Directed by Vincente Minnelli

I noticed the other day that I'd seen thirteen Minnelli features, probably more than any other Hollywood director. I thought I'd list them here.

One of M.'s most sensual movies (the final ballet with the paintings as backdrop), it doesn't really move me. Kelly's fine, liked Leslie Caron and Levant very much.

I like the way Kirk Douglas plays van Gogh, and Anthony Quinn is the perfect foil as Gauguin. That scene in the fields with the wind howling and the two men ready to kill each other has stayed with me a long time. Beautiful and moving (also see Pialat's Van Gogh).

Kirk Douglas again doing a great job as a swinish producer who manages to make life hard for a number of people. The thread that moved me most was Dick Powell's as the prize-winning novelist.

This is an example of what happens when M. is handed a poor script and works with actors who have no real charisma together--Peck and Bacall. Scene after scene goes flat and there's hardly a joke in almost two hours.

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse are terrific together; Dancing in the Dark is a wonderful duet and Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray are very funny. Superb.

Time has dissipated some of the impact this story must once have had. Today gay men are getting married to other men, which must have seemed impossible in the 50's. The performances are so good though that I can be carried along by the narrative: Deborah Kerr is really good as the teacher's wife, John Kerr is the troubled boy and Edward Andrews is marvellous as the boy's father.

It's not really about the drapes that will decorate the clinic, it's the power struggle going on between two headstrong doctors, Boyer and Widmark, and the frustration of Widmark's wife Gloria Grahame. Lauren Bacall plays a teacher whom Widmark briefly falls for. Great entertainment.

Cecil Beaton designed sets and costumes, so they're out of the top drawer. The songs aren't much however, even with Maurice Chevalier singing them. So it's Minnelli and Beaton throwing beauty in our eyes all through the picture.

Frank Sinatra is a soldier returning rather late from the war, Martha Hyer the repressed woman he starts seeing, Shirley Maclaine the working class girl who loves him and Dean Martin is a gambler with no ties to anybody. They're all splendid. The sets and camera work is top notch: superb picture.

The picture is worth seeing for Martin and Hollyday, who are terrific as the blocked writer and the telephone girl. Unfortunately the story is weighted down by tiresome characters like the musical dentist, the two cops, the gangsters. The Just In Time number is lovely; the name-dropping number with the cast jamming the staircase is a treat. As a rule, I say watch anything with Judy Hollyday.