Less Ooo-La-La than Oh! No! No! . Just how 20th Century-Fox allowed the hit Broadway musical to transfer to the screen as an unmitigated bore is a tragedy. It had everything going for it - an all-star cast, fantastic Cole Porter songs, including C'est Magnifique, Let's Do It and It's All Right With Me, and Frank Sinatra's singing - but sank beneath ponderous direction, dull performances and a tiresome screenplay. Even some of the dancing struck a wrong note, making you wonder just why the can-can proved so scandalous. Shirley MacLaine's brassy central performance, as the café owner facing prosecution for allowing the dance to be staged illegally, is one-dimensional, while Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan can do no more than walk through their parts, with little of the charm they brought to the earlier Gigi. In fact, they're all outscored by lissome Juliet Prowse as Claudine, 'the snake', whose dancing is stamped with class.
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