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IMDbPro

Daddy Long Legs

  • 19551955
  • ApprovedApproved
  • 2h 6m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
3.9K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
15,853
246
Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
A wealthy American has a chance encounter with a joyful young French woman, and anonymously pays for her education. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor, nicknaming him from the description given by some of her fellow orphans.
Play trailer2:11
1 Video
99+ Photos
MusicalRomance
A wealthy American has a chance encounter with a joyful young French woman, and anonymously pays for her education. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor, nicknaming him from the d... Read allA wealthy American has a chance encounter with a joyful young French woman, and anonymously pays for her education. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor, nicknaming him from the description given by some of her fellow orphans.A wealthy American has a chance encounter with a joyful young French woman, and anonymously pays for her education. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor, nicknaming him from the description given by some of her fellow orphans.
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
3.9K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
15,853
246
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Jean Negulesco
    • Writers
      • Phoebe Ephron(screenplay)
      • Henry Ephron(screenplay)
      • Jean Webster(novel)
    • Stars
      • Fred Astaire
      • Leslie Caron
      • Terry Moore
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Jean Negulesco
    • Writers
      • Phoebe Ephron(screenplay)
      • Henry Ephron(screenplay)
      • Jean Webster(novel)
    • Stars
      • Fred Astaire
      • Leslie Caron
      • Terry Moore
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 54User reviews
    • 25Critic reviews
    • Nominated for 3 Oscars
      • 4 nominations total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:11
    Trailer

    Photos169

    Fred Astaire in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Clark and Thelma Ritter in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Fred Astaire in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Leslie Caron in Daddy Long Legs (1955)
    Leslie Caron and Thelma Ritter in Daddy Long Legs (1955)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Fred Astaire
    Fred Astaire
    • Jervis Pendleton III
    Leslie Caron
    Leslie Caron
    • Julie Andre
    Terry Moore
    Terry Moore
    • Linda Pendleton
    Thelma Ritter
    Thelma Ritter
    • Alicia Pritchard
    Fred Clark
    Fred Clark
    • Griggs
    Charlotte Austin
    Charlotte Austin
    • Sally McBride
    Larry Keating
    Larry Keating
    • Ambassador Alexander Williamson
    Kathryn Givney
    Kathryn Givney
    • Gertrude Pendleton
    Kelly Brown
    Kelly Brown
    • Jimmy McBride
    Ray Anthony
    Ray Anthony
    • Ray Anthony
    • (as Ray Anthony and his Orchestra)
    Robert Adler
    Robert Adler
    • Deliveryman
    • (uncredited)
    Suzanne Alexander
    Suzanne Alexander
    • College Girl
    • (uncredited)
    Gertrude Astor
    Gertrude Astor
    • Art Gallery Patron
    • (uncredited)
    Wilda Bieber
    • College Girl
    • (uncredited)
    Paul Bradley
    • Second Jeweler
    • (uncredited)
    Tim Cagney
    • Orphan
    • (uncredited)
    Gwen Caldwell
    • College Girl
    • (uncredited)
    Kathryn Card
    Kathryn Card
    • Miss Carrington
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Jean Negulesco
    • Writers
      • Phoebe Ephron(screenplay)
      • Henry Ephron(screenplay)
      • Jean Webster(novel)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Daddy Long Legs

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Fred Astaire's wife died during filming and between some takes, he would retreat to his trailer and cry. That's why, in some scenes, his eyes look red and swollen.
    • Goofs
      When Jervis is about to play the drums for Griggs, his brushes suddenly turn into sticks between shots.
    • Quotes

      Julie Andre: Did he have a weakness for girls?

      Jervis Pendleton III: oh no, a great strength!

    • Connections
      Edited into Fred Astaire Salutes the Fox Musicals (1974)
    • Soundtracks
      History of the Beat
      (uncredited)

      by Johnny Mercer

      [Instrumental with Fred Astaire on drums]

    User reviews54

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    7/10
    An Irresistible Force, An Immovable Object
    Jean Webster's novel Daddy Long Legs has certainly been popular enough ever since it was written in 1912. First a play the following year that starred a young Ruth Chatterton, than film versions with Mary Pickford as a silent and an early sound film starring Janet Gaynor. There was even a Dutch language version in the Thirties and a couple of years back South Korea filmed a version of the story. Still the best known one is the one with the singing and dancing of Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron.

    Johnny Mercer who can well lay claim to being the greatest lyricist America ever produced occasionally wrote the music as well for some songs, an example being I'm An Old Cowhand. Another one he did both music and lyrics for is Dream which was interpolated into this otherwise original score and sung by the Pied Pipers. Mercer did music and lyrics for the rest of the score as well which included the Oscar nominated Something's Gotta Give for Best Song. It lost in 1955 to Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.

    I've got a feeling that Jean Webster took as her inspiration for the Daddy Long Legs Story the marriage of Grover Cleveland. The future President of the United States was practicing law in Buffalo, New York when his law partner, one Oscar Folsom, was killed in a carriage accident leaving a widow and small daughter. Cleveland took over the guardianship and raised young Frances Folsom and when he was president in his first term he married young Ms. Folsom when she came of age in the White House.

    In this updating of the story, Fred Astaire is a millionaire diplomat on a trade mission to France after World War II. The car breaks down near an orphanage and while there spots and becomes enchanted with young Leslie Caron. He becomes her unseen benefactor, putting her through college in America and she calls him, Daddy Long Legs. Of course like the Clevelands the March/July romance commences.

    Daddy Long Legs gave Darryl Zanuck an opportunity to try and respond to MGM's classic ballet in An American In Paris, where not coincidentally Leslie Caron danced with Gene Kelly. In an incredible generosity of spirit it's not Fred who dances, but Caron. In her fantasy Astaire just ambles through. It's a nice number but doesn't come close to what Kelly achieved. It's interesting to speculate what might have happened had Fred danced here.

    Thelma Ritter has some nice lines herself as the usual wisecracking girl Friday and for once Fred Clark is a good guy as Astaire's factotum. That must have been a welcome change for him.

    If you should be with your beloved watching Daddy Long Legs, you can bet as sure as you live, Something's Gotta Give, Something's Gotta Give, Something's Gotta Give.
    helpful•17
    1
    • bkoganbing
    • Feb 7, 2008

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 5, 1955 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Daddy Langbein
    • Filming locations
      • Andrew Carnegie Mansion - 2 East 91st Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
    • Production company
      • Twentieth Century Fox
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 6 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.55 : 1

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