1958 - GIGI, an MGM musical about prostitution.

 Coming towards the end of MGM's dominance in musicals, Gigi was a very classy film with a lot of big time talent involved.  For starters lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Fritz Loewe were very hot with their hit musical based on Shaw's Pygmalion, My Fair Lady which was playing on Broadway at the time.   In addition, MGM producer Arthur Freed assembled a group of very talented people in front and behind the camera.

Cecil Beaton designed the costumes and sets and never meet a weird headpiece for a woman he didn't like.  Andre Previn adapted and conducted the music and most importantly Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct the film.  In front of the camera were Leslie Caron, Louis Jordan, Maurice Chevalier and Hermoine Gingold.  Gingold and Chevalier were expert scene stealers and Caron and Jordan did make an attractive couple.

One of the oddest things about Gigi was the complete lack of dancing in this film, very unusual for a musical.  The other odd thing about this film was the story.  This is essentially a film about a young girl being trained to be a prostitute by her grandmother.  The girl manages to turn the tables on everyone and holds out for marriage.  

 

This film looks very good it was photographed by Joseph Ruttenberg in that MGM style where everything is very pretty.  Minnelli directed with his usual fussy precision spending as much time on the set design as he did on the actors.

 

For all that, the film does work and is very entertaining.  This is truly towards the end of the MGM musical run.  Freed went on to produce Bells Are Ringing which was his final musical film.

The film was written by Alan Jay Lerner, the running time is 115 minutes.