Customer Reviews

Invitation To The Dance

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kelly doesn't dance here as much as you might expect, but it was written, directed and choreographed by him, and is quite imaginative. He was a gifted choreographer as well as dancer. This also gave him a chance to create sexier dance numbers than you will find in the average musical. And there's a funny take off on Sinatra.

The tragic clown sequence touched me more than I expected it to.There's a beautiful dance between the lovers. Ring around the Rosy was more sophisticated and wry, with livelier dancing. Each place the "ring" goes is a little story, and that's fun to watch, though it did take me two viewings for it to really open up. Both sequences owe something to silent film and to mime. The animated sequence at the end is a wonderful flight of fancy and stands up pretty well against modern computer generated stuff. It's not as technically flawless, but still pretty sophisticated, considering it's almost 50 years old. If you have children, the Sinbad sequence is guaranteed to entertain them, and adults, too.

I'm torn between giving this five stars or four stars. I'm settling on five because it's Gene Kelly and because I just love him. I also think five stars is fair because this film is fifty years old. Some of the stuff that he does as director might seem fairly pedestrian to us but we have to remember that when he was doing it it was pretty much brand new. What an innovator! The film itself consists of three thirty minute minifilms; the stories are all told through dance, music, and mime with no spoken words. The first one was the least enjoyable of the three, IMO. It's mostly ballet and while Gene does do some dancing, you don't get to enjoy him the way you do in other films. For one thing, he's almost unrecognizable under all that white face paint; I typically don't care for costumes and masks and such. I'm also not a big fan of mime and this segment relies on it more than any of the others.

The second segment was both funny and sad as it follows the path of an anniversary bracelet from one owner to the next. The best parts to this segment involve the crooner whose "singing" just slays the ladies. Gene was really having fun when he directed this scene. I also enjoyed the part with the pianist and the hat check girl who turns out to be quite a dancer with quite a pair of gams. You have to be very patient to get to Gene in this one; he doesn't appear until nearly the end but it is worth the wait. He does a very ... dance with a woman who literally lights his fire. His dancing is ..., but he really lets the female shine; she clearly has the lead here. (Throughout this entire film it is clear that Gene was content to let others have lots of screen time.)

The last segment is easily the most enjoyable. Is it any wonder that Gene has the most screen time in this one and does the most dancing? He plays a sailor who finds a magic lamp with a little boy genie inside of it. The two of them literally step into the pages of a fairy tale and encounter animated dancing dragons, harem girls, and swashbuckling villains. Gene dances with all of them at one point or another, and it's really rather neat to see the way he and the cartoons are perfect mirrors of each other - how he carries out their steps and they carry out his and vice versa. It's filled with whimsy and though it's fifty years old it manages to seem rather fresh. I especially enjoy the candy-coated flight of fancy when he and one of the harem girls frolic through flowery meadows. The entire film is lovely to look at and it's got Gene Kelly. Who could ask for anything more?

Once again we are forgotten !!! By us I mean all of the people that love musicals from this era. How many of these great MGM films are not getting the treatment they deserve? Why do we have to beg over and over again for Warner to get with the times and re-master this and so many other musicals on DVD? For Gods sake its 2007 guys!!!! Nobody has VHS anymore!!!

Gene Kelly's Invitation to the Dance is a rare and wonderful movie musical; it was under-appreciated when it was first released, but is wonderful to enjoy today and I'm glad it's available. The three segments, the broken- hearted clown dance, the Sinbad the Sailor (with cartoons and live action combined) ballet and the dance about a ring that gets around, are delightful to watch. An interesting note: Dancer Carol Haney did the live-action dancing later redone by an animated girl in the Sinbad number. I wish someone were making musicals these days!

This is one of the greatest musicals. Why is not on DVD yet?? I hope MGM put it on DVD soon. It is a must!!!

Gene Kelly was one of the world's most innovative dancers and this movie is proof thereof. It should be in DVD format. This is a part of my and all baby-boomers youth; it showed us how imagination can be found in so many unsuspected forms. This is a beautiful movie and I want to see it on DVD. PLEASE!

