Gene Kelly, Creative Genius
A personal celebration of his life and work
..I still like the pictures.."
This page features Gene's non-musical roles. Although, for me, Gene communicates best through the language of the dance, I think he was also a fine 'straight' actor, often not given the credit he deserves. He always gave of his best in whatever role he was playing, whether he thought it was a good movie or not. He made a few 'bad' movies, but never gave a bad performance.
TV & Movie Screen. August 1975
Though he loved his efforts on screen as a dancer, Kelly admits that he would have appreciated some praise for his acting ability too. “Oh, sure, I was nominated for an Academy Award in 1946, but that was for my dancing. I knew I wouldn’t win. I was proud to be nominated but Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend was too tough to beat. Besides, everyone knows that if you play either a drunk or a whore you can’t possibly miss winning an Oscar…
I would have loved to have been as good an actor as Spencer Tracy or Marlon Brando. I was a very good stage actor, but in films I never was quite as good, just passable…
You’re typecast when you are a dancer, but I managed to get in pictures like The Three Musketeers which made more money than any musical I ever was in, and then there was The Black Hand which made a fortune around the world.
Movie Teen. October 1947
He came to the movies as a dancing man, but proved himself a powerful dramatic actor too – and a nice guy… his amazing talents do not stop with his feet by any means. He’s played a heel, a heartbreaker and a ne’er-do-well, with exciting dramatic prowess…
Los Angeles Times. March 27th 1950
Gene Kelly’s emergence as a dramatic actor is hailed by the critics as they review Black Hand.
Los Angeles Times. October 9th 1949. Hedda Hopper.
“The years catch up with a prize-fighter and they will catch up with me. So I want to be able to handle straight dramatic roles. In The Knife, for instance, I don’t do a single dance.”
Photoplay Peter Hammond, October 1953
Kelly has been strongly criticised for making “straight” pictures. The cry has been that he should concentrate on one film formula – in his case the musical. For it is through them that he has made his name.
This is a short-sighted view. I believe that Gene is right in his policy of making only two in three of his films musicals. Even a man of his capabilities can’t continually turn out good musicals without some sort of a change.
“You can’t make dancing films one after the other,” says Gene. “Dancing is like boxing without getting hit – it puts years on you. Just look at me!”
Saturday Evening Post July 1950
The ripples sent out by Gene’s plop in the Hollywood pool began to lap back to Pittsburgh with the result that so far as his [parents] were concerned, their telephone became a constant source of botheration to them. When Gene played a Jewish taxi driver in …Cross Of Lorraine, confused people telephoned the Kellys to ask them which side of the family had given Gene his Jewish background. Eight years later this chuckleheaded manifestation of fan frenzy is still going on. In Gene’s latest picture, Black Hand, he plays a young Italian who helped mop up the Mafia in New York’s Little Italy. Since its appearance on the country’s screens, a number of folk have phoned the Pittsburgh Kellys to say, “I didn’t know that your family was Italian.”...
When it comes to using his body to supplement his face in portraying a character, Kelly’s background of dancing gives him an edge on most actors. His muscles, trained by thousands of dance hours to precise obedience, help him do things that other stars insist stunt men do for them.
…In one of the scenes in Black Hand, a bomb explosion wrecked a butcher-shop and buried Kelly in debris. When the smoke cleared, he freed himself from the wreckage and, although the villains had tied his hands behind his back, he wriggled across the room to a meat saw. Rubbing his wrists against the saw’s teeth, he cut the rope. The stunt demonstrated his ability. It also highlighted his sensitiveness to the belabouring the critics had given his performances in such pictures as The Pirate, The Three Musketeers, Take Me Out To The Ball Game. After seeing them, more than one reviewer had slugged him over the ego with such words as “mugging,” “overacting,” “posing.”
Kelly refuses to hold still for this kind of blackjacking. He defends his characterizations in those films by saying: “I was supposed to play a rowdy-dow extrovert in Ball Game, and everybody knows D’Artagnan wasn’t inhibited. The guy I played in The Pirate was supposed to be an acrobatic-tightrope-walker type, and you can’t play a tightrope walker by mousing along the ground.
When the butchershop scene was completed, Kelly noticed that his wriggling had placed him next to a large Italian ham. The close-up of his face when the saw severed his bonds hadn’t been a close-up of him at all. It had been a two-shot of Kelly and a ham. The flm’s director, Dick Thorpe, had noticed this coupling of Kelly and pork product before Gene was aware of it. But prior to reshooting the scene minus ham, he decided to have a little fun with his star. “That was fine,” he said, dead-pan; “we’ll print it.”
