Daddy Long Legs (1955)

I remember seeing "Daddy Long Legs" way more years ago that I want to admit. I remember liking it very much. I sort of wish that I had kept it as a fond memory.It's not that I hated the film. I was disappointed in it. The 56 year old Astaire and the 24 year old Leslie Caron, though dancing well together, were just a tad creepy. These forced April-December romances ... kind of ugh ! A BIG plot hole for me that I could not get around was that Daddy insisted that Julie write him a weekly letter and then for three years never read a single one of them ? What the heck was that ? The supporting cast of Fred Clark, Thelma Ritter and Larry Keaton carried the show for me. All interesting characters.I never fast forward a Fred Astaire film until now. The dance sequences were too long and not engaging... for me. Judging from other reviews, I am in the minority here.It might be worth a re-watch but maybe better to keep the memories unless you know you absolutely loved it.BTW, Thanks to the IMDb pages I now know that the story was originally a novel and that it was filmed previously in 1919 (Mary Pickford), 1931 (Janet Gaynor) and (1935) Shirley Temple's "Curly Top". One of Astaire's songs ( the Texas one) was actually sung by Tony The Tiger ! Thanks for the info IMDb. The trivia section rules once more.

In Feb. 2013 TCM showed an excellent transfer of the film, full Cinemascope aspect ratio, relatively sharp image, better color than what I remember from viewings years ago. The full vibrant color in the dream dance sequences especially added to my enjoyment of the film; really noticed the wonderful set design/artwork. The color schemes in Caron's dream ballet seemed to predict those common in the psychedelic 1960's.A couple of people here say Fred Astaire's wife died during filming; I'm fairly sure that is incorrect. She died in 1953, I believe, while he was filming The Bandwagon at MGM. I remember reading that Arthur Freed walked with the grieving Astaire to calm him down when he got the news. Also it's doubtful that DLL would have been filmed in 1953 and release held up til 1955. And the reason Astaire was not in White Christmas (he was to have had the part played by Danny Kaye), filmed and released in 1954, was because he was still grieving from his wife's death in 1953.I'm sure some will disagree, but I carefully watched Caron dancing with Astaire, and saw that she was one of his weaker partners. Ballroom and tap were not her usual style and she lacks the facility and panash of Rogers, Charisse, Hayworth. I've never been impressed with Caron's dancing anyway, but she was a very talented actress, both comic and dramatic, and was always charming on screen. And Astaire is so good in their partner dances that you have to really pay attention to see she is not anywhere near his caliber in that sort of dancing.

'Daddy Long-Legs', previously filmed silent with Mary Pickford and once more in the 1930s, gets the musical treatment here as the story of the millionaire and the orphan he sponsors gets a Technicolor, Cinemascope, Johnny Mercer update.Fred Astaire, at 55, is a little old for his role as stick-in-the-mud business whizz Jervis Pendleton, but hey, this is Hollywood. And his interest in, and subsequent wooing of, the French girl Julie Andre (played with charm and wit by Leslie Caron) is helped a lot by the fact that the two stars do not actually share screen time until nearly halfway through the film! With scintillating choreography for both Astaire and Caron, those wonderful songs, and support from Fred Clark, Thelma Ritter, and Terry Moore, 'Daddy Long Legs' is an excellent musical just balancing on the cusp of classic musical vs rock n roll.

I tried playing the drums once. I poked an eye out. Lucky for me it wasn't my own eye. Still, that catastrophic experience told me that I should leave the drumkit to the pros. Neil Peart, John Bonham, and Fred Astaire. Yes. Fred Astaire.Drum fans, you have GOT to check out the opening number where Fred sings and dances while playing the drums (and he's really playing, too). It's one of those overlooked gems like his golf routine in "Carefree" (1938) where he does a little tap whilst driving a few 300-yarders. Innovative dance routines like these are what made Fred Astaire so great and what make his movies so entertaining.I'm not really a Fred Astaire Fan; in fact, "Daddy Long Legs" and "Carefree" are the only two films of his that I've seen. But if they're any indication, I'm going to start hunting for more. I watched "Daddy Long Legs" mainly because I really enjoyed the 2005 Korean remake "Kidari ajeossi" (which is not a musical). Now that I've seen the original, I appreciate both films.My only gripe with this film is that it didn't seem to get personal enough. We rarely get any closeups of the stars, which is a crime considering how stunningly beautiful the leading lady Leslie Caron is. But if it's any consolation, she does a lot of twirls, and each time she does it, we see her dress fly up. Yeah babay! Spin! SPIN!! Oh sorry, I got carried away there. Well, now that I've talked about drums, Korean flicks and spinners, maybe I should talk about the actual film. Naah.