Another day, another obit, and this one really hurts: Cyd Charisse, dead at 86.
Maybe she didn't have as long a run as many great stars; her career was essentially over by the early sixties. And she didn't have many leading roles, and most of those were nothing to write home about--any big fans of Meet Me In Las Vegas? She wasn't a great actress, though she did fine work in Nicholas Ray's Party Girl and Vincente Minnelli's Two Weeks In Another Town.
What she had was Presence--she was a star by divine right. Oh, and she could dance. And she had those legs.
When well cast, as in Minnelli's The Band Wagon, she was matchless--funny, haughty, vulnerable, endearing. So watch that, and Silk Stockings, and It's Always Fair Weather, and you'll get the best of Charisse on film. But start with this, a relatively small part in the picture that made her a star. I've seen it countless times, and with every viewing, I become more firmly convinced it is indeed the greatest movie ever made. Here is Cyd Charisse owning Gene Kelly in Singin' In The Rain.
