MOVIES

Cyd Charisse's glorious feeling

'Singin' in the Rain' co-star recalls her last-minute chance to dance with Gene Kelly

By Chris Garcia
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FILM WRITER
Previously published on Friday, September 27, 2002

In the musical cavalcade "Ziegfeld Follies," Cyd Charisse is at her most imperturbably lithe dancing through a sea of soap.

Smothered in bubbles, the set looks like the victim of an overflowing washing machine in a '70s sitcom. Foam mountains teeter in the Technicolor horizon. And there, pirouetting through the suds, is a bubble-wrapped Charisse. She can dance around anything.

Six years later, in 1952, Charisse would be dancing in the rain. Or almost. The rain stomp in "Singin' in the Rain" was reserved for star and co-director Gene Kelly. But the Texas-born Charisse would join Kelly in the "Shady Lady" number, where she's dolled up as a gangster's moll, slinky and smoking.

"Singin' in the Rain" was Charisse's 15th film and easily her most popular. (Another Arthur Freed production at MGM, "Band Wagon" with Fred Astaire, is a close second.) A new two-disc DVD marks the musical's 50th anniversary and comes stuffed with special features, including audio commentary by Charisse and others.

Charisse was one of the great female dancers on screen — balletic and statuesque, more cheetah than hoofer. Trained in ballet, she got into movies in 1943 with the name Lily Norwood. She went through a litany of stage and screen names, finally settling on Cyd Charisse at Freed's suggestion. (Her brother had always called her Syd, a play on "sis," and she was married to her ballet teacher Nico Charisse.)

Born Tula Finklea in Amarillo, Charisse was honored in Austin alongside Terrence Malick at the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards last spring on her 79th birthday.

"Once a Texan always a Texan," she says.

She spoke to us from her Los Angeles home.

AA-S: How did "Singin' in the Rain" come about for you?

Cyd Charisse: I had no idea I was going to be in the film at all. I thought they were about finished with it. Around the lot word got around that this was going to be a great picture. But I wasn't involved until one day Arthur Freed walks by and says, "How would you like to do the big ballet number?" Well, I was completely shocked because his assistant was supposed to be doing it. Oh, my goodness, my teeth fell out. I'd never worked with Gene Kelly, so it was a big thrill. It was hard work, and the wonderful ideas he gets. But it certainly paid off. That was the film that really put me in front of the public. It helped my whole career.

You've danced with the best, Kelly and Astaire. Who's better?

Well, you can't compare them. They're completely different styles and personalities. Gene was always the man on the street, and of course Fred was a very elegant, wonderful man. When Gene dances he's very low on the ground and very strong and very macho. Fred is always up and smiling and twirling. Their looks and their bodies are different. You have to adapt your style to theirs so it all works together. But thank God I never had a problem with that. I just was so lucky to come along and get the two best. How lucky can you get?

Do you have any anecdotes from making "Singin' in the Rain"?

There's the scene when I'm smoking a cigarette and Gene slides over. Well, I didn't know how to smoke a cigarette. Stanley and Gene told me to stop, and Stanley came over and started teaching me how to smoke that long cigarette. It's not easy if you're not a smoker. It's hard to learn how to get all that stuff out of your nose. I don't know how long we spent, but I finally got it, and Stanley said, "Print! Print! Print!" My God, we spent two hours fooling around with that smoking.

Why do you think the movie has endured so well?

I can't explain it exactly. It appeals to everybody. It has all the charm of that era but does it so tongue-in-cheek and so fun. It just turned out to be one of those very special pictures.

What do you think of the state, or nonstate, of movie musicals today?

They're just not being made. They've lost the know-how of making musicals the way we used to. At MGM, everybody was under contract — the actors, writers, directors, set builders — therefore they had a certain way of putting a musical together. Even the people who worked in the rafters were trained. For a period of time they made so many musicals they knew how to do it, from story line to music. We don't have that anymore. We have no one who is capable of making those kinds of films. "Moulin Rouge" was very close. It was a wonderful try, but it still wasn't the kind of musical we're talking about. I think ("Rouge" director) Baz Luhrmann is a brilliant young man. If anybody could do a good musical, it would be somebody like that.