Customer Reviews

Silk Stockings [VHS]

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4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After starring together in the movie "Bandwagon" (1953), Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse are back, better than ever! For lovers of musical/comedies, "Silk Stockings" is not to be missed!

When the Russian offficials find out that their beloved composer Peter Boroff (Wim Sonneveld) does not want to return to Russia after staying in Paris, they decide to take action. They send three comrades Bibinski (Jules Munshin), Brankov (Peter Lorre), and Ivanov (Joseph Buloff) to bring him back. But little do they realize that Boroff had secretly agreed to compose music for director Steve Canfield's (Fred Astaire) new Peggy Daiton (Janis Paige) movie. Steve then gets a plan to make a fake document saying that Boroff is actually half French! He easily convinces Bibinski, Brankov, and Ivanov to stay in Paris while settling the dispute of Boroff's nationality. Meanwhile the three Russians are having the time of their life smoking cigars, going to nightclubs, and enjoying themselves. The Russians take action by sending in envoy extraordinaire Ninotchka (Cyd Charisse) to once and for all bring by not only Boroff but also the other three comrades. Extremely cold and very 'Russian', Ninotchka is disgusted with the decadent Capitalistic Paris. But Steve who starts to fall in love with her, is determined to break her ice and to show her how to live... and to love.

Everything is just so totally fantastic about this movie! From the fun-loving Fred Astaire, the icy Cyd Charisse, the three bumbling and hilarious Munshin, Lorre, and Buloffe, and of course, who can forget Janis Paige in her very wacky and outgoing part as the swimstar actress, Peggy Daiton! And of course there are the musical numbers! Here are the dance numbers (Not in any order):

"All of You": Beautiful number done by Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. Steve certainly finds out that Ninotchka can really dance!
"Siberia": Hilarious number done by the Russian trio! It's so amazing seeing Peter Lorre singing and dancing in a musical number! And he seems to be enjoying himself so much!
"Silk Stockings": Cyd Charisse showcases her ballet talents in this very well done and beautiful dance.
"Red Blues": Very fun song and dance with the seemingly dull Russians having a great time.
"Too Bad We Can't Go Back to Moscow": I just love this song and Fred Astaire gets to dance with three Parisian girls who definitely know how to dance!
"Fated to Be Mated": Another Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse dance number.
"Ritz Rollin' Rock": There of course has to be a dance routine where Fred Astaire taps solo. And boy does he tap!
"Stereophonic Sound": Janis Paige and Fred Astaire say the three qualities that are needed nowadays in movies.
"Satin and Silk": Peggy Dainton is desperate to have Boroff's music made into popular songs. This is the number where she 'convinces' him.
"Josephine": The popular song that is made from Boroff's music, "Ode to a Tractors". We never really get to hear the whole thing though.

Here are some of my other favorite musicals/comedies which I highly recommend. "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", "Bandwagon", "Cover Girl", "Tea for Two", "Singin' in the Rain", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "The Barkleys of Broadway", the three "That's Entertainment" videos, and "Guys and Dolls". Of course there's plenty more!

In hindsight "Silk Stockings" proved to be one of MGM's last great musical acheivements and Fred Astaire's final appearance in a musical worthy of his inimitable talents. Astaire plays, Steven Canfield, a rotten capitalist and movie producer who butts heads with communist, special envoy, Nina Yoshenko, who has been sent from Moscow to Paris to apprehend a wayward Russian composer. The cast also includes Janis Paige in a hilarious and campy lampoon of an 'Esther Williams-type' actress attempting to play Napoleon's Josephine in a musical remake of "War and Peace". Peter Lorre and Jules Munshin are at their comedy best as two communist sympathizers wooed by the pleasures of Paris.
AT LAST - a transfer worthy of the elegant Mr. Cole Porter. Warner Home Video gives us a rich looking, robust sounding DVD that really celebrates the performances in this memorable musical. Colors are deep, rich, gorgeous and consistant throughout. Contrast and shadow levels are outstanding. Fine details are amazingly sharp. Edge enhancement, shimmering and aliasing are practically non-existant. There is no pixelization or film or digital grain to speak of, for a thoroughly smooth but sharp visual presentation that will surely please. The audio has been remixed to 5.1 and is marvelous, rich sounding and fully realized within the confines of its dated characteristic.
Extras: Another Cole Porter/making-of featurette that is really a throw away, save the few glimpses of Cyd Charisse and Janis Paige that we get. Theatrical trailer and cast bios and a couple of short subjects - not anamorphically enhanced, even though the film (thank heaven) is!
Bottom Line: This disc is a must have and the only DVD of the Cole Porter bunch worthy of your hard earned money. BUY IT TODAY!

