WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 1957. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 3 October 1957 (ran 6 weeks). U.K. release: 22 December 1957. Australian release: 12 December 1957. 10,278 feet. 114 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Which of his three dancing partners is Barry Nichols in love with?NOTES: One of the last original (as opposed to Broadway adaptations) big-screen musicals, this movie also stands in the record books as Cole Porter's last score and Gene Kelly's last film for Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer. While the critics loved it (the film came in 6th in the Film Daily's annual poll of film critics and commentators) and New Yorkers took it to their hearts, the rest of the nation was pretty well indifferent. I remember seeing it with a very modest crowd at its L.A. showcase.COMMENT: A most stylish and invigorating musical, "Les Girls" gives the impression that director Cukor set out to emulate the best of Minnelli, whilst producer Siegel threw down a similar challenge to Arthur Freed.Like all the very, very best musicals, the plot of "Les Girls" is particularly strong. In fact, so fascinating and appealing is it that our novel story and its colorful characters actually tends to overshadow the musical numbers — even with a score by the great Cole Porter.Naturally, being a Cukor film, the acting is particularly enchanting. Kay Kendall enacts a most difficult role with a consummately delightful ease which will set both critics and fans cheering.Taina (pronounced "Tina" to rhyme with China) Elg also handles a challenging role with considerable skill and finesse. In fact, she even succeeds in eliciting and maintaining audience sympathy for a character who is too worldly-wise for her own good.Both comediennes receive able support from the two men in their lives, namely British stalwart Leslie Phillips and charming (if aptly a little stiff) Frenchman, Jacques Bergerac.It is the wonderful Mitzi Gaynor who receives somewhat short shrift from the script. True, she looks most attractive, but it is not until the third of the story flashbacks that she has anything much to do. And as for her singing and dancing abilities, these are hardly catered for at all. Her numerous fans from "South Pacific" are going to be mighty disappointed.Mr. Kelly of course is much his usual calculatedly easy-going self. As mentioned above, "Les Girls" is nothing if not stylish. The color, the sets, the costumes — all represent M-G-M musical craftsmanship and artistry at its highest. If the movie is not a masterpiece, it's not for want of creativity and sensibility, it's simply that the score itself is — by Porter standards — somewhat second-rate.OTHER VIEW: I don't consider myself a director of musicals, like Minnelli or Stanley Donen. There's something illogical about musicals: people open their mouths and start singing, all of a sudden. It has to be done with a certain amount of style, not realistic at all. Did you notice how carefully color was used in "Les Girls"? Color- coordinator George Hoyningen-Huene and I decided to give each girl a color to herself, that would color each girl's sequence. Sometimes there was no color at all, which whets your appetite for later. Of course, we also had Gene Allen working with us, a very talented designer and now, sometimes, a writer. Gene is credited with George for designing the main title, but he actually did much, much more than that. - George Cukor.

richard-1787 This movie is a failure on so many fronts, I'm not sure where to start.Perhaps by saying how very sorry I am that it's such a disappointment. I very much like Gene Kelly's other work, love a lot of Cole Porter, many George Cukor movies, etc. Yet everything goes wrong here.To begin with, this is a dud of a musical. None of the numbers come close to being memorable, the plot is uninteresting, the characters all often disagreeable. And if you were ever to watch it a second time - which I don't recommend - to see if the end resolves the apparent contradictions that come up throughout the movie, I suspect you'd find that it doesn't.Because the plot and the characters are uninteresting, the actors really have nothing to work with. Kelly has been so good in so many movies, it is almost painful to watch him try to do something with this mess of a role. The three women, though all fine dancers, simply don't have the star power between them that you need to bring off such a movie. Even Mitzi Gaynor, a great performer, seems weak here, except in her one dance number with Kelly, the motorcycle number, where they are both first rate.There's no point in going on further. There just isn't anything here of interest. More's the pity.

theduchess86 I don't agree that Kay Kendall stole this film, it was after all an MGM musical, don't get me wrong Kay was a beautiful talented actress, and gave a sparkling performance, but this was a musical and Mitzi Gaynor as usual left everyone standing, very talented lady very wasted in Hollywood, people on here say she was not as good as cyd Charisse, Mitzi had something cyd never had "personality" I saw cyd at the London paladium live and she was awful, I saw Mitzi's knockout Vegas act, chalk and cheese, also Leslie Caron was supposed to have turned this role down, I am glad she did, very overrated. the more people see Mitzi Gaynor roles now the more they appreciate what a great talent she was (is), she stole there's no business like show-business, and was great with frank Sinatra in the joker is wild, totally wasted in Hollywood, should have been in much more, but she went on to become one of America's greatest performers, in shows and night clubs, also her great TV shows, which are shortly to be released on DVD, thanks for reading, Gloria

Martin Bradley Cole Porter's score is far from his best and you probably would never guess that George Cukor directed it and Gene Kelly, although he dances as well as ever, isn't well served by either the script or indeed the choreographer, (it's virtually a supporting role). But what it has in spades are the Les Girls of the title; Mitzi Gaynor, (she's the 'sassy' bundle of fun), Taina Elg, (the gold-digger) and that great leggy British comedienne Kay Kendall who is not particularly well served by the script either but who is so graceful and witty and sophisticated she can lift the material. She isn't as good here as she was in "Genevieve" but she is better than anyone else in the movie and she won a Golden Globe for it, (though Elg, too, is a duplicitous little spitfire and is probably better here than in anything else she did). It looks fabulous, (Orry-Kelly's costumes won an Oscar), but, as we know, looks aren't everything. Nobody's finest hour, then, but neither is it totally negligible.