Les Girls

Never heard of Kay Kendall? Chic, leggy, funny Kay Kendall? Check out Les Girls, one of the best moments for the beautiful British actress (and wife of Rex Harrison), whose promising career ended when she died two years after this film's 1957 release. A cheeky musical variation on Rashomon, the film gives three flashbacks on the Parisian sojourn of a dance master (Gene Kelly) and his featured artists (Kendall, Tania Elg, Mitzi Gaynor). The film isn't a peak outing for director George Cukor, and the Cole Porter songs are infrequent and not top-drawer. But there's a kooky dance number inspired by motorcycle gangs (Kelly in Wild Ones territory), and Kendall has a long drunk scene that she handles with regal aplomb. A stuffy suitor asks les girls why they spend their youth scurrying around Europe in a dance troupe: "Is having fun so important?" The film answers a resounding "mais oui." -- Robert Horton