Here's an interesting Fred Astaire film from the late fifties that is both dated and timeless. The timelessness comes from Fred and Cyd Charisse in a great musical romantic comedy. The dated aspects are most of the digs at the Cold War Russians, but it's all part of the fun.

In this retelling of "Ninotchka", lots of comedy mileage is gotten from the Cold War and the sad state of the Russian citizenry ("You mean you want to get IN to Russia? Of your own free will?!"). Three whole numbers are dedicated to the misery of being a Russian under Communist rule ("Siberia", "Too Bad, We Can't Go Back to Moscow", and "The Red Blues"). Some other tunes like "It's a Chemical Reaction, That's All" pit the Commie view of love against the good ol' red white and blue all-American view.

Two numbers, "All of You" and "Silk Stockings", are both well worth the price of admission. There has never been a finer example of the pure grace in the art of dance than when Cyd and Fred perform in "All of You". In the "Silk Stockings" number, Cyd solos in a balletic dance showing how the Russian robot becomes seduced by the luxury and femininity of Paris.

The Cole Porter songs are okay, but hardly his apex. "Ritz Roll and Rock" is an interesting curio if nothing else, as Porter and Astaire try their hand at rock n' roll. Even though the song is so-so, the dance number is pretty good, and when the curtain rises on Fred in this one, you know he and he alone owns the dance floor... before the dance even starts!

"The Poet and Peasant Overture" is included as a short subject, apparently to show off the new miracle of the CinemaScope widescreen process. As an odd, but added treat, an early Bob Hope short "Paree, Paree", rounds things out. Bob gets second billing to the (now) forgotten actress Dorothy Stone in this 1934 musical tidbit. There's even a strange, Busby Berkeley look to the impromptu dance numbers, with a score of leggy dancers forming ever-evolving star and pinwheel patterns.

A good disc by far for Fred fans, and a keeper, regardless.

Fred Astaire has always been a performer who's work is very close to my heart. The last real Fred Astaire movie (excluding his geriatric non-singing, non-dancing or non-starring roles) is 1957's "Silk Stockings".

I was a little afraid to watch Silk Stockings at first. Sure, it had a Cole Porter score supervised by Andre Previn, and Hermes Pan choreography, and, sure, Fred made fabulous movies even at that age ("the Bandwagon", "Daddy Long Legs"), but I knew it was Fred's last, and I didn't want to know why. Now I know what a pleasure I was depriving myself of.

"Silk Stockings" is a musical remake of "Ninotchka", a 1939 Greta Garbo picture. It's about a serious stern young russian woman, sent as an envoy to nab a russian composer living illegally in Paris. The composer is betraying his russian classical heritage by writing music for a low brow movie musical. The director of this movie, played by Fred Astaire, distracts the pretty young russian (Cyd Charisse) with the wonders of Paris, classy night clubs, and dancing to jazz. In falling for him, her strict heartless personality melts away.

This movie was produced at the height of the cold war, and the height of Hollywood blacklisting, and it's commie-bashing could make some uncomfortable. To me, those jokes are anything but propaganda. The cultural stereotypes are played for laughs, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Of course, I'm a big fan of the top hat and tails ritzy romantic culture that Astaire's character teaches Charisse's character the joys of, so it's easy for me to say.

With the exception of the classics "All of You" and "Paris is For Lovers", Cole Porter's songs are comic, here. But, that being said, they are hilarious. This was towards the end of Porter's career too. Infact, this was towards the end of the movie musical as America knew it.

Rock and Roll was taking over. To me, the most moving moments in this movie are not the dramatic love scenes shared by Astaire and Charisse, they are the self referential moments, where Porter, Astaire, and choreographer Hermes Pan acknowledge that their era in over.

