LES GIRLS

US, 1957, 114 Minutes, Colour.
Gene Kelly, Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor, Taina Elg, Jacques Bergerac, Leslie Phillips, Patrick Macnee, Henry Daniell.
Directed by George Cukor.

Les Girls is a musical with serious tones. It was directed by veteran George Cukor who has been in films since the early 30s, winning an Oscar for My Fair Lady and also directing such musicals as A Star is Born. However, he is noted for his light touch with comedies and has made quite a variety of important films. Les Girls is reminiscent of the Japanese film Rashomon since it presents the same events from particular points-of-view. What is the truth? Cukor drew on the talents of Mitzi Gaynor and Kay Kendall as two very attractive stars and also Gene Kelly. The musical is bright, but it also has implications on people's reactions on one another and the very subjective outlooks people have on the truth.

1. Was this a pleasant musical? What good features of the musical did it have? The quality of the songs? The dance routines? Gene Kelly's personality and touch?

2. How was the truth theme worked into the musical background? Was it treated lightly? Treated well? Did it overbalance the lightness of the musical?

3. Did the film illustrate the relative nature of truth? What was the truth about each of the characters?

4. How did the film show that each character presented herself and the others in the best possible light? How cleverly done was this visually and by dialogue? The nature of the flashbacks contrasting with present behaviour? How did this crosscutting create an irony about each character? And audience curiosity about the truth?

5. What kind of person was Sybil? Why did she write the book? Was she malicious? was she an alcoholic? Or was this a story by Angele? She presented herself as kind and understanding? Was she jealous of Barry? Her relationship to her own husband? Kay Kendall's personality and her comedy? Was Sybil an engaging character?

6. Angele: was she as bad as Sybil's portraying of her? In Sybil's story how unpleasant a character was she? Her duplicity and ambition? Her callousness? Was her attempted suicide credible? (Did Angele make Sybil's attempted suicide credible?) What kind of person was Angele really? what did the court-case show about her?

7. How did Barry emerge in the stories of each of them? Was he consistent? His so-called treatment of Angele and his love for her? His sympathy with an alcoholic Sybil? what kind of person was he really? Did Joy ask the right question at the end in the taxi?

8. What kind of personality was Joy? Was she presented consistently by all three stories? How attractive was she? How pleasant and American? How considerate of the others? How supportive of the others? Her resistance of Barry? Especially the sequences when she made herself humdrum?

9. What did the film show about human motivations and self-understanding? Was this effective? Does it make one cautious about truth?

10. Comment on the handling of the trial sequences, was this interesting? Did it retain audience interest?

11. How successful a serious musical was the film?