LILI: Blu-ray (MGM, 1953) Warner Archive
Charles Walters’ Lili (1953) is an ‘interesting’ musical hybrid. ‘ Interesting ’, as – and despite its Oscar-winning song, it’s not really a musical, per say, but rather, hails from MGM’s ‘little gem’ class of original content, based on a Saturday Evening Post short story, ‘ The Man Who Hated People’ by Paul Gallico (somewhat reworked and softened in Helen Deutsch’s screen adaptation), and, working with a star – Leslie Caron – who positively hated the genre in which she toiled. “Musicals are futile and silly,” Caron once exclaimed. Nevertheless, Caron (93-yrs.-young and still very much with us) could not have asked for a better pedigree in Hollywood, debuting, as she did, in two of the greatest movie musicals of all time – both, Academy Award-winning Best Pictures: 1951’s An American in Paris (1951) opposite Metro’s top dancer, Gene Kelly, who quickly became not only Caron’s mentor, but also her first American confidant, and, 1958’s Gigi – the final star in her movie musical crow...
