical film was dying. But it was still glorious. I couldn't care less about the 'outdated Red Russia' story line; this is a remake of a 1939 film and the USSR conflict was in the original as well. What're you gonna do? The main focus is on capitalist seduction- first by Tobias, Munshin, and Peter Lorre, then most beautifully by Astaire and Charisse. Note that in their first duet (the non-dancing "Paris Loves Lovers"), as they sing in perfect counterpoint, they appear to be undressing each other with their eyes. Later, in "All of You," the gloves come off and our two leads seduce each other through a most graceful dance in a living room. Astaire was 56 years old, Charisse was about 36, and there is still more electricity in their pairing than in some of the downright silly things passing as romantic comedies today. The undisputed highlight of the film is Ms. Charisse in a silent and sensuous expression of terpsichory as she puts on nude stockings, a camisole, and a flared transparent slip. OMG!!

Was the above comment useful to you?

17 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
The usually adept Astaire and Gorgeous Cyd Charisse, 30 January 2002
9/10
Author: JANA-7 from Temple, New Hampshire

As a senior I'll make a couple of stock comments; "They don't make em like this anymore and " Pop culture of the 50's in the USA was artful and demanded talent. Beautiful and sensuous Cyd Charisse and "All Pro" musical dancer Fred Astaire team up wonderfully to update and old story put to music. The settings are lush and the dancing is suberp. Peter Lorre and Janis Paige add the right touch of humor and talent. Although much of the "Cold War" lingo seemed corny, if you were an adult at the time this movie was made, you'll find it hillarious but so true. All said and done, it is a pleasureable treat!

Was the above comment useful to you?

9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Musicals die in style, 26 October 2005
8/10
Author: Ben Patton from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Fred Astaire has always been a performer who's work is very close to my heart. The last real Fred Astaire movie (excluding his geriatric non-singing, non-dancing or non-starring roles) is 1957's "Silk Stockings".

I was a little afraid to watch Silk Stockings at first. Sure, it had a Cole Porter score supervised by Andre Previn, and Hermes Pan choreography, and, sure, Fred made fabulous movies even at that age ("the Bandwagon", "Daddy Long Legs"), but I knew it was Fred's last, and I didn't want to know why. Now I know what a pleasure I was depriving myself of.

"Silk Stockings" is a musical remake of "Ninotchka", a 1939 Greta Garbo picture. It's about a serious stern young Russian woman, sent as an envoy to nab a Russian composer living illegally in Paris. The composer is betraying his Russian classical heritage by writing music for a low brow movie musical. The director of this movie, played by Fred Astaire, distracts the pretty young Russian (Cyd Charisse) with the wonders of Paris, classy night clubs, and dancing to jazz. In falling for him, her strict heartless personality melts away.

This movie was produced at the height of the cold war, and the height of Hollywood blacklisting, and it's commie-bashing could make some uncomfortable. To me, those jokes are anything but propaganda. The cultural stereotypes are played for laughs, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Of course, I'm a big fan of the top hat and tails ritzy romantic culture that Astaire's character teaches Charisse's character the joys of, so it's easy for me to say.

With the exception of the classics "All of You" and "Paris is For Lovers", Cole Porter's songs are comic, here. But, that being said, they are hilarious. This was towards the end of Porter's career too. In fact, this was towards the end of the movie musical as America knew it.

Rock and Roll was taking over. To me, the most moving moments in this movie are not the dramatic love scenes shared by Astaire and Charisse, they are the self referential moments, where Porter, Astaire, and choreographer Hermes Pan acknowledge that their era in over.

Porter wrote special material just for this movie. One highlight is a tune called "Stereophonic Sound". In it, the singer quips about how moviegoers used to be content to see talented performers do their thing, and a nice love story, but these days all they want is "glorious Technicolor, breathtaking CinemaScope, and Stereophonic sound!" The song puts down all the gimmickry of the modern Hollywood, and even has one verse quite obviously about Fred Astaire himself. Porter writes that these days a great hoofer in tails is not enough, they want a ballet (alluding to Gene Kelly's ballet dance number fad).

Fred Astaire's last MGM dance number is to the song "Ritz Rollin' Rock". It's Porter's parody of this new music called Rock and Roll, ironically borrowing from Irving Berlin's dated "Puttin' On the Ritz". This sequence, choreographed by Astaire's long-time collaborator Hermes Pan, ends with Fred writhing on the floor, wearing his 1930's tails and top hat. As the horns hit the last big chord, Fred removes his trade-marked top hat and smashes it flat with his fist. The message Porter, Astaire and Pan slipped into this novelty number, is very powerful, if you know what you're seeing.

Pop entertainment changed in the sixties, and the the old kings abdicated their thrones to... well... the King, I suppose.

Anyway, if you're a Fred-head like me, and you're afraid to see Fred's final fling, "Silk Stockings", don't be. You'll be reminded why he and his period of Hollywood was great.

Was the above comment useful to you?

