INVITATION TO THE DANCE

Invitation to the Dance
MGM, 1957, Color, 93 minutes, ***
USA general release March, 1957

Gene Kelly's first solo directing job and the fruit of a long-cherished ambition to make an all-dancing film. The partially successful film contains three contrasting ballets, all of them featuring Kelly. The first, a derivative arty European ballet, "Circus," has Kelly as a love-sick Pierrot who falls to his death from a high wire while trying to impress the girl he loves. The second and best, "Ring Around the Rosy," keeps more to the traditions of the best MGM production numbers and is a La Ronde-type story. The third, "Sinbad the Sailor," has Kelly as a sailor dancing with cartoon characters.

Producer: Arthur Freed
Director: Gene Kelly
Screenplay: Gene Kelly
Musical Score: John Hollingsworth (Conductor for "Circus");
André Previn (Conductor for "Ring Around the Rosy");
Roger Edens (Music Adaptor for "Sinbad the Sailor")
Choreography: Gene Kelly, assisted by Carol Haney, Jeanne Coyne
Art Direction: Randall Duell, Cedric Gibbons, Alfred Junge
Costume Design: Rolf Gerard, Elizabeth Haffenden
Cartoon Sequence: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Special Effects: Tom Howard, Irving G. Ries
Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg, Freddie Young
Film Editing: Adrienne Fazan, Raymond Poulton, Robert Watts

Cast: Gene Kelly [Host / Pierrot / The Marine / Sinbad], Diana Adams [Hat Check Girl], Belita [The Debutante], Claude Bessy [The Model], Daphne Dale [The Wife], Irving Davies [The Crooner], Carol Haney [Scheherazade], David Kasday [The Genie], David Paltenghi [The Husband], Tommy Rall [Flashy Boyfriend], Claire Sombert [The Loved], Tamara Toumanova [The Streetwalker], Igor Youskevitch [The Lover / The Artist]

Musical Program: The Circus; Ring Around the Rosy; Sinbad the Sailor