玻璃丝袜

Don’t let the sentimental factor fool you, SILK STOCKING, Rouben Mamoulian’s film adaption of the namesake 1955 stage musical, a reiteration of Ernst Lubitsch’s NINOTCHKA (1939), starring Astaire in his last musical role for MGM, at the age of 57, it is high time for this iconic hoofer to hang up his dancing shoes, is a clunky dud. Viewed today, reunited with Cyd Charisse from Minnelli’s THE BAND WAGON (1953), Astaire’s American film producer Steve Canfield is too wizened to pass off as a romantic suitor to Charisse’s prim-faced, blunt-spoken but rigidly stunning Russian envoy Ninotchka Yoschenko. Steve’s courtship is cringeworthy and condescending, and the whole affair’s denigration and mockery of the Soviet Union’s “robotic” personality is simply offensive and mean-spirited, that is the awful reminder of Cold War dichotomy, which makes SILK STOCKING far more difficult to stomach than NINOTCHKA, but, yes, there is always a “but”, since it is a musical, why not throw its repulsive plot out of the window, and rejoice in the razzle-dazzle. Fo’ shizzle the razzle-dazzle doesn’t disappoint, Charisse spellbinds us with an improbable transfiguration from a hardened collectivist to a girl succumbing to occidental decadence, i.e. getting togged up in gossamer gowns and other fineries, but her acting bent is nil. A glamorous fashion plate who is only enlivened when she moves, that reflects one major hindrance for a musical film, if it has a rather dramatic plot arc to bring off (here is Ninotchka’s proselytization), it scarcely works because of the jovial nature of the genre and the technique requirement of its players (who should be able to act and entertain, like Judy Garland), SILK STOCKINGS is guilty as charged. A nimble-footed Astaire (his feet is the first thing we see) doesn’t really bring down the house until his final number "The Ritz Roll and Rock”, ended with a symbolic gesture of smashing his top hat, for audience then, it is a nostalgic capper. While the rest of the cast is composed of three buffoons (Peter Lorre sticking out like a sore thumb) and a simpleton Russian composer (Sonneveld), Janis Paige has a field day when she can steal the limelight from the ill-sorted leads, her all-out va-va-voom is just what the doctor has ordered. Cole Porter’s show-tunes are in his usual frou-frou register and Mamoulian isn’t particularly enthused to show off his directorial virtuosity, as if getting wise the dawn of its own genre, for most of its duration, SILK STOCKINGS is conspicuously tame and self-consciously chipper, a relic to reminisce about rather than knock you socks off. referential entries: Ernst Lubitsch’s NINOTCHKA (1939, 7.3/10); Vincente Minnelli’s THE BAND WAGON (1953, 7.9/10); Mamoulian’s QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933, 7.9/10).