Porter wrote special material just for this movie. One highlight is a tune called "Stereophonic Sound". In it, the singer quips about how moviegoers used to be content to see talented performers do their thing, and a nice love story, but these days all they want is "glorious Technicolor, breathtaking CinemaScope, and Stereophonic sound!" The song puts down all the gimmickry of the modern Hollywood, and even has one verse quite obviously about Fred Astaire himself. Porter writes that these days a great hoofer in tails is not enough, they want a ballet (alluding to Gene Kelly's ballet dance number fad).

Fred Astaire's last MGM dance number is to the song "Ritz Rollin' Rock". It's Porter's parody of this new music called Rock and Roll, ironically borrowing from Irving Berlin's dated "Puttin' On the Ritz". This sequence, choreographed by Astaire's long-time collaborator Hermes Pan, ends with Fred writhing on the floor, wearing his 1930's tails and top hat. As the horns hit the last big chord, Fred removes his trade-marked top hat and smashes it flat with his fist.
The message Porter, Astaire and Pan slipped into this novelty number, is very powerful, if you know what you're seeing.

Pop entertainment changed in the sixties, and the the old kings abdicated their thrones to... well... the King, I suppose.

Anyway, if you're a Fred-head like me, and you're afraid to see Fred's final fling, "Silk Stockings", don't be. You'll be reminded why he and his period of Hollywood was great.

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse create movie magic in Rouben Mamoulian's beautiful and snazzy screen version of Cole Porter's broadway hit.

The transfer to DVD is simply stunning (especially considering it was filmed after the demise of Technicolor) with a bold, fresh host of hues, and sharpness and detail beautifully handled in the conversion from film to tape. The 5.1 surround track truly kicks it, too!

Highly recommended.

There are a number of good things about Silk Stockings, but there also is a professional finality about the movie that makes it easier to observe than to be delighted by it. It was one of the last of the big MGM musicals coming from Arthur Freed's production unit. It was the last musical Fred Astaire made as the lead. It was the last film directed by Rouben Mamoulian. It was based on the last Broadway musical Cole Porter wrote. Silk Stockings also was used to make a statement about the excesses some thought were ruining films and music...the advent of rock and roll and the technological changes in films with wide screen and stereo sound. It even takes a crack at the fashion for ballet in many musicals. You've got to be very clever and original to successfully parody things which are already self-parodies. Silk Stockings, even with its many entertaining moments, isn't that clever.

The story is based on Ninotchka, the female Soviet commissar who comes to Paris and finds romance reluctantly...and then enthusiastically. Paris is presented as a place where decadence was never more innocent and persuasive. Steve Canfield (Fred Astaire) is a Hollywood producer in Paris who plans to make a film starring a famous film star (Janis Paige), using the music of a famous Soviet composer who isn't thrilled at returning to Moscow. Three Soviet bureaucrats (Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin and Joseph Buloff), bumblers all, have been sent to retrieve him...but they fall prey to the charms of Paris, too. So one of the toughest, most dedicated commissars is sent to bring them all back. She is Nina Yoshenko (Cyd Charisse), and she is as humorless as a training manual. Canfield piles on the charm, Ninotchka finally softens, romance blossoms. And then, of course, a misunderstanding arises. Ninotchka returns to Moscow, but a bit of sly dealing by Steve gets her back to Paris. The misunderstanding is solved, love blossoms anew, and East-West relations, at least for Steve and Ninotchka, warm up considerably. Marriage is just a kiss and a dance away.

One of the things that seems so odd is that, for a Fred Astaire film, Astaire spends a good deal of time doing knee drops, full-length on-the-floor sprawls and athletic dance moves that limit the sophisticated and smooth Astaire style. He was 59 when he made the picture, and this might explain the relative shortness of some of the sequences. Still, while he is assured and immensely watchable (and while he can still do wonders with a cane), three major dance productions he is in just seem choppy.

Most of the songs from the Broadway show were retained and Porter wrote a couple of new ones. It's become routine with Porter to say that whatever his latest show was, the score was never one of his best. In this case, it's true. The romantic songs are great, but the topical speciality numbers just seem tired.

--"Too Bad" is a raucous song and dance involving the three Soviet flunkies, Steve and three ladies Steve brought to convince the flunkies they don't need to hurry to go back to Moscow. There's a nice sequence involving Astaire dancing with each of the women. Watching Peter Lorre gamely taking part, however, I didn't find very funny. He had health problems, was over-weight and it showed.