7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
In Glorious Technicolor and Cinemascope and STEREOPHONIC SOUND, 13 August 2006
10/10
Author: theowinthrop from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It is Cole Porter meeting Ernst Lubitsch's best recalled film, NINOTCHKA. Up-dated to be sure, but still an affective comedy about rival systems of politics, social structure, and economics.

In the original, a Soviet economic mission is trying to use some jewelry that was originally owned by a Grand Duchess to purchase needed agricultural equipment. This is jettisoned in the new version. Fred Astaire (Steve Canfield) is a movie producer who is planning a production of WAR AND PEACE with Janis Paige as his star (she is Peggy Dayton, a noted Hollywood swim star, a la Esther Williams), who will play the Empress Josephine. Interesting point: Josephine does not appear in WAR AND PEACE - keep that in mind. Canfield wants to have a score by Russia's leading composer, Peter Ilyitsch Boroff (Wim Sonneveld) who is currently in Paris with a culture mission that is under Jules Munshin, Peter Lorre, and Alexander Granach. Their boss, George Tobias (promoted since NINOTCHKA - he's now a commissar) sends Cyd Charisse (Ninotchka Yoschencko) to keep the other three and Boroff under control. Tobias has reason to be upset. Not only is Canfield trying to corrupt the culture mission (not too difficult there) but also Boroff, who falls for Peggy Dayton (as Canfield hopes).

It follows closely the pursuit and "corruption" of Ninotchka, but there is one aspect that is shown here that was barely touched upon in the 1939 film. There Swanna's cynical use of the jewelry as a bargaining chip to keep Leon from Ninotchka sort of suggests that pure capitalism has it's drawbacks when in the wrong hands. In SILK STOCKINGS it is the cavalier use of culture for a fast buck that gets a go over.

Boroff's masterpiece is called "Overture to a tractor", but Canfield has it changed into a song for Peggy "Jo,Jo, Jo, Jo, Josephine...commonly called Jo". Whatever one thinks of music in honor of inanimate objects, Boroff's work represents serious art. Ninotchka and the others (including Boroff) are furious, and dismiss the glib excuse Steve comes up with (many other popular songs are based on classic tunes). They leave for Russia, and the rest of the musical follows Steve's attempts (like Leon's before him) to get Ninotchka back.

The Porter score here (with the score for CAN-CAN) were the last two really first rate scores Porter composed, but both were composed for the stage productions of the musicals and transposed to the screen. Here the title song (originally sung by Don Ameche on stage, but here by Astaire) is one of the best numbers, as is "Glorious Technicolor", where Astaire and Paige describe all the cinematography gimmicks used to draw in the audience (leading up to "sterophonic sound", which the film sound track blasts out). Munchkin, Lorre, and Granach have two big numbers, the second (SIBERIA) being one of Porter's best comic pieces as the three culture mission people look gloomily to returning to Russia, and possibly being sent to Siberia ("Have you seen our choice bill of fare...Please try the fillet of polar bear!"). There is even a second piece by "Boroff" composed in Russia, "I've got the Red Blues!" which uses forbidden rock and roll.

If it does not have the fine Lubitsch elegance and "touch", SILK STOCKINGS still shows a first rate handling on it's own.

Was the above comment useful to you?

6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Smooth as silk musical and great pairing of Astaire and Charisse..., 27 September 2006
7/10
Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

A lot of humor at the expense of the Soviets (natch) is present throughout this musical version of "Ninotchka" in which Greta Garbo was the Russian who melts into a normal woman thanks to the spell of capitalism. Here it's CYD CHARISSE who plays the very uptight lady (with a stiffness that comes naturally to Cyd who could play an "ice princess" with the best of them). And FRED ASTAIRE is thankfully cast as an American film producer hoping to get her cooperation in borrowing a Soviet composer for his new film.

That's the nuts and bolts of the story, but the ingredients (including a trio of Soviet agents played by PETER LORRE, JULES MUNSHIN and Joseph BULOFF and a ditsy American singer/actress JANET PAIGE), are enough to stir up a lot of sardonic humor and some really good song and dance numbers. Paige is especially good with her "Stereophonic Sound" routine and "Satin and Silk", flirtatious and vivacious as ever in a top supporting role.

But it's the dance elements that count here--Astaire at his most elegant and Cyd Charisse gracefully matching him step by step all the way through. Her performance as the serious minded miss who gradually bends to his ways is one of her better contributions to film comedy.

Summing up: A delightful blend of Cole Porter songs and a clever script make this one a sheer pleasure, smooth as silk.

Was the above comment useful to you?

5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
By no means a miss, but not exactly a smash hit., 11 September 2006
7/10
Author: Terrell-4 from San Antonio, Texas

There are a number of good things about Silk Stockings, but there also is a professional finality about the movie that makes it easier to observe than to be delighted by it. It was one of the last of the big MGM musicals coming from Arthur Freed's production unit. It was the last musical Fred Astaire made as the lead. It was the last film directed by Rouben Mamoulian. It was based on the last Broadway musical Cole Porter wrote. Silk Stockings also was used to make a statement about the excesses some thought were ruining films and music...the advent of rock and roll and the technological changes in films with wide screen and stereo sound. It even takes a crack at the fashion for ballet in many musicals. You've got to be very clever and original to successfully parody things which are already self-parodies. Silk Stockings, even with its many entertaining moments, isn't that clever.

