Best movie of this year hands down!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I'd like to start off saying something unexpected. I was struck how much the basic plot resembles that of the previous musical "Belle of New York", also starring Fred, with another famous dancer: Vera Ellen, in Cyd's role. They both involve Fred taking on the challenge(why?) of trying to break through the thick ice of a beautiful, but emotionally repressed, young woman, who is always seen wearing a drab uniform. True , Cyd's character (Ninotchka) was a much harder case to crack, but eventually, Fred succeeded in both cases. In consequence, the singing(dubbed) and dancing of Vera-Ellen and Cyd is delayed compared to Fred's, and it takes time for their characters to fully warm up to Fred's lifestyle, including exuberant dancing. They both get a dance without Fred, in their bedrooms, when they first change from their drab uniforms into some sexy female clothing(including silk stockings). In both films, it looks like they will soon marry Fred at one point. But the woman then becomes disenchanted by something, and partially reverts to her old self until the finale, when their imminent marriage is again hinted. While the earlier film was set in turn of the century NYC, this film is set in contemporary Paris and sometimes Moscow. However, the combination of Fred and Janet Blair impart a significant American flavor to the film. Thus, two musical numbers lampoon the recent pop phenomenon of rock and roll, or several film enhancement technologies commonly adopted in recent times to try to lure potential customers away from their small- screen B&W monaural TVs, back into movie theaters. The present film is much longer than the earlier film, with a more interesting and complicated plot and more significant characters. However, we are stuck through most of it, even to the end, with Cyd's unpleasant arrogant robotic monotone Soviet persona, occasionally replaced by Janet Blair's blasé personality or snippets of Cyd's westernized personality. I would rate the songs in the earlier film as being, on the whole, better, while the dancing is more stimulating in this film. Cyd's solo dancing, in the several opportunities she is given, is especially interesting. There are an endless number of jabs at the stereotypical repressed lives of Soviets, half-truth Soviet propaganda about capitalism, and paranoia, to counter Ninotchka's constant criticisms of 'decadent' capitalism, as she saw it or had been indoctrinated to expect. At one point, Ninotchka, composer Boroff, and the 3 stooge-like commisars sent to bring him back from Paris, have returned to Moscow, reminisce about how they miss their brief stay in Paris, then stage an exuberant dance to music recently composed by Boroff, while singing that they have the "Red Blues": a nifty title. Comically, during this dance, a Soviet bureaucrat walks through the room twice, inducing all to revert to pretending they are discussing the virtues of communism over capitalism. Since Fred can't get a visa to visit Russia, he thinks up a trick to induce the turn of all to Paris...The overall theme of the film clearly is that the Soviet attempt to remake human nature to be interested only in basic survival mode and to only serve the interests of the state is flawed and will ultimately be rejected by real people.In the later part of the film, Ninotchka seemingly develops a split personality, occasionally succumbing to Fred's attempt to westernize her thinking and behavior and seduce her, but then reverting to her monotone Soviet personality. Seems like she mostly lets down her guard after she's had some Champagne. In the finale, she tears up her second plane ticket back to Moscow, after learning that Fred still wants to marry her, thereby presumably proving that even the seemingly most loyal adherents to the Soviet state, given the chance, will choose to live in a western country.The 3 clownish commisars sent to bring back the reluctant -to-leave-Paris composer Boroff rather remind me of the 3 sailors on leave in "On the Town". Jules Munshin served as one of the 3 in both groups, being much taller than any of the others. The choice of Peter Lorre and Joseph Buloff as the other two seems odd, as neither was musical and the singing of both was dubbed. Would have been interesting to have the Marx Brothers or 3 Stooges at their height in their places. But would have been considered overkill, I'm sure.I wonder why the screenwriters decided to subtly deride Esther William's acting ability in clearly casting Janis Paige in her likeness, with the implication that it was doubtful if she could carry a film that lacked her swimming ballets. Interestingly, Esther's long contract with MGM had rather recently been terminated. Seldom used Rouben Mamoulian, as director, was a controversial choice. His last film musical('48) was an expensive box office flop for MGM. However, he had directed some prior successful films , as well as the stage versions of "Oklahoma" and "Carousel". More significantly, he spent his youth in Georgia, where Stalin had also spent his youth. Thus, it was felt he could help provide a more authentic presentation of the Soviets.The non-musical "The Iron Petticoat" and "Jet Pilot", with similar themes of defecting Soviet women, were released about the same time, but were box-office flops, compared to the moderate success of this film.

