Claudia Collao’s exuberant documentary on the great actor, dancer and film maker Gene Kelly looks at his rise to stardom, quest for innovation in all that he did, and above all, his egalitarian attitude that dance should be accessible to everyone, no matter where they came from.
As someone who had grown up in hard-scrabble Pittsburgh, and cut his teeth as one half of the tapdancing Kelly Brothers, his “laid-back and athletic” dancing style was destined for big things.
Contracted by Hollywood legend David O. Selznick in 1940, his meteoric rise wasn’t without problems, as he was a Union member and married to the equally outspoken Betsy Blair, who, along with Gene, believed in the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. This meant that the FBI had a file on him, and he hid out in London for a while in the McCarthy witch hunt era.
Undeterred, he made collaborations with the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, Judy Garland and, as with the celebrated ‘On The Town’, was determined to “get rid of Hollywood musical clichés”. He was always going to do his own thing, his way.
Props included dustbin lids, the famous umbrella in ‘Singin’ In The Rain’, and a certain cartoon mouse called Jerry- if you can call the groundbreaking animation/live action pas de deux a prop.
The film zips along at top speed, the frenetic pace emulating the wild routines we’ve come to know and love, but the film feels a little truncated. Kelly’s genius deserves far more depth and insight than just a whistle-stop tour.
Screened on Sky Arts.
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