The story is based on Ninotchka, the female Soviet commissar who comes to Paris and finds romance reluctantly...and then enthusiastically. Paris is presented as a place where decadence was never more innocent and persuasive.

One of the things that seems so odd is that, for a Fred Astaire film, Astaire spends a good deal of time doing knee drops, full-length on-the-floor sprawls and athletic dance moves that limit the sophisticated and smooth Astaire style. He was 59 when he made the picture, and this might explain the relative shortness of some of the sequences. Still, while he is assured and immensely watchable (and while he can still do wonders with a cane), three major dance productions he is in just seem choppy.

Most of the songs from the Broadway show were retained and Porter wrote a couple of new ones. It's become routine with Porter to say that whatever his latest show was, the score was never one of his best. In this case, it's true. The romantic songs are great, but the topical specialty numbers just seem tired. Siberia and The Ritz Roll and Rock in particular miss the mark, in my opinion.

Astaire, as always, is first class. Charisse is easy to look at and a fine dancer. George Tobias, as a commissar in Moscow and Ninotchka's boss, gives a sly and dead-pan performance. Some of Porter's songs are very good. Mamoulian brought the film in on time and under budget. And Silk Stockings was a success with ticket buyers.

Was the above comment useful to you?

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Paris Loves Lovers, 5 December 2007
9/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

After an adaption to Broadway as the final stage musical of Cole Porter's career, Ernest Lubitsch's acclaimed film Ninotchka, now Silk Stockings is getting its film treatment. Silk Stockings ran for 478 performances on Broadway in the 1955-1956 season and starred Don Ameche and Hildegarde Neff in the roles originally played by Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo.

For reasons I don't understand Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder's names are not given credit here. I distinctly heard a lot of lines from the original Ninotchka that came from them. I also heard some of the acid barbs of George S. Kaufman who worked with Abe Burrows on the book for Silk Stockings.

Most of Cole Porter's score makes it intact to the screen, but since the male and female leads were now dancers, Porter wrote Fated To Be Mated and The Ritz Roll and Rock for Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. The latter is one of my favorite Astaire numbers from his film. Porter who was no mean satirist himself was having a bit of fun at the new trend in music called Rock and Roll in a spoof of Rock Around the Clock.

The plot from the original Ninotchka was changed and updated from the time of the pre-World War II Soviet Union of Stalin to the Cold War. Commissar Ninotchka is no longer concerned with selling jewels of the former nobility, she's negotiating with an American producer who wants a famous Russian composer to score his film adaption of War and Peace. Curiously enough War and Peace did make it to the screen the previous year.

Astaire as the producer also has a sexy, but very tough minded star in Janis Paige to contend with. Janis has her moments on screen with the song Josephine and singing and dancing with Astaire in Stereophonic Sound.

The big hit song from the score, All of You is sung and danced elegantly by Fred and Cyd. As usual Cyd's vocals were dubbed in this case by Carole Richards who used to be a regular for a while on Bing Crosby's radio show.

Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin, and Alexander Granach are the three commissars who Ninotchka has to bail out as in the original film. Granach repeats his role from Ninotchka. But George Tobias sets a record as the only player to appear in both film and the Broadway version. In the original Ninotchka he was the Soviet Embassy Official who balks at granting Melvyn Douglas a visa. On stage and on screen he plays the boss of Garbo/Neff/Charisse, a part that was done in the original Ninotchka by Bela Lugosi.

The comedy is a lot more broad than in the Lubitsch film, but with that Cole Porter music and the charm and dancing of Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, Silk Stockings is a film you should not miss.

Was the above comment useful to you?

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Dance Scenes, 27 February 2005
8/10
Author: Doubtindave from United States

Astaire too old! Gimme a break. He danced with a polish that was always present. Charisse should have been grateful for his presence and I suspect that she was.

A characiture of the USSR and America of the Cold War period? Yes indeed, and it was almost as good as "One, Two, Three" in its dialogue and situation. Its sensuality as presented in its dance numbers far exceeded the 1939 version and all comers of the same subject.

I had no problem watching a 56 year old Astaire romancing a 36 year old Charisse. As a matter of fact, I found the pair quite sensuous.

I have often wondered why in the final dance scene Cyd's costume skirt was switched to a cullote in the middle of the scene. The switch was not seamless as it was very noticeable.

But, all in all I give this delightful musical a rating of 8 on a 0 to 10 scale.

Dave

Was the above comment useful to you?
Page 1 of 3:[1] [2] [3] [Next]

Add another comment

Related Links

Plot summary Ratings Awards
External reviews Plot keywords Main details
Your user comments Your vote history