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Nick*Z

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Kismet is a clunker. The best thing about it is the score and Dolores Gray. But Minnelli, who obviously directed it under duress and wanted, rather impatiently, to get on with shooting Lust for Life, just seems to be throwing away a golden opportunity here to make the most out of an obviously lithe and lyrical stagecraft that, unfortunately, remains stage bound in its execution. Just look at 'Night of My Nights' that Minnelli simply lets run, with a parade of extras running past his stationary camera. It's as though he just wants to stick it to Metro for forcing him to accept this assignment. There's no splash or flare to any of it. The musical sequences ought to have been expertly choreographed.

Alas, not since Nineveh - and never to be here. The gorgeous Andre Previn/Conrad Salinger orchestrations, and sumptuous E. Preston Ames production values are utterly wasted on flatly executed production numbers and even more static 'dramatic' sequences that Minnelli shoots as though this were his first flick utilizing Cinemascope. Minnelli didn't like 'scope' as a mode of presentation but proved he knew damn well how to use its elongated screen proportions to perfection elsewhere in his picture-making prowess. So, his lack of wherewithal on Kismet isn't a case of a novice doing his best, but a master craftsman woefully disinterested in doing any better.

Kismet is one of those truly missed opportunities for me, because I absolutely adore the score, and am a big fan of Dolores Gray, Howard Keel, and, Vic Damone - all sounding spectacular in stereo. But the movie tanks completely on Minnelli's lack of verve for the material. This one ought to have been assigned to some other director because it hopelessly lacks any of Minnelli's trademark touches to define itself as one of his best.
 

Nick*Z

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Thanks, Nick, for that detailed and perceptive review. Did they get a song out of it for one of the That's Entertainment movies? Or maybe there's one lurking on youtube. Anyway, with all the good Minnelli movies out there that I still haven't seen, this seems like maybe one for me to skip for now.

Coffee Time is featured in That's Entertainment Part III.
 

Nick*Z

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The essential Minnelli

1943 Cabin in the Sky - nothing of Hollywood in this one and a marvelous performance from Ethel Waters
1944 Meet Me in St. Louis
1945 The Clock - Garland gives her first truly great dramatic performance
1949 Madame Bovary - Jennifer Jones is stunning as the selfish and self-absorbed title character
1950 Father of the Bride
1951 An American in Paris
1952 The Bad and the Beautiful - one of the greatest Hollywood 'back story' films ever made, right up there with Cukor's '54 A Star is Born
1953: The Band Wagon
1954 Brigadoon
1955 The Cobweb - intense drama about psychoanalysis
1956 Lust for Life
1957 Designing Women
1958 Gigi
1958 The Reluctant Debutante - erudite rom/com with the superb Rex Harrison and ill-fated Kay Kendall - the Carol Lombard of her generation.
1958 Some Came Running - powerful drama. Shirley MacLaine and Sinatra give powerhouse performances
1960 Home From the Hill - a somewhat fumbled drama, with great performances from Robert Mitchum and George Hamilton
1960 Bells Are Ringing - although lacking Minnelli's touches, Judy Holliday's comedic timing and Jule Styne's score cannot be denied. Dean Martin is an amiable leading man. Charming!
1963 The Courtship of Eddie's Father - the only comedy Minnelli ever directed with unbridled effervescence.
 
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benbess

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Kismet is a clunker. The best thing about it is the score and Dolores Gray. But Minnelli, who obviously directed it under duress and wanted, rather impatiently, to get on with shooting Lust for Life, just seems to be throwing away a golden opportunity here to make the most out of an obviously lithe and lyrical stagecraft that, unfortunately, remains stage bound in its execution. Just look at 'Night of My Nights' that Minnelli simply lets run, with a parade of extras running past his stationary camera. It's as though he just wants to stick it to Metro for forcing him to accept this assignment. There's no splash or flare to any of it. The musical sequences ought to have been expertly choreographed.