--"Paris Loves Lovers" is a charming song Astaire sings to Charisse, and then she counterpoints in the reprise.

--"Stereophonic Sound," for me, just isn't particularly clever or funny. Janis Paige plays a character who has no subtlety, and she delivers the song the same way. This is the first of the production numbers that have Astaire sliding under desks and dropping onto the floor.

--"It's a Chemical Reaction, That's All." This clever little throw away is used by Ninotchka to explain to Steve that love is nothing more than predictable chemistry.
When the electro-magnetic of the hemale
Meets the electro-magnetic of the female,
If right away she should say, 'This is the male,'
It's a chemical reaction, that's all.

And though you fascists may answer with kisses
The same applies when you're mister and missus.
Hey diddle diddle with middle class kisses.
It's a chemical reaction that's all.

--Which leads immediately to one of Porter's first-class songs, "All of You," which includes the naughty line that sends schoolboys to sniggering every time they hear it. The song is sung by Astaire to a skeptical Charisse.
I love the looks of you, the lure of you.
I'd love to make a tour of you,
The arms, the eyes, the mouth of you,
The east, west, north, and the south of you.

I'd love to gain complete control of you
And handle even the heart and soul of you.
So love at least a small percent of me, do.
'Cause I love all of you.

--"Satin and Silk," a speciality number for Paige.

--"Silk Stockings." This is one of Porter's great brooding, throbbing latin melodies, danced by Cyd Charisse.

--"Without Love" is such a paean to the wholesome hetero love of a woman for a man that Porter must have had a great time writing the lyrics.

--"Fated to Mated" is a jaunty song sung by Astaire to Charisse which leads into an extended dance routine for them. The dance is the second number that winds up more athletic than we're used to.

--"Josephine," another speciality number for Paige, much abbreviated from the Broadway version.

--"Siberia," a not-too-funny specialty number for Lorre, Munshin and Buloff.

--"The Red Blues." This is probably the second least inspired number by Porter. It's redeemed by a driving arrangement, vivid choreography and a knock-out performance by Charisse. She was a skilled, precise dancer who could handle any steps they gave her. She does a great job here.

--"The Ritz Roll and Rock." Astaire is said to have asked Porter to come up with a big finale number that would poke fun at all the changes in the musical scene that had been happening in the Fifties. This was the result and, to my view, it simply isn't very good. The song lacks cleverness and wit. Astaire was always expert, but this has him starting out in a classic white tie and tails pose, then sends him spinning on the floor and finishing by smashing his top hat with his fist. As Cyd Charisse said years later in one of the extras on the DVD, "Though Fred was wonderful, it was clear that the age he had come to emulate was over." This number just doesn't do the job.

Astaire, as always, is first class. Charisse is easy to look at and a fine dancer. George Tobias, as a commissar in Moscow and Ninotchka's boss, gives a sly and dead-pan performance. Some of Porter's songs are very good. Mamoulian brought the film in on time and under budget. And Silk Stockings was a success with ticket buyers.

The DVD transfer is excellent. There are several light-weight extras, the best of which is a 1934 musical short based on Porter's Fifty Million Frenchman. It stars Bob Hope and a singer-dancer named Dorothy Stone. It only runs 21 minutes but it features four fine Porter songs from the show, including Hope singing "You Do Something to Me." At any excuse for a cue, a group of chorus girls and boys prance in to dance with that endearingly clunky style of early musicals.

With the passing of Cyd Charisse last week at age 86, it's worth seeking out what is probably her finest work on celluloid. Granted as an actress, she was bland, and as a singer, she was dubbed (this time by the sonorous-sounding Carol Richards). But as a dancer, she was extraordinary. Along with Vera-Ellen, the ballet-trained Charisse was in the top echelon of the female dancers that MGM showcased during the studio's golden years of which this film is one of its final stops. The clearest evidence of this claim can be found in the title tune when she dances with beauty and precision elegantly changing from her drab street clothes into silk and satin. It's a remarkable number, no small feat since her co-star is Fred Astaire. Directed by early musical maven Rouben Mamoulian (Love Me Tonight) in what turned out to be his last film, the movie also marks Astaire's swan song as a musical comedy leading man. Symbolically, he smashes his top hat at the end of his final solo number, "The Ritz Roll and Rock". The wear barely shows in his dancing where he pulls off some of his most acrobatic numbers, but other than the professionalism of the two leads, the inspiration seems sadly missing.

