Oscar Profile #198: Vincente Minnelli

Born February 28, 1903 in Chicago Illinois to musical director Vincent Minnelli and his wife, Lester Anthony Minnelli developed his craft as a costume designer and set decorator. Changing his first name to Vincente, a Latinized version of his father’s name, Minnelli made his Brodway debut as costume designer for 1930’s Earl Carroll’s Vanities on Broadway. He became art director of Radio City Music Hall shortly after its 1932 opening. His first show as director on Broadway was 1935’s At Home Abroad. His last Broadway show before moving to Hollywood was 1939’s Very Warm for May.

Minnelli made his film debut as a designer for a sequence in 1940’s Strike Up the Band. He worked as an uncredited director on 1942’s Panama Hattie and received his first credit for 1943’s highly regarded Cabin in the Sky. He fell in love with Judy Garland, the star of his 1944 film, Meet Me in St. Louis who he married in 1945. He then directed her in her first non-musical, 1945’s The Clock opposite Robert Walker. He also directed the same year’sYolanda and the Thief with Fred Astaire as well as several sequences for the all-star cast Ziegfeld Follies.

After directing 1946’s Undercurrent with Katharine Hepburn, he directed all of Garland’s sequences in the same year’s Till the Clouds Roll By. Then came 1948’s The Pirate with Garland and Astaire; 1949’s Madame Bovary with Jennifer Jones and 1950’s Father of the Bride with Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor and its 1951 sequel, Father’s Little Dividend.

After his divorce form Garland in 1951, he directed the Oscar winning An American in Paris with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron for which he received his first nomination for Best Director.

Minnelli’s versatility continued over the next four years with the dramatic The Bad and the Beautiful and Cobweb interspersed with the musicals The Band Wagon; Brigadoon and Kismet. He had a stellar year in 1956 directing both Lust for Life with Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn and Tea and Sympathy with Deborah Kerr and John Kerr. Then came 1957’s Designing Woman with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall and three in 1958: Gigi which won nine Oscars including one for Minnelli; The Reluctant Debutante with Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall and Some Came Running with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine.

1960 brought the last two films for which Minnelli received major critical kudos, Home from the Hill with Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker and Bells Are Ringing with Judy Holliday and Dean Martin. His best reviewed film after that was 1963’s The Courtship of Eddie’s Father with Glenn Ford and Shirley Jones. Failures included 1962’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with Glenn Ford and Ingrid Thulin (dubbed by Angela Lansbury); 1965’s The Sandpiper, the nadir of the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton starrers and 1970’s On a Clear Day You Can See Forever with Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand. It would be another six years before Minnelli would direct his swan song, the unanimously dismissed A Matter of Time with daughter Liza and Ingrid Bergman.

Minnelli married three more times after his divorce from Garland. He was survived by fourth wife Lee Anderson after his death from pneumonia and emphysema in 1986 at the age of 83.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944)

A beloved family musical from the get-go, this perennial favorite introduced such classic songs as “The Trolley Song”; “The Boy Next Door”; “Skip to My Lou”; and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and re-introduced such standards as “You and I” and the title song.

Judy Garland; Lucille Bremer; Joan Carroll and Margaret O’Brien sparkle and shine as the Smith sisters, beautifully supported by Mary Astor and Leon Ames as their parents; Harry Davenport as their grandfather; William Daniels, Jr. as their brother; Marjorie Main as their cook an Tom Drake as the boy next door in this delightful recreation of turn of the last century St. Louis on the brink of the world’s fair.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)

Minnelli’s Technicolor palate attained ravishing heights in this sumptuous Best Picture Oscar winner. Set to the music of George Gershwin, Gene Kelly; Leslie Caron; Oscar Levant; Georges Guétatary and Nina Foch are all superb in the post-war musical.

A huge hit in its day, the film’s Oscar win over A Streectcar Named Desire and A Place in the Sun was nevertheless completely unexpected.

Gene Kelly took over some of Minnelli’s directing chores, including the complete “Embraceable You” sequence. Nineteen year-old Caron, making her film debut, was discovered by Kelly. Thirty-five year-old Georges Guétary was a last minute replacement for sixty-two year-old Maurice Chevalier.

TEA AND SYMPATHY (1956)

Minnelli’s Lust for Life about the life of Vincent Van Gogh with Oscar nominated Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh and Oscar winner Anthony Quinn as Paul Gauguin co-directed by an uncredited George Cukor is generally considered Minnelli’s best film of 1956, but I have a slight preference for Minnelli’s film of Robert Anderson’s semi-autobiographical play.

Deborah Kerr and John Kerr (no relation) are superb recreating their Broadway roles as the coach’s wife and troubled teenager she comforts. Although the film’s tacked-on coda satisfied no one, it doesn’t diminish the power of the film’s central themes. The film received no Oscar nominations but Deborah Kerr was nominated for another of her 1956 films, The King and I and two other stars connected with the original play received Oscar nominations as well. Winner Ingrid Bergman (Anastasia) played Deborah Kerr’s role in Paris. Anthony Perkins (Friendly Persuasion) succeeded John Kerr opposite Joan Fontaine on Broadway.

GIGI (1958)

The Lerner and Loewe musical won all nine Oscars it was nominated for including Best Picture and Director. It was Minnelli’s second career nomination and only win in his long career.

Colette’s novel was previously filmed as a straight drama in France in 1949. The musical was Lerner and Loewe’s valentine to Hollywood while their ground-breaking 1956 musical My Fair Lady continued its record run on Broadway.

Leslie Caron; Maurice Chevalier; Louis Jourdan; Hermione Gingold and Ursula Jeans (in for Marlene Dietrich) are all terrific in this very French confection about a young girl in training to become a courtesan who ends up a wife instead.

HOME FROM THE HILL (1960)

Minnelli attained his peak as a dramatic director with this epic tale set in modern Texas.

Robert Mitchum is at his best as a wealthy rancher who is a notorious womanizer whose wife Eleanor Parker is his most bitter enemy. George Peppard and George Hamilton both attained stardom as Mitchum’s sons, one legitimate, one not. Luana Patten is impressive as both boys’ love interest and Everett Sloane, Anne Seymour and Constance Ford turn in vivid portrayals as well.

Minnelli was nominated for Best Director by the Directors Guild of America for both this and Bells Are Ringing. Mitchum won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for this and The Sundowners. Peppard won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor.