Daddy Long Legs

'Daddy Long-Legs', previously filmed silent with Mary Pickford and once more in the 1930s, gets the musical treatment here as the story of the millionaire and the orphan he sponsors gets a Technicolor, Cinemascope, Johnny Mercer update.

Fred Astaire, at 55, is a little old for his role as stick-in-the-mud business whizz Jervis Pendleton, but hey, this is Hollywood. And his interest in, and subsequent wooing of, the French girl Julie Andre (played with charm and wit by Leslie Caron) is helped a lot by the fact that the two stars do not actually share screen time until nearly halfway through the film! With scintillating choreography for both Astaire and Caron, those wonderful songs, and support from Fred Clark, Thelma Ritter, and Terry Moore, 'Daddy Long Legs' is an excellent musical just balancing on the cusp of classic musical vs rock n roll.

How terribly sad that during such a delightful and romantic film, Fred Astaire was mourning the death of his wife.

"Daddy Long Legs" is a sweet film with an utterly charming performance, in words and dance, by Leslie Caron, and Astaire's usual high-class, debonair, energetic work.

Thelma Ritter and Larry Keating give fantastic support, and in looking over the cast list, I see that a future dance partner of Astaire's, the wonderful Barrie Chase, is an uncredited dancer.

My only complaint is that the movie is on the long side, with the final dance being not only terribly long, but just one dance sequence too many.

The highlight of the film for me was definitely "Sluefoot." A fantastic number! I noticed one hilarious comment about an "uncredited appearance by Cary Grant." I remember my mom telling me how much Ray Anthony resembled Grant - I guess she was right!

I think this film, "Daddy Long Legs", is much better than its Imdb rating indicates. I rate it "8" of 10. Fred Astaire was 56 and Leslie Caron 24 when this film came out, so it stretches the age thing a bit, but I suppose we can write that off as cultural differences among the French.

Simple story, executed very well. I didn't read the book, nor do I think it is relevant. This is a movie and it should be appreciated on its own merits. It is well-established that the author of this screenplay changed the story quite a bit, for purposes of this Hollywood production, so comparing it to the book is moot.

Wealthy American (Astaire/Jervis) is on an economic mission to France when their vehicle gets stuck in a ditch. He wanders upon a French orphanage, looking for a phone or ride, and spots the 18-yr-old orphan (Caron/Julie), so lively, bright, responsible, attending to the younger orphans. He becomes an anonymous sponsor and sends her to a college in Mass. The only stipulation is that she write a letter weekly to "Mr Jones" to keep him informed of her progress.

The letters never get to Jervis, intercepted and filed by his staff. Until over two years later, when he had forgotten about her, but her letters are called to his attention. Finds out his niece is one of her roommates, he goes to a college dance to visit his neice, but really to see Julie. They meet, hit it off despite their age difference, dance marvelously. Later Julie visits NYC alone, ambassador to France is on next patio, at breakfast overhears what he thinks is hanky-panky, persuades Jervis to quit seeing Julie.

Julie eventually graduates, is lonely because she has never met "Daddy Long Legs", and has no place to go to after graduation. She insists on meeting her benefactor, who lives in a mansion, sort of museum, that even gives art tours to the public. There she realizes Jervis is in fact her benefactor, he proposes, she accepts.

First, the story is very plausible. A rich man seeing a talented person and wanting to help out anonymously. So I naturally find the story compelling. Second, Astaire and Caron were two of the best dancers, and also very good actors, that ever lived. "Dream scenes" were concocted to showcase each alone, and both together, in production dance numbers. For its genre, it is an almost perfect film. It gets its name from the small orphans telling Julie they saw him, not distinctly, at night and his shadow cast on the orphanage's wall made him look like he had very long legs.

Having been discovered a few years previously, by that multitalented dance icon: Gene Kelly, cute, pixie-like Leslie Caron here gets to costar with MGM's other dance icon: Fred Astaire., although actually Fox sponsored the film. Of course, both stars being known firstly for their dancing, this, as opposed to merely singing, is emphasized. However, notable Johnny Mercer, who composed all the music, save for one number by Ray Anthony, managed to include several classic lyrical songs, in "Dream", and "Something's Gotta Give". .........As most reviewers have mentioned, and some bitterly complain, Fred and Leslie make an odd-looking romantic couple, he being 30 years her senior, and 35 years older than her scripted age of 18, at the beginning. Thus, on the surface, it looks like an incestuous relationship, in the sense that he is old enough to be her father, and perhaps even her grandfather. But, perhaps their characters don't look at it that way. It would hardly be the first such relationship in history. A pertinent example comes to mind in Charlie Chaplin who, at age 54, married his last wife, of age 18, basically the same as in this script. That marriage lasted the rest of his life. ............Among the supporting actors, Thelma Ritter and Fred Clark stand out as charismatic, playing their usual roles. Larry Keating is also excellent as the American ambassador, in Paris, who has to deal with Fred's desire to send Leslie to college in the USA, with a suspected ambition to eventually marry her. Blond Terry Moore, is also present at times, as Leslie's college roommate, who also happens to be Fred's niece. Now 90y.o., she is perhaps most (in)famous for claiming that she was secretly married to eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, for several decades, until his death. Meanwhile, she had openly married and divorced several other men during that time! However, she also has many screen and TV credits, although not recognized as a big star............I thought Fred's imaginary impersonation of a Texas oil millionaire was the funniest bit............Leslie's perhaps too long ballet I see as being equivalent to Gene Kelly's equally long ballet in "An American in Paris", costarring Leslie.

Leslie Caron elevates this film with her charm, her pleasant French accent and innocence. The movie also is bright and colorful and features a lot of dance with The Master: Fred Astaire. For me, the bad side was it wasn't the kind of dancing from Astaire that I always liked: tap. For those who prefer the '50s dance style, this movie will be super.

Caron also does a few ballet numbers. She plays an 18-year-old which was a little unrealistic because she doesn't look that young, although I think she was only around 24. Astaire, even though he was in his mid '50s, the same year as the movie, was still agile and very talented.

The dialog is very dated, especially with the college girls of the day. Even though I don't own it, I am glad to see this is out on DVD. The formatted-to-TV VHS picture cuts off a lot of the colorful dance scenery, so the disc is a "must" over the tape.