Well into the second half of my life, I'm only now seeing this movie for the first time, having purchased a copy of the VHS tape. What a treat! First, just to correct a few previous comments, this is not a musical: this is pure dance and theatre. There is no dialog and no singing. That's probably why it is so unknown in the US: it is art, not just entertainment. Unlike the ernest and generally capable endeavors of many of his contributors in Kelly's "mainstream" musicals, the cast in "Invitation" are all extraordinary pros. The creativity, precision and expressiveness of every one of these folks does Kelly justice and then some in a couple of cases, most notably Tamara Tourmanova as the vamp in the second number. I can't say which of the three pieces I like best: each is delightful and moving in its own way and compliment the others beautifully. The animation in the last number by Hanna and Barbera is, as many have pointed out, a pure delight. For my money, as much as I love "Fantasia," the subtlety and wit of the work here is superior. Integrating these numbers with Kelly's live action is a minor miracle for 1956. The music--Ibert for the first, a delightful original composition by Andre Previn for the second and a fantastic re-working of Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Scheherazade" for the "Sinbad" number--are all first-rate and transfer surprising well to VHS.

Unfortunately, the only time this magnificent work has been released to the home consumer was in 1983 on VHS. Fortunately, I still have a VHS player, lucked into a tape in excellent condition here on Amazon and was able to transfer a copy to DVD to preserve it. But, it is VHS and the colors and clarity are not great--acceptable, but today's digital technology just shows up the deficiencies to a degree that most folks will find disappointing and some will find awful.

Still, if you can find a very good copy of the tape, buy it and enjoy this miracle of the silver screen. You shouldn't deprive yourself of appreciating this just because of concerns about how it might look on your 42" LED TV. A film like this could never be made today--I just wish MGM would let Criterion have the catalog so they can remaster these in the format they deserve.

Based on the success of "An American in Paris," and partly to placate one of its leading stars, MGM allowed Gene Kelly to do an all-ballet film in 1952. He was forced to make the film in England (for the tax credits) and MGM insisted Kelly be in each of the sequences, even though he originally had planned to showcase only other dance greats. The studio brass scrapped one sequence entirely and re-edited and tossed the score of another, substituting a new jazz score by young Andre Previn. Then, unhappy with the final result, they put the film on the shelf, where it sat for years before it was given a short release in a few art theaters. Kelly's dreams were dashed and his MGM star soon dimmed. The film was largely forgotten but remembered fondly by film buffs. The opening circus sequence, to a commissioned score by Jacques Ibert, is the weakest - more pantomime than dance. But there is much to enjoy in the second two - including Kelly's steamy duet with Tamara Toumanova, once one of the Diaghilev's "baby ballerinas" - and the lively character dancing in the semi-animated "Scherazade" (featuring a very young Carol Haney) and Hanna-Barbera cartooning. It's a one of a kind film and it's sad, given its limited appeal, it's likely never to be properly restored. A few clips in remastered Blu-Ray appear on BR disc of "American in Paris" giving a glimpse of what might have been.

It was a dream of Gene Kelly to make a movie, without any spoken words - only with music and dance. MGM wasn't really interested - they would do it only when Gene Kelly appears in each of the four episodes. One episodes was deleted, so there are now 3 episodes: "Circus", "Ring Around the Rosy", and "Sinbad the Sailor".

Each part has another dance style: Ballet, tapdance, swing, jazz, waltz etc.

The most enjoyable episode is "Sinbad the Sailor" where Gene Kelly and David Kasday dancing in a animated world with animated characters together. This was really made perfect!!! The same was done 10 years later for Disney's "Mary Poppins".

It wasn't a big success but today the movies is a piece of movie history and art! Gene Kelly is and was a genious in dance and choreography!!!!

About the DVD:

its not restored or remastered. Of course, it doesn't need any subtitles (there are no any spoken words!!!).

The Picture quality is good but by far not perfect. Its not really sharp and clean but ok.
The Sound is original in MONO but a little bit too quiet.

Fazit: when you like Gene Kelly or MGM Musical, Ballet, Tapdance - then you must have this DVD.

I love Gene Kelly! I have loved almost all of his films. This film, however, is boring and dull. It is three segments. The first has Kelly as a mime in a circus - this very long and silent segment is just plain awful. The second segment is a silent segment with Kelly dancing with a cartoon girl. The third segment is silent with Gene as a sailor who befriends a little boy - and somewhere there appears a magic lamp. The third and last segment has Kelly dancing with two (2) Harem guards and while the blend of animation and live dancing is perhaps technically unusual - it is very repetitive and boring. If you "must" have this film, go ahead and spend the money - but don't say I didn't warn you! Oh, Yes - THIS IS NOT THE FILM WHERE KELLY DANCES WITH THE LITTLE MOUSE!