Alas, not since Nineveh - and never to be here. The gorgeous Andre Previn/Conrad Salinger orchestrations, and sumptuous E. Preston Ames production values are utterly wasted on flatly executed production numbers and even more static 'dramatic' sequences that Minnelli shoots as though this were his first flick utilizing Cinemascope. Minnelli didn't like 'scope' as a mode of presentation but proved he knew damn well how to use its elongated screen proportions to perfection elsewhere in his picture-making prowess. So, his lack of wherewithal on Kismet isn't a case of a novice doing his best, but a master craftsman woefully disinterested in doing any better.

Kismet is one of those truly missed opportunities for me, because I absolutely adore the score, and am a big fan of Dolores Gray, Howard Keel, and, Vic Damone - all sounding spectacular in stereo. But the movie tanks completely on Minnelli's lack of verve for the material. This one ought to have been assigned to some other director because it hopelessly lacks any of Minnelli's trademark touches to define itself as one of his best.

Having finished the movie last night, I can't disagree with your expert analysis, although I do like it a bit better than you do. The score and the performers are so fun that the flat direction still doesn't kill it for me. It made me laugh several times, and swoon a few times for the music and the visuals. But you have a point that this is far from Minnelli's best.
 

Rick Thompson

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Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
1,865
Kismet is a clunker. The best thing about it is the score and Dolores Gray. But Minnelli, who obviously directed it under duress and wanted, rather impatiently, to get on with shooting Lust for Life, just seems to be throwing away a golden opportunity here to make the most out of an obviously lithe and lyrical stagecraft that, unfortunately, remains stage bound in its execution. Just look at 'Night of My Nights' that Minnelli simply lets run, with a parade of extras running past his stationary camera. It's as though he just wants to stick it to Metro for forcing him to accept this assignment. There's no splash or flare to any of it. The musical sequences ought to have been expertly choreographed.

Alas, not since Nineveh - and never to be here. The gorgeous Andre Previn/Conrad Salinger orchestrations, and sumptuous E. Preston Ames production values are utterly wasted on flatly executed production numbers and even more static 'dramatic' sequences that Minnelli shoots as though this were his first flick utilizing Cinemascope. Minnelli didn't like 'scope' as a mode of presentation but proved he knew damn well how to use its elongated screen proportions to perfection elsewhere in his picture-making prowess. So, his lack of wherewithal on Kismet isn't a case of a novice doing his best, but a master craftsman woefully disinterested in doing any better.

Kismet is one of those truly missed opportunities for me, because I absolutely adore the score, and am a big fan of Dolores Gray, Howard Keel, and, Vic Damone - all sounding spectacular in stereo. But the movie tanks completely on Minnelli's lack of verve for the material. This one ought to have been assigned to some other director because it hopelessly lacks any of Minnelli's trademark touches to define itself as one of his best.

Minelli was also a truly awful stage director. His Mata Hari ran four hours, featured numerous tech mishaps, ended with a supposed dead body scratching its nose (she didn't know the act curtain had jammed). It closed in Washington and was called "(David) Merrick's Bay of Pigs." He supposedly blocked a scene by putting the actors onstage and saying "Action." (Read William Goldman's The Season or Harvey Sabinson's Darling, You Were Wonderful for more.)
 

john a hunter

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Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
1,462
I enjoy the film to a certain extent-the score in lovely stereo, Gray and Keel-but the ending is a complete disaster.
You can hear MGM saying 'We cannot have a death in a musical". Black humour was a no no in 1954
 

Matt Hough

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That Kismet score is so brilliantly sung and orchestrated that I can forgive the flat, unfeeling direction and usually enjoy watching it in the beautiful Blu-ray rendition. If only a director could have been found who wanted to have fun with this Arabian Nights fable instead of Minnelli who couldn't have been less interested in it.

But, for the first song to be the dirge-like "Fate" (at least in its beginning stanzas) and cut the amiable and catchy "Rhymes Have I" was a stupid notion.
 

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