Invitation to the Dance

Director: Gene Kelly Gene Kelly

Overview

MGM's Invitation to the Dance was the fruition of Gene Kelly's long-standing dream to create a plotless "concert" feature. Eschewing dialogue, Kelly tells three stories entirely through the medium of dance. The first sequence is a mime-like +Pagliacci story, with Kelly as the Clown and Igor Youskevitch and Claire Sombert as the Lovers. The second vignette, "Ring Around the Rosy," tells the story of a bracelet as it is passed from owner to owner. The best is saved till last: "Sinbad the Sailor," wherein Kelly shares screen time with a plethora of animated cartoon characters, courtesy of MGM house cartoonists William Hanna and Joe Barbera. Carol Haney appears briefly as Scheherezade, and also posed for the writhing cartoon serpent. Considered totally unsellable by the MGM higher-ups, Invitation to the Dance was shelved upon its completion in 1952, and didn't see the light of day for nearly four years.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/29/2011
UPC:	0883316324097
Original Release:	1956
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00
Sales rank:	42,220

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gene Kelly	Host / Pierrot / The Marine / Sinbad,The Marine
Igor Youskevitch	The Lover / The Artist,The Lover
Tamara Toumanova	The Streetwalker,The Girl
Carol Haney	Scheherazade,Scheherazade [Sinbad The Sailor]
David Kasday	The Genie,The Genie [Sinbad The Sailor]
David Paltenghi	The Husband
Daphne Dale	The Wife
Claude Bessy	The Model,The Model [Ring Around The Rosy]
Belita	Debutante,Femme Fatale
Irving Davies	The Crooner,The Crooner [Ring Around The Rosy]
Diana Adams	Hat Check Girl,Hat Check Girl [Ring Around The Rosy]
Claire Sombert	The Loved
Tommy Rall	Flashy Boyfriend
Daphne Dale	The Wife [Ring Around The Rosy]
Sigurdur Palsson	The Husand
Jacques Ibert	Composer
Malcolm Arnold	Composer
Roger Edens	Composer
André Previn	Composer

Technical Credits

Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly	Director,Screenwriter
Arthur Freed	Producer
Tom Howard	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

The entertaining Invitation to the Dance is an ambitious project that ultimately falls somewhat short of its promise; interestingly, Invitation's biggest flaw is that there is not as much dance in it as there should be. There's always movement, mind you, and more than a little bit of mime; but a film that wants to be a total celebration of dance needs to employ genuine, legitimate dance throughout. Too many portions of Dance settle for acting without words -- as in a silent movie, in other words -- instead of finding a way to use dance to convey story, character, or emotion. That said, there are a number of sequences in which dance is used properly, and these show how good the film could have been. The first section, the "Circus" segment, is very uneven; the "show" dancing and the romantic pas de deux are lovely, but the Pagliacci-like story is unconvincingly told and comes across as too melodramatic. The second "Ring Around the Rosy" sequence is a re-telling of La Ronde, but done without sufficient imagination and development, and with a tacked-on happy ending that is laughable. Yet there's a tempestuously sensual duet between Gene Kelly and Tamara Toumanova that is achingly sad, torrid, and exciting. (Kelly's choreographed movement for the partygoers, while simple, is quite effective and deserves applause.) The final "Sinbad the Sailor" segment is the most successful and is totally charming, due in large part to the fact that dance is employed to a greater extent. Kelly's decision to make the genie a child is inspired, and the use of animation adds to the appeal. The serpent dance is perhaps the most well-known, and is quite good, but Kelly's knife dance and trio with the two guards are its equal. Invitation to the Dance sometimes misses the mark, but it's still a delightful little curiosity.