Can-Can

Sinatra, MacLaine, Can-Can, Cole PorterWatched the 1960 musical Can-Can last night. Such great Cole Porter songs, and two terrific dance numbers choreographed by Hermes Pan that were awfully modern for “1896,” even in Paris. And, of course, not to mention lots of can-can dancing, followed by police-whistle blowing, followed by general mayhem. This is not a movie you watch for plot. Frank Sinatra, Maurice Chavalier, Shirley MacLaine, Louis Jourdan, Juliet Prowse—all up to snuff, and then some.

The DVD began with the overture playing and a black screen, and just as I was convinced the thing was defective, the 20th Century Fox logo popped up. There’s also a black screen intermission and postlude. Throw up a slide, people!

Charming credits with Toulouse-Lautrec –inspired drawings, so I cannot explain why the poster is so awful! Songs: “I Love Paris,” “You Do Something to Me,” “It’s All Right with Me,” “Just One of Those Things,” “C’est Magnifique.” (Not all of these were in the original Broadway production.) Sigh.

And, amazingly, when Nikita Khrushchev visited Hollywood after pounding his shoe on the table at the United Nations, this is the movie they took him to see!