Cyd Charisse 1921 2008
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Classic Film
getyourdander — 9 years ago(January 29, 2017 04:08 AM)
Strange how a woman who became as famous as this one kind of went off the radar until recently. She was quite a lady.
Most of her movie work was in the 1950's and later on she did a fair amount of television work. Cyd was mostly a dancer and that was her role in Singin In The Rain. She was to be featured in the Marilyn Monroe / Dean Martin start of Somethings Got To Give 1962 but the project was canceled due to Monroe's problems.
I honestly think she was overlooked for some roles, and looked over in other roles. It is kind of nice to see her get a little attention recently, but Cyd was quite particular about how often she performed and her body of work has nowhere near as many curves as her body did.
A Smile is priceless and Can Be Addicting -
LMayberry-2 — 9 years ago(January 29, 2017 11:00 AM)
Cyd had a decent career. It might have helped if she would have sang as well as she danced.
I was told by my mother that Howard Hughes wanted to marry her and sent her plane tickets for her and her mother to fly out for a "meeting." I was told Cyd used the tickets to go off and marry Tony Martin.
All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. -
hobnob53 — 9 years ago(January 29, 2017 08:53 PM)
I don't know why you say Cyd has been overlooked until recently. She's been as much remembered and discussed as any performer of her era as far as I can see (which admittedly at this point may or may not be a lot). What do you think happened recently that has supposedly drawn more attention to her all of a sudden?
I think the reason Cyd Charisse's career didn't include more dance films and bigger roles was that Metro, though they had her under contract from 1943, for some inexplicable reason failed to use her properly or as extensively as she merited, and didn't bring her to top stardom until the 50s. By the time she really hit her stride she was 30 and musicals would peter out of favor within six years or so, leaving her only a few years at the top. That's when she did all the work for which she's best remembered
Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon, Brigadoon, It's Always Fair Weather, Silk Stockings
, etc. Not only her dancing skills, but her beauty should have made her a big star much earlier than it happened. Another Hollywood mystery you'd think the studios would have had a better sense of the talents of the people they had under contract.
I read that her first name came from her childhood nickname, since her younger brother couldn't pronounce "sis" and instead said "sid"a name that MGM producer Arthur Freed altered to the more exotic-looking Cyd. Charisse was her married name from her first husband. Far better than the name she was born with Tula Ellice Finklea. Not exactly evocative of a gorgeous, scintillating dancer!
I remember that when she did her striptease opening for
The Silencers
in 1966,
Playboy
magazine said she was 45, so there was no evident effort on her part to knock seven years off her age, as another poster claimed.
Before she joined Metro, Charisse's second film was, of all odd things, the 1943 political drama
Mission to Moscow
, a piece of pro-Soviet propaganda in which Charisse plays what else? a ballerina in a key scene. You only see her on stage, from a distance, she has no lines, only dances, she's uncredited, but it's her. What's funny is that ten years later Warner Bros. inserted a portion of that ballet sequence in the film
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
(the hero and heroine are attending the ballet when they receive a message about the beast). I doubt many if any people remembered or knew she was in that scene, but technically it means Cyd Charisse appeared in a 1950s monster moviewhich is more than Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly could claim! -
getyourdander — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 07:24 PM)
It seems that just recently cable channels have started airing more of her films and television. It seemed like years since I had seen much of her work aired anyplace.
I have to agree that the studio system might have cost her some work. Often circumstances do that. The decline of musicals and Cyd's advancing age surely contributed to her career decline and even though he had some pretty good television moments, she never hit a real good stride on the medium to become more well known.
If I had been her age, I would have just as much wanted a personal relationship with her as any other woman I have ever seen. I have no way of knowing how her personality well, but I know tall and beautiful always appeals to me. Cyd was definitely anyones dream once they saw her.