The film is a partial remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1939 classic comedy, Ninotchka - in fact, some scenes are repeated verbatim - although certain elements have been altered to accommodate Cole Porter's musical score. This musical translation first showed up on Broadway two years earlier, but further revisions have obviously been made to tailor the story to the dancing talents of the leads. Charisse has the unenviable task of stepping into Greta Garbo's shoes as top Soviet envoy Ninotchka Yoschenko, who is sent to Paris to retrieve three lesser envoys swept up by the City of Lights. They had already botched their mission to lure famous Russian composer Peter Boroff back to the mother country. At the same time, American movie producer Steve Canfield wants Boroff to score his next picture, a musical bowdlerization of Tolstoy's War and Peace starring comically curvaceous Peggy Dayton, a parody of an Esther Williams-style swimming star whose been in the pool too long. As Dayton uses her feminine wiles to entice Boroff, Canfield tries to seduce Ninotchka, a far frostier proposition though the eventual thawing is inevitable. Porter's music tends to have that effect or so we're led to believe.

Playing another variation on the worldly photographer he played in the same year's Funny Face, Astaire is still at the top of his game, but his dance numbers are less elegant and appear markedly shorter than usual here. Charisse cannot compare to the legendary Garbo when it comes to line readings as a stoic communist. However, her dancing truly transcends - not only the title tune but also "The Red Blues", an impressive ensemble number showcasing Charisse in a variety of dance styles, and the two duets with Astaire to "All of You" - the first a romantic defrosting of Ninotchka and the second a jauntier, rhythmic pas-de-deux. I wish the rest of the film was as good, but sadly, the energy wavers and the pacing flags during its 117-minute running time. The rest of the cast is serviceable, in particular, Janis Paige on familiar ground as Peggy (nicely paired with Astaire on the energetically cynical "Stereophonic Sound") and George Tobias as the deadpan Soviet commissar. Peter Lorre (M) and Jules Munshin (Ozzie in On the Town) show up as two of the bumbling envoys. The 2003 DVD has some interesting extras beginning with a ten-minute short featuring a 2003 interview with the still-elegant Charisse in "Cole Porter in Hollywood: Satin and Silk". Because of the Porter tie-in, there is also a 1934 Bob Hope short, "Paree, Paree", a silly musical comedy with Hope wooing singer Dorothy Stone. Also included is the original theatrical trailer, as well as "Poet and Peasant Overture" with Alfred Wallenstein conducting the MGM symphony orchestra playing the Franz Von Suppe piece as an overture to the movie.

A witty and warm Cold War romance, "Stockings" re-shapes Garbo's famous MGM comedy "Ninotchka" into a delightful music and dance-fest. Thanks to the romance of a Paris setting and a buttery Cole Porter score, détente between stars Astaire and Charisse develops quickly, followed by marvelous dancing routines. At age 57, Astaire is still a dazzling, graceful performer, while Charisse ably fills Garbo's shoes. Peter Lorre, in a rare comic turn, even vamps his way through the rollicking "Siberia." Irresistible entertainment.

Yes, this is one of the last of the MGM musicals. Tis a pity. Now that CHICAGO is such a hit, they must release other MGM musicals just as good as this. THE BAND WAGON...THREE LITTLE WORDS...EASTER PARADE and SUMMER STOCK, just to name a few. SILK STOCKINGS is a remarkablly good film for it's genre. Nothing could beat CYD and FRED dancing, even if the plot isn't strong. Too bad there wasn't more of JANIS PAGE as one of her numbers seems to have been given the short shift. Otherwise, the film is a standout and a must for musical lovers. Any left? I think so. Give this one a try as well as the other Cole Porter releases. Thanks for these, but we want more!!!

I love this movie. It is absolutely hilarious. Though I know the tradgedy and horror that existed in Communist Russia, this film still made me burst out laughing. The songs are beautiful and alluring. However, the dancing steals the show. Cyd and Fred look swell together. Fred and Janice Paige's number about modern films is hilarious. I also like "We Can't Go Back to Moscow." I find myself singing it every day.
The plot is relatively good and has a cute love story. As always, love conquers all, even the iron curtain.