You don't want to watch this movie right after its source, the 1939 Ernst Lubitch masterpiece "Ninotchka." Cyd Charisse is certainly a very fine dancer, but she can't begin to deliver Garbo's lines as well as Garbo did, and, unfortunately, she is given a lot of them to deliver. In general, most of what repeats "Ninotchka," often word for word, looks weak in comparison. The story also loses some of its continuity when important scenes from the original get omitted.So, if "Silk Stockings" doesn't do "Ninotchka" well, what does it have of its own to offer in compensation? After all, that would be the compensation. Unfortunately, the answer is slim pickings. This is not one of Cole Porter's better scores; there are only a few catchy numbers (like "Stereophonic Sound"), most of which feature Janet Paige - who is really very good in this movie - and Astaire. The efforts to be "with it" - Astaire's "Ritz, Roll, and Rock", for example - are forgettable.Watched on its own it would be a painless way to waste two hours. But don't watch it right after "Ninotchka" out of curiosity: it will seem to take a lot longer than its one hour and 57 minutes.

Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957) is a neat musical update of Ninotchka, perhaps the best romantic comedy of them all. Brilliant ballerina Cyd Charisse is in the Garbo role, playing a Russian envoy who's sent to Paris to bring home the nation's greatest composer, but is seduced by the city - and the American movie producer she meets there (Fred Astaire). Most of the plot and many of the best lines remain intact, while Charisse's communist commissar affects a Garbo accent, rather than a Russian one. While that does highlight the obvious superiority of the original film, there's still a great deal to enjoy here. Taken on its own terms, Silk Stockings is sleek and breezy entertainment.Astaire, about to make his second of four retirements, is in good form and his numbers with Charisse are very attractive - if lacking the spark and sizzle of those in The Band Wagon. All of You is the obvious stand-out, both in its original incarnation and a glorious warehouse reprisal, though Cole Porter's score is positively littered with fun tunes. Charisse does some sensational work to the lyrically slight Red Blues, brassy Janis Paige sings the smutty stomp Josephine, and she and Astaire poke fun at cinema's passion for frightened innovation in Stereophonic Sound. The climactic Ritz Roll and Rock is both impressive and quite silly, as it suggests that fleet-footed Astaire and his high society pals from the stage-show-within-a-film can rock out far more comprehensively than Elvis. I don't really buy it.As a special treat for Golden Era buffs, Silk Stockings also features a most peculiar and welcome sight: Peter Lorre dancing. The star of M, a recurring Hitchcock heavy and all-round mercurial wizard of the screen - by this time displaying a latter-day wideness rarely seen outside of James Cagney's films - Lorre great fun as a fibbing, carousing rogue of a Russian diplomat. Arriving in a distressed state in the early hours, he rubbishes suggestions from his colleagues that he's been out on the town by claiming he's been having a manicure. "At two o'clock in the morning?" a comrade enquires. "I cannot sleep with long fingernails," he replies. Lorre also does one of the silliest dance routines I've ever seen, hoisting himself up between two chairs and swinging his legs back and forth in time to Porter's Too Bad.Silk Stockings isn't a classic to rival Ninotchka, but as these musical remakes go, it's good value - with attractive leads and a handful of great numbers. Charisse, who passed away in 2008, is really something to behold when she's in full flow. Usually it's impossible to wrench one's eyes away from Astaire, but she's a most inspiring diversion.

I watched this to see Fred Astaire dance and Cyd Charisse to smile and show off her legs and dancing talents. I got very little of the above. Astaire, as "Steve Canfield," sang a lot more than he danced, and his singing was always "fair, at best." Charisse's character, "Ninotchka Yoschenko," mostly pouted throughout the film and spoke with a stupid accent, not exactly appealing. It also takes away from the film when you know someone else is singing, not her! To be fair, some of their work here together just makes you marvel at them. Perhaps another look - this time with a CinemaScope widescreen DVD picture, - would make me appreciate this movie more.This is a musical remake of the 1939 Greta Garbo film "Ninotochka." I don't think either is all that great but given the choice to watch either again, I'd take the Garbo film, even though it's always good to watch Astaire and Charisse stepping out, so to speak.