A Smile is priceless and Can Be Addicting -
hobnob53 — 9 years ago(February 03, 2017 04:30 PM)
No, I think her films have been run pretty regularly, though maybe a bunch have popped up together so that it just seems like there's more attention being paid her. I just watched
The Band Wagon
last night her best, in my opinion.
The fact that MGM didn't really pick up on her until the early 50s certainly shorted her career she was almost 30 by then, getting old for a dancer, especially a woman. Then musicals fell from favor in a few more years and her career slid away. Too bad she didn't do more non-musical roles after those parts dried up.
Cyd was a magnificent beauty as well as dancer. A Republican, but magnificent! -
Marshamae — 9 years ago(January 30, 2017 03:22 PM)
She was primarily a dancer. Her acting was uneven at best and her singing was always dubbed. If she had been a fine comedienne or dramatic actrist, her career might have continued past her mid 40's when dancers are generally finishing up. With musical films falling off, and those that were made full of youthful, demanding choreographyby Robbins and Fosse, there was no real chance for her.
For my money she was the best of the female dancers. She had a full, perfect figure, beautifully disciplined, and could dance in full ballet, or jazz with equal mastery and artistry. None of the other big dance stars really had a ballet presence except Vera Ellen, and she was in many ways less appealing and dramatic than Charisse. Chariss's solos were without exceptionn magical, though the best was the silk Stockings Ballet. Her duets with Astaire and Kelly were among their best work, with Girl Hunt Ballet and Dancing in the Dark from Band Wagon, and Broadway Melody from Singin in the Rain among the best dances ever filmed.
The only dancer that touched her in ballet was Tanaquil Leclerc, and all of her film work was fir Balanchine.
It was a toss-up whether I go in for diamonds or sing in the choir. The choir lost. -
LMayberry-2 — 9 years ago(January 30, 2017 03:44 PM)
Another thing that didn't help her career was her height. She seemed to be taller than most of her partners. It is a shame that she was not paired up with her fellow Baller Russe member, Marc Platt, who showed great promise in Columbia's "Tonight's The Night" with Rita Hayworth, but never achieved star status.
All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. -
Marshamae — 9 years ago(January 30, 2017 04:26 PM)
Marc Platt is one of my favorite male dancers. He really could do it all, and his performance in Tonight's the night and Seven Brides was wonderful.
It was a toss-up whether I go in for diamonds or sing in the choir. The choir lost. -
Oleg123 — 9 years ago(February 01, 2017 07:24 AM)
for someone who was primarily a dancer, she had a very succesful career in films for over 20 years.
As correctly noted by Marshame her singing was always dubbed, and had she dispalyed greater comedy or dramatic gifts, her career might have been longer, but i doubt that. Few of out would deny that Ginger had great dramatic and comedy gifts, yet her career dried up by mid 1950s, with few disasterpus films in first half of 60s. Ann Miller had quiet good comedic gifts as well.
Still public viewed them primarily as dancers.
Charisse did some films for TV that i've seen - Portrait of an Escort, Swimsuit, all pretty bad.
she was very often in TV in the 90s, giving interviews always looking great, Thats Entarteinment III, various channel 13 programs, i'd say with Bacall and Ann Miller she was probably on TV the msot from old gang.
Most film books on actresses that i've seen (and that quiet an amount) gave her decent space, while giving less space or completely ignoring other, much bigger stars (Alice Faye, Ida Lupino, Debbie Reynolds)
Not overlloked at all in my opinion -
Prom_Queen_Carrie — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 03:29 AM)
I've been a fan for awhile. I love watching her dance in those old musicals due to the precision and elegance of her moves. She made it look effortless! Watch her big dance number The Red Blues in Silk Stockings.
But wait, she's gotten more attention recently? I didn't know this. Why and from where?
https://mattsko.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/vivien-eyebrow-gif.gif -
Prom_Queen_Carrie — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 06:26 PM)
Because she had one of the best stares in cinema history.
https://mattsko.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/vivien-eyebrow-gif.gif