Gene’s reaction was immediate. “No, you don’t!”, he said. “I’m not going to give the critics an opening like that. They’ll write: ‘With the assistance of another ham, Gene Kelly made the explosion scene in Black Hand an outstanding one.”
Dallas 1980.
Gene: "I don’t watch my films too much, because when I do, I do a lot of wincing. And you find most actors as they mature have the same reaction. They look at themselves 20 years ago, and say, ‘Did I look like that?!’”
The reaction may be common to actors, yet Kelly appears to be rougher on himself than even his harshest critics. Some film commentators, including the respected critic Andrew Sarris, have complained Kelly’s talents as a straight actor have never been fully used. But Kelly dismissed the cavils.
“When I see myself often in a big close-up, I do one of those big winces. The reason is, I never paid enough attention to acting on the screen. When there was a Clark Gable or a Robert Taylor reject, I often stepped in and said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it’ if I wasn’t doing anything. I did honestly want to learn about screen acting.”
Christopher Walken TCM tribute to Gene Kelly
When playing a dramatic part Kelly brought the same integrity and professionalism as he did to his musical roles and had acting gifts that often surprised his critics.
Gene, Reflections TV interview 1994
I did a lot of straight parts for MGM but they were mostly Clark Gable or Robert Taylor rejects.
I never preferred acting. I’m not crazy about performing, even as a dancer. I like to create the stuff, I like to direct and choreograph, and performing, I never worked at it. I had to work at the dancing because you couldn’t fly through the air and come down and hit a mark unless you trained yourself very hard.
Michael Burrows. Gene Kelly. Versatility Personified 1971
Gene Kelly was among actors of major competence.
Picturegoer August 1953. Gene:
Every time I play a straight role, someone comes up with the news that this is Kelly’s first dramatic part. I’ve played many of them.
Hollywood Album 1950. Gene:
Screen close-ups awed me at first. Nothing in the whole field of drama offers greater psychological possibilities and effects.
Alice Canfield. Motion Picture. January 1945
There are many people who say that Gene is the logical successor to Fred Astaire, in itself a crown of recognition. But, for my money, exceptional as Gene’s dancing is, he could wrap it up and throw it away, for all I could care. Because I think Gene is one of the finest dramatic actors ever to hit Hollywood, and I only hope more roles worthy of his intelligent ability come his way.
Newsweek. March 1950
Even in high school in Pittsburgh, Kelly’s straight roles proved disastrous. His youthful interpretation of Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was rudely interrupted when his pants fell down in full view of the audience.
Kelly’s interest in serious roles is undoubtedly symptomatic of his fear of getting tagged as a specialist in any one line. “If you mix up your fields, it keeps you from getting conceited”, he says.
Interview Magazine 1994
He danced, and sang, choreographed, directed, and acted – giving underrated performances in Christmas Holiday, Marjorie Morningstar, and Inherit The Wind
Ludington Daily News. December 27th 1972
“Actors take roles in movies for funny reasons,” Gene Kelly mused the other day at the Burbank studios. “I remember I was vacationing in the Greek Islands with my daughter when a telephone call came from Hollywood asking me if I’d play a straight dramatic role in Inherit The Wind. It wasn’t the biggest part in the picture but it was an opportunity to work with Spencer Tracy for the first time in my life. Naturally I got back to Hollywood as soon as I could.
“I’m at an age now when I’m willing to work only when something unusual comes along.”
PILOT #5, 1943
Michael Burrows Gene Kelly. Versatility Personified. 1971
In this anti-fascist war drama the cynicism that was to characterise so many of his portrayals was seen to very good effect.
Evening Independent. August 11th 1942
For a week, Franchot Tone, Gene Kelly, Alan Baxter, Van Johnson and Dick Simmons did womanless scenes for Skyway To Glory at MGM. They let their beards grow, went without ties or even shirts. They ran the gamut of practical jokes upon each other between scenes.
Recently, eight glamour girls, headed by Marsha Hunt, began work on the film. Ties and coats blossomed like magic. An unshaved face was looked on as a disgrace. And woe betide the practical joker who attempted to spoil and actor’s dignity.
As Franchot Tone paraphrased: “Vanity, thy name is man when watched by a woman.”
CROSS OF LORRAINE 1943 
The Times April 1944
Gene Kelly acts very well as a fighting taxi driver whose spirit for a time is broken by nicely calculated ill treatment.
Chicago Tribune. March 30th 1974
An exceptionally piercing anti-Nazi film.
Jeanine Basinger 1973
In the prison torture scenes in particular Kelly’s close ups revealed his brooding intensity and he conveyed realistic internal suffering by the subtlest of changes in his face.
Screenland magazine 1947
Gene thinks one of the best things he has done in Hollywood is a picture in which there was no dancing. It was a serious film entitled Cross Of Lorraine, which dealt with France at the time of the occupation. “About three people saw it”, he said jokingly, “but I really liked working in that film”.
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY 1944
Screen Guide May 1944
Like Ginger Rogers and many other young stars who have danced their way to the top, then turned dramatic, Gene is bursting with ambition to do this intensely emotional role to show that he is Actor first, Dancer second. Since his first hit in Pal Joey, Gene Kelly has been hopping through a series of roles all semi-dramatic, semi-dancing. But in Christmas Holiday it’s to be pure, unadulterated drama.
Kelly was the Jekyll and Hyde of musical comedy, a hoofer who could also play a murderer and be believed.
Tap Happy. Motion Picture 1950
His straight acting as a sinister weakling was amazingly good.
Evening Independent. July 20th 1944
Gene Kelly, who has the leading male role, plays naturally and with sincerity.
John Cutts. Films & Filming 1964
Kelly played his part well, bringing an edge of sullen charm to the characterisation.
In the unfairly neglected Christmas Holiday, Kelly plays a murderer. He’s pitch-perfect, offering a multi-layered performance.
Keeping UpWith Kelly. Photoplay magazine 1945
More than anything else Gene would like to gain still more recognition as an actor and get more dramatic roles such as he
had in…Christmas Holiday. That is, the last part of Christmas Holiday. Being very self-critical, Gene can’t see himself in light love scenes, although Betsy thought his love scenes with Deanna Durbin were swell. “He thinks he was too coy” teases Betsy, “but I thought he was really cute in them.” Gene winces. “That’s what I mean,” he says, “I can’t do that light love stuff without looking – cute!”
THE THREE MUSKETEERS 1948
Michael Burrows 1971
Two months before production started he went into training; consequently, instead of creating a romantic costume melodrama, he managed to inject his part with all the athleticism, all the verve and dynamism that was possible.
Toledo Blade. January 21st 1948
Sights and sounds on the Hollywood beat…Gene Kelly and Van Heflin rehearsing their fencing for Three Musketeers – without costumes or toupees.
Toledo Blade. January 28th 1948
It may be quite a long time before Gene Kelly dances again. The leg he broke last year is still so weak that fight and duelling sequences in Three Musketeers have been pushed back until the last days of the picture – at least three months from now, to give it more time for mending. Doctors fear it will never be the same.
Prescott Evening Courier. October 27th 1948
Gene Kelly plays his D’Artagnan role with tongue in cheek and a rumble wiggle in his fencing. He’s as agile and gay at times as Douglas Fairbanks Sr. when he played the role in 1921 on the silent screen.
Columbia Tribune 1998
On Martin Campbell directing The Mask Of Zorro:
Campbell consulted the 1948 version of The Three Musketeers starring Gene Kelly, to perfect the sword fighting scenes.
Liberty magazine. September 1948
When Gene Kelly says, “The thing I like to do most is work,” he’s not kidding. For six weeks before he began work on The Three Musketeers, he went into training with the zeal of a prizefighter. The day began with an hour on the bridle path. Gene has known how to ride for years, but as D’Artagnan he has to take difficult jumps. Next came a two-hour session with Jean Heremans, five times national fencing champion of Belgium. Then came hours of acrobatic work in the studio gym so that he’d be in trim to scale walls, climb revolving mill-wheels, and leap from trees and balconies. He refuses to use a double. “I think up a lot of those stunts,” he says, “and I feel responsible.”
Interview on the set of TheThree Musketeers 1948
Gene has always wanted to be Douglas Fairbanks….Today he is playing D’artagnan, the role made famous by DF. “And if I’m half as good as he was, I’ll be satisfied”, says Gene. It’s a pretty
wonderful thing to hero worship a star and grow up to play the same role. And it gives you a warm, it can happen here, feeling in your heart. There are a lot of things about GK that give you a warm feeling in your heart.
Tony Thomas The Films Of Gene Kelly 1974
Three Musketeers is Gene Kelly’s picture, and without his dashing D’Artagnan it would be much poorer…no other actor had ever come this close to matching the performances of Fairbanks Sr. at his swashbuckling best.
Gene, Reflections TV interview 1994
In Three Musketeers I did practically every one of my stunts, but I never rode the horses. I’m a bad rider. The horses threw a lot of the riders. I was chicken to get on a horse, so I used a double.
Liberty magazine. September 1948
“The prettiest pair of actor’s legs in Hollywood belong to Gene Kelly”, says director George Sidney. “Spindle-shanks are what most other actors use for circumambulation.”
American Film 1979. Gene:
A lot of stunts I wouldn’t touch. I wouldn’t ride a horse: I just wouldn’t do it. There would be dialogue scenes in which of
course I had to ride, so I would go to the wrangler and say, “Look, I can’t ride a horse very well. I’m a city boy. I worked on a farm, but it was with plow horses. Can you get me a horse that will make me look good?” He’d say, “Shore.” I’d get a horse that bounced well.
You see, the horse is the dumbest animal in the world., and you don’t know what he’s going to do. He can be standing still, and a fly will go by, and he’ll go “ble-eh-le-eh,” and you’ll be on your derriere, and the horse may be on his too, on top of you.
Hollywood Album 1950. Gene:
Every time I think about The Three Musketeers I want to groan…ouch! I feel sore and stiff at just the thought of it. Never become a film actor if you are allergic to work. D’Artagnan was quite a guy, but I wish he had taken things more calmly. I had to go into training for that picture just like a prize fighter before a fight. …We studied two hours a day 
with Jean Heremans, the national fencing champion of Belgium, to learn how to fence. What a genius he was. When he had finished with us we, who were greenhorns, were able to fight with one hand tied behind. . It was gruelling work. The payoff was when we went to school to learn how to eat – with our fingers! Oh, yes, it’s an art. Lana Turner, June Allyson, Angela Lansbury and the other fine ladies were all grateful they did not have to make ‘eating’ scenes.
Gene Kelly, the Dancing Cavalier. Hollywood Then And Now. August 1991
Gene turned to one of the most famous roles of his boyhood idol Douglas Fairbanks – that of D’Artagnan. He proved himself a most able successor…Gene seems to dance his way through the film, adding his own personal excitement to the swordplay. His skill with the steel is remarkable. Look closely and you notice there are few possibilities for doubling; Gene rarely has his back to the camera.
Films In Review. 1983. George Sidney.
Gene had his swordfights choreographed to the beat of a metronome. We shot on the backlot and in Griffith Park, and the overall mood was one of having fun.
Evening Independent. May1st 1948
Two budding film feuds which promised to enliven the Hollywood scene, have died a-borning. The first was between Gene Kelly and Van Heflin who heckled each other through The Three Musketeers. To their disappointment no one would take their verbal tussles seriously.
THE BLACK HAND 1950
Tony Thomas The Films Of Gene Kelly 1974
Gene Kelly pleased his public and surprised a few critics with the intensity of his tough ambitious Columbo. Kelly, a black Celt, thereafter had some problem persuading people he was not really an Italian. 
Gene, Reflections TV interview 1994
I thought we did a good programme picture in Black Hand. It was made in two weeks and it made a fortune all over the world.
John Cutts. Films & Filming 1964
His performance in this…remains about his most able straight piece of acting yet.
Magazine clipping 1950
Let no one say that Gene Kelly lacks versatility. In his thirty eight crowded years he has been bricklayer, concrete mixer, drugstore attendant, dance-instructor…and film star.
As film star, most of us know him by his dancing. Yet here, in The Black Hand, he pops up as a straight dramatic actor of considerable talent…worth paying good money to see.
Newsweek. March 1950
Until the advent of Black Hand, few of the dark, Italian-looking Irishman’s admirers gave him much serious thought as an actor who could command attention without dancing…In Black Hand Kelly, as graceful when throwing a knife as when hoofing, combines for the first time the catlike agility that has served him so well in such musicals as On The Town, with a dramatic restraint and facial vocabulary that exceed the requirements of either dancer or comedian.
LOVE IS BETTER THAN EVER. 1951
Gene did this as a favour to Stanley Donen, who was directing. It was a walk-on part, just a few seconds, playing himself being introduced to a starstruck Elizabeth Taylor.
Deseret News. January 30th 1951
Gene Kelly is doing double duty in Love Is Better Than Ever, in which he is co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor and Larry Parks. Besides acting he is serving as technical advisor for dancing school sequences…
IT'S A BIG COUNTRY 1952 
THE DEVIL MAKES THREE 1952 
Time Magazine September 1952
Gene Kelly without his dancing shoes, turns out to be a relaxed, likeable actor.
Pier Angeli
He’s wonderful. When I did any scenes with him for the first time I was scared. But he would wink at me with the eye away from the camera. Several times he even stopped everything so that my face, not his, got the better camera angle. He’s the most considerate man I ever met.
Magazine article 1953
Between scenes it was a common thing to see GIs practising dance steps Gene had shown them. Their loyalty to him was not to a star…but to a regular guy.
Jeanne Sakol. Magazine article 1953
The crew on the picture had respect for Gene because often he insisted on re-shooting a scene a dozen times, even two dozen times, to overcome a technical fault.
Travelling Man magazine article 1952
Gene…brought to Europe a spirit of friendliness and camaraderie that surrounded his sets…Gene making a game of his limited knowledge of German, developed an original version of ‘Kellified German.’
New York Times March 15th 1952
Both Gene Kelly and Pier Angeli have been stricken by the ‘flu, causing a halt in the filming of Devil Makes Three.
Sydney Morning Herald. March 30th 1952
Demolition of the Berghof in the Bavarian Alps, has been delayed for a week to enable Gene Kelly to round up a new Nazi party.
All for a film of course.
The only trouble is the snow. We are not prepared for it, and Spring clothes are little use in snowdrifts 5ft deep.
The Army is ready to get us out if we are snowed in, and Pier Angeli huddles in a hut below the old S.S. barracks, waiting for Kelly to finish off the Nazis.
The only protection is a sunshade for the camera. Plus an electric blanket – also for the camera.
Says Gene Kelly: “After all, there is only one camera. You can always replace actors…”
…Everyone from the American State Department to the German government has approved the script. (The love story no one has to authorise.)
A conference is called to discuss the snow. It can be written into the story without difficulty, but there are matching shots to be taken just over the border in Salzburg – and there the snow is disappearing fast.
Sergei Petschnikoff, who fixes details like this, is called in, and he arranges to manufacture a cartload of artificial snow and take it into Austria…
Pier Angeli…is ready for a scene with Gene Kelly. She has done an hour’s practise on a trapeze – a performance she goes through every day to shake off the worries of her emotional part. Now (for the film) she has to cry…
In front of the camera she moves in for a close-up. But her tears fall down her face in different lines from the pattern made in the previous day’s shooting. So the real tears are dried and glycerine ones put on, and everything runs according to plan.
When the shot is over, little Anna Maria is still crying It takes minutes for her to calm down…
In the film Gene Kelly has to call her skinny. Off-set she says; “I’m not. I have little bones but much meat….
At night we come down from the mountain and defrost. Kelly sits down to dinner and considers his weight. He has put on 12 lb through not dancing. “I’ll get in trim again as soon as I start practising. Dancing is like boxing. Only you don’t get hit.”
CREST OF THE WAVE 1954
Ray Boulting, Director
He’s probably the most accomplished player I’ve worked with. He’s absolutely sure of what he’s doing.
And it isn’t just the Hollywood slickness. He is a man of profound intelligence who is terribly well grounded in all the fundamentals. Also, and this is very important, he loves to work.
Hirschorn 1974: The experience was not unpleasant, but whatever enjoyment he had during the shoot, came from his fellow actors whom he liked and admired.
MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR 1955 
Mishel Green, ‘Apology To Gene Kelly’ Photoplayer 1957
Day of our interview. Gene Kelly was up to his elbows in lovemaking…the scene was a difficult one and director Irving Rapper made Natalie and Gene do it over and over again. All three of them were getting more and more nervous...
Toledo Blade. April 12th 1958
Gene…is somewhat apprehensive of public acceptance of his Noel Airman role… “It’s hard to play a fellow of charm who falls apart. I don’t know whether people will dig me as Noel Airman. Don't get me wrong. I'm not kicking - they paid me," said Gene, who was paid $250,000 for the assignment.
Time Magazine 1955
Even with its too-glib identification of mental maturity with success and conformity, the movie is as good as the novel. Gene Kelly sings and dances too well to be a convincing second-rater, but he gives an agile performance as the camp’s entertainment director.
Milwaukee Sentinel. April 13th 1958. Gene Kelly seems to live his role of the rake-with-limitations. Gene, on Natalie Wood
“She’s a wonder. Natalie is a real talent. I think she’ll be a real sensation in this film. I could talk about her indefinitely." 
Screen Stories April 1958
During the three-week location at Scaroon Lake in Upper New York, the Morningstar company stayed at the Scaroon Manor, a lovely but rather regimented resort spot. A place at table was assigned to each person and he was expected to eat every meal at the same place….When Gene Kelly’s birthday rolled around, the movie group celebrated at lunch with champagne. Carolyn Jones, who hates regimentation, popped from table to table. Gene said to her, “I notice you move around from table to table. Why?” When Carolyn explained, Gene suggested that that evening they all move around. When dinnertime came, Gene slipped into a chair next to a sweet elderly lady. He started the conversation with: “Pardon me, but have you seen any of those movie stars around?” The lady, immediately interested, replied, “No, I’ve not, have you?”…There was a ping-pong table on the upper level of the open-air theatre near the hotel. Natalie Wood, Bob Wagner, Jack Baker, Carolyn and Gene had seen most of the movies shown in the theatre, so they started a ping-pong tournament. At first, theatre patrons complained about the noise made by the plunk plunk of the balls. When they heard who the players were, many in the audience came to watch the ping-pong games in lieu of the movies…Hotel guests were recruited as extras for the picture.
Los Angeles Times October 9th 1957
Gene Kelly is bedded down with ‘flu and out of Marjorie Morningstar for a few days. Director Irving Rapper is shooting around Kelly.
New York Times October 9th 1957
Gene Kelly is temporarily out of Marjorie Morningstar as a ‘flu casualty. Last week the actor injured his leg and was hobbling around the set…
THE HAPPY ROAD 1957
Toledo Blade. April 12th 1958
The Happy Road has won many awards and I had my first editorial from it in the Christian Science Monitor. They loved the picture in England and France, and I was very pleased when the critics compared it to those wonderful early pictures of Rene Clair. I also think it will make money.
Gene, Film Show Annual 1959
I particularly enjoyed the making of The Happy Road. I liked being on location in the French countryside and meeting the people
.
From a letter to Maurice Chevalier from Gene’s production company, Kerry Productions Inc., dated November 1956. Concerning his recording of the title song for the film.
…We agree to pay you the sum of $1 and we acknowledge that you are rendering your services primarily by reason of your friendship for Mr Kelly rather than for financial gain…
Michael Singer. A Cut Above. 50 film directors talk about their craft. 1998
Gene: The whole idea of making The Happy Road was that television had just come in and everybody was worried. They were saying they couldn’t make huge pictures any more, and it was true. …So my determination was to show everyone in the business that I could do a nice, small-budget picture in Europe. And we did….The year we made The Happy Road was a very tough one for me – I was going through a divorce and my father had died – and without Noël Howard’s help I don’t think that picture would have any quality. It’s a sweet little picture.
Picturegoer 1957
Throughout the film and especially in his handling of the children you get the warmth, the genuineness, the humor of Kelly himself.
INHERIT THE WIND 1960
Gene, Michael Burrows. Gene Kelly, Versatility Personified 1971
I enjoyed doing it because it had something to say, but in all truth the real reason I accepted the part was because I wanted the great experience of acting with Frederic March and Spencer Tracy. 
Gene, Reflections TV interview 1994
After all these years, these two great friends of mine (Spencer Tracy & Frederic March) ..I had never worked with them. It was a very high class picture – for that reason, not too big a hit – but that was I think the great climax to my career, doing a straight part with these two guys.
Stanley Kramer director/producer
I’ve always thought Gene Kelly was a wonderfully sensitive actor. He had a sharp satirical quality in Pal Joey on the stage and he seemed a natural choice for a character based on Mencken in Inherit The Wind.
Gene, Films Illustrated 1974
I was on holiday in Greece when I was asked to play in Inherit The Wind for Sidney Kramer. When I learned that Spencer Tracy and Frederic March were in it I didn’t even call my agent. I just scooped up my family and flew back there and then.
FORTY CARATS 1973
Toledo Blade. February 17th 1973
"When Mike called me about the part I hesitated – didn’t know whether I wanted to do it or not. I asked whom I would be playing opposite. He said, ‘Liv Ullman and Binnie Barnes.’ That did it. I think Liv is one of the great young actresses of our time and to make a joint comeback with Binnie would be great. ‘You’ve got me!’ I told Mike and I haven’t regretted a minute of the filming. I can almost sense when a picture is going to go well. This one, with those wonderful women and young Edward Albert, has been a great experience from start to finish.”…
As an actor who prefers directing, did it bother him to work under the guidance of Milton Katselas who is guiding Forty Carats to the screen? “No way! No way! My God, it was nice to have someone else shouldering the responsibility. Now and then I thought to myself, ‘How would I handle this scene if I were directing?’ I was pleased when he did it ‘my way’ – and retained a lot of respect for Katselas when it wasn’t.”
Deseret News. July 25th 1972
Gene Kelly, long missed, is coming back to the screen as an actor. He’s going to star with Liv Ullman in Forty Carats…He got the part by attending a screening of Butterflies Are Free at producer Mike Frankovich’s home. Director Milton Katselas and writer Leonard Gersh were there and thought Gene right for the role. Mike gave Gene a script to take home…
Variety Magazine.
He projects superbly the intricacies of a showbiz character, an aging gypsy so to speak, whose head and heart are together though his career is erratic. It’s made to order for his mature abilities in both comedy and drama.
Source unknown, possibly Photoplay late 1973.
Article by Barbra Paskin. Living The Life Of Kelly
I asked him whether he had encountered any problems while making the film. [Forty Carats]. It had, after all, been over five years since he made his last picture, The Young Girls of Rochefort.
“It wasn’t difficult because I had a marvellous director, a fine young man named Milton Katselas. He’s a fine director – bright, intelligent, young and energetic. After we’d been shooting a while he asked me how it felt to be back after so long and I said ‘Great – just keep on telling me what to do!’. But it was a very happy picture to make. It was such a pleasure playing with Liv Ullman, she’s a marvellous girl and a marvellous actress. I sound like a fan magazine but she really is a dear…I enjoyed being directed. It was a piece of cake. When you’re the director you have to see the whole thing; whereas when you’re acting it’s just yourself and the person with whom you’re playing the scene that you have to worry about.”
Ludington Daily News. December 27th 1972
“I’m at an age now when I’m willing to work only when something unusual comes along.” Kelly welcomes the chance to work with Binnie Barnes. They both donned dancing shoes for a wild session of acid rock hoofing. Afterwards the nimble Irishman wasn’t the slightest bit winded. “This kind of dance isn’t serious,” he said. “The director can cut in and out of the footage and get what he wants.” Forty Carats is Kelly’s first picture in eight years.
VIVA KNIEVEL! 1977
Magazine clipping 1976. Source unknown
My Kids Talked Me Into the Knievel Movie.
The youngsters [Tim and Bridget] are responsible for Kelly’s return to movies in a co-starring role with motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel in Viva Knievel!
“I turned down th epart when my agent called to ask if I was interested,” said Kelly. “I’d planned to go to Europe for another movie. I told him to ask for a huge Steve McQueen-type salary to discourage the Knievel! producers. But then my kids heard about it.
“Tim has his own trail motorcycle and he pleaded with me to make the picture. He said Knievel is a folk hero. Baseball player Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh were my heroes, but I soon learned that Knievel is the man of the hour these days.
“Bridget gasped when I told her I had refused the part. So I changed my attitude. I sent for the script and liked it.”
…”I play a mechanic pal of Knievel in the film,” said Kelly. “It’s my first real character role. I’m like a child star with a gap in his career between adolescent and adult roles. I don’t look old enough to play characters my own age. And I’m too old to get the young girl in a movie.
“This Knievel picture is a lark,” he said. “I don’t dance, I don’t shave, I don’t wear make-up. And I don’t get the girl. I’m having so much fun that I can hardly wait to go to work in the morning.”
Pittsburgh Post Gazette. January 19th 1977
Evel is not at all humble…A guy like Gene Kelly comes to work quietly – knowing his lines.
Evening Independent. June 4th 1977
Kelly actually is the best thing in the film, sensitively portraying a washed-up former cycle-jumper who finally puts his boy ahead of the bottle
