I've mentioned on quite a few occasions how I generally find the B-movie/programmers that MGM made in the 1950s to be a lot more interesting than the Freed Unit musicals, although I think I'd extend that to more of the lush color productions that MGM was making even if they weren't musicals. Recently, I watched Gaby, and couldn't help having those thoughts about the difference in quality between the top tier and the little movies.
Unfortunately, the print that TCM ran had the opening credits both letterboxed and pillarboxed, which was a warning sign that at some point, the print would move to being panned and scanned, which would certainly give Sydney Pollack the heebie-jeebies up in heaven. Sure enough, once the credits end the print zooms in by becoming just pillarboxed. Another title informs us it's London, 1944, which of course means World War II, and in this case still before D-Day. Gregory Wendell (John Kerr) is in London with a couple of his army buddies, so they go in to the London equivalent of the USO asking questions about where they can find girls. Not that they're going to get to spend time along with young women which is what they really want, but at least they can have a dance.
On his way to the dance hall with his buddies, Gregory accidentally runs into Gaby (Leslie Caron), a ballet dancer who escaped the Nazi invasion of France and lives with her fellow dancer Elsa (Taina Elg). In the collision, Gaby drops a bunch of coins that are part of her meager budget. When Gregory helps pick them up, Gaby accidentally winds up with some of Gregory's US quarters, which is a substantial extra bit of money that she can't take. Gregory was immediately taken by Gaby's looks, so he decided to spend the evening by himself, going to the ballet just to watch Gaby. She sees him so invites him backstage to give him back his money. They spend the evening together, at the end of which Gregory proposes marriage.
However, there are all sorts of sensible obstacles to delay such a marriage. Gregory has to prove he's not married, is supposed to get references from his family, and needs his commanding officer's approval as well. All of this is going to take time, although at least Gregory as an aunt and uncle (Cedric Hardwicke and Margalo Gillmore) living in London who are both extremely nice to Gaby when they meet her. But before the young couple can get the necessary approvals, June 6 comes, with Gregory among the many Americans taking part in the D-Day invasion.
Gaby visits Gregory's aunt, only to discover that the aunt is the bearer of bad news that Gregory was killed in action in Normandy. It's going to turn out this was a mistake in that Gregory was wounded and had to hide with a French family who gave up his dog tags so that the Nazis if they found Gregory would find him without any American identification. But the same evening Gaby learns of Gregory's "death", she finds a Free Polish airman who is shaking at the French version of the USO. So she helps him in a way that clearly implies the two have sex.
But Gaby is even more of a Code-affected movie than the 1940 version of Waterloo Bridge, so it's even more circumspect about Gaby's alleged transition to prostitution. Frankly, this is a huge mistake on the part of the movie, as it makes Gaby's guilt seem non-sensical. Not only that, but Gregory's reaction when Gaby reveals the truth to him is laughable as well, as is the abrupt happy ending that follows. Jeanne Eagles in The Letter this isn't. But then MGM couldn't have Leslie Caron be the bad girl, could they?
I have a feeling that Gaby would at least look better in the full Cinemascope aspect ratio. Leslie Caron is still beautiful here. But the story is just too watered down to be a true classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment