Can-Can (1960)

Can-Can (1960), directed by Walter Lang.

A mild Cole Porter musical, a bit long at 2h21m with overture and intermission. Rich and colorful, with some elaborate dance numbers including a wild Apache dance segment. Sporadic witty dialogue. Not very high energy apart from the high-kicking dances.

It's a love triangle: Shirley MacLaine owns and dances in a nightclub. She's looking for a man who can close her window. Frank Sinatra is her lawyer, defending her against charges of lewd and lascivious displays. Louis Jourdan, possibly the most debonair man on the planet, is a upright judge who wants to shut her down, then has second thoughts. The characters know they are in a musical, which I always find metaphysically disorienting.

Maurice Chevalier does that talking/singing thing. Sinatra and MacLaine do not attempt French accents. Introducing Juliet Prowse; I did not know she was South African, born in India.

I've never known how to take Shirley MacLaine. She can dance, but as for acting: I'm not sure. (Later: see The Children's Hour (1961), made just the next year).

Nelson Riddle orchestration.

This was a big film at the time with box office second only to Ben Hur (1959) that year.

From from the 10-disc "Frank Sinatra Film Collection." The overture is just a black screen with music; I thought my DVD player was broken. The video fluctuates in brightness throughout, most noticeable in the backgrounds. The aspect ratio is 2.20:1.