Stanley Donen - Biography

Stanley Donen ; (born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn Yankees!, Charade and Two for the Road. He received an Honorary Academy Award in 1998 for his body of work and a Career Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival in 2004.

Donen has been hailed by film critic David Quinlan as "the King of the Hollywood musicals". He began his career in the chorus line on Broadway for director George Abbott, where he befriended Gene Kelly. Donen then went to Hollywood and worked as a choreographer for several years before he and Kelly made On the Town in 1949. He then worked as a contract director for MGM under producer Arthur Freed and continued to gain critical acclaim both as a solo director and for his work with Kelly. Donen's relationship with Kelly had (from Donen's perspective) been shaky for several years and deteriorated after the two completed their final collaboration It's Always Fair Weather in 1955. He then broke his contract with MGM and became an independent producer of his own work in 1957. By the end of the 1950s the Hollywood musical was losing popularity and Donen began to focus on comedies instead, continuing to make hits until the late 1960s. After that his films became fewer and his last theatrical film was in 1984. He briefly returned to the stage as a director in the 1990s and again in 2002.

Donen is credited with helping to transition Hollywood musical films from more realistic backstage dramas where the songs were motivated by a stage setting or the physical presence of musicians to a more integrated, surrealistic form where the music was unmotivated and the songs were a more natural continuation of the story being told. The popular films of Busby Berkeley, for all of their extravagant stylization, were often set in a stage or Broadway environment where the musical numbers were justified realistically. Donen has stated that what he was doing was a "direct continuation from the Astaire-Rogers musicals...which in turn came from René Clair and from Lubitsch...What we did was not geared towards realism but towards the unreal." Film critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon has said that his contributions to the evolution of the Hollywood musical "outshines anybody else's, including Vincent Minnelli's."

Early Life and Stage Career

Donen was born in Columbia, South Carolina to Mordecai Moses Donen, a dress-shop manager, and Helen Cohen. He has one younger sister: Carla Donen Davis, born in August 1937. Although born to Jewish parents, Donen himself became an atheist in his youth. Donen has described his childhood as lonely and unhappy due to being one of the few Jews in Columbia. He was occasionally bullied and called names by anti-semitic classmates at school. To help cope with his isolation, he spent much of his youth in the local movie theaters and was especially fond of westerns, comedies and thrillers. The film that had the strongest impact on Donen at that time was the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical Flying Down to Rio in 1933. Donen said that he "must have seen the picture thirty or forty times. I was transported into some sort of fantasy world where everything seemed to be happy, comfortable, easy and supported. A sense of well-being filled me." He also shot home movies with an 8 mm camera and projector that his father bought him.

Inspired by Astaire, Donen began to take dance lessons in Columbia, and later in New York City during summer vacation where he frequently saw Broadway musicals. One of his early dance instructors in New York was Ned Wayburn, who had taught an eleven-year-old Fred Astaire in 1910. In Columbia, he performed at the local Town Theater. After graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Donen attended the University of South Carolina for one summer semester, studying psychology. Encouraged and supported by his mother, he moved to New York City to pursue dancing on the stage in 1940. He was cast as a chorus dancer in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, which was directed by George Abbott and starred Gene Kelly. George Abbott then asked Donen to appear in the chorus of his next Broadway show, Best Foot Forward. He quickly became the assistant stage manager and Gene Kelly asked him to be his assistant choreographer for the show. Eventually Donen was fired from Best Foot Forward, but in 1942 he was the stage manager and assistant choreographer for George Abbott's next show Beat the Band. In 1946, he briefly returned to Broadway to help choreographer a few dance numbers for the show Call Me Mister.

Film Career

1943-1949: Move to Hollywood as a Choreographer

In 1943, Arthur Freed, the successful Metro Goldwyn Mayer producer of musicals, bought the rights to Best Foot Forward. Donen moved to Hollywood and auditioned for the film version, starring Lucille Ball and William Gaxton. This resulted in Donen signing a one-year contract with MGM. In Best Foot Forward, Donen both appeared as a chorus dancer and was made assistant choreographer by Charles Walters. While at MGM, Donen renewed his friendship with Gene Kelly, who was already under contract and was quickly becoming a popular supporting actor. When Kelly was loaned out to Columbia Pictures for a film with Rita Hayworth, he was also offered the chance to choreograph his own dance numbers and asked Donen to be his assistant choreographer on the film. Donen accepted and helped choreograph three dance sequences with Kelly in Cover Girl, released in 1944. Donen came up with the idea for the "Alter Ego" dance sequence where Kelly's reflection jumps out of a shop window and dances with him. Director Charles Vidor insisted that the idea would never work, so Donen and Kelly directed the scene themselves and Donen spent over a year perfecting it in the editing room before the film's release. The film made Gene Kelly a star and is considered to be an important and innovative musical. Donen signed a one-year contract with Columbia and choreographed several films, but returned to MGM when Kelly wanted his help.

In 1944, Donen and Kelly teamed up to choreograph the musical Anchors Aweigh, released in 1945 and co-starring Frank Sinatra. The most famous scene in this film is when Kelly dances with the cartoon mouse Jerry. The animation was supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and is credited to cartoonist Fred Quimby, however Donen has stated that the idea was his own. Originally Donen and Kelly had wanted to use either Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck for the sequence, and met with Walt Disney to discuss the idea. At the time Disney was working on a similar idea, The Three Caballeros and was unwilling to allow one of his characters to appear in an MGM film. The scene took two months to shoot Kelly's dancing and Donen spent a year perfecting it frame by frame. According to Joseph Barbera "the net result at the preview of Anchors Away that I went to, blew the audience away."

While Kelly completed his service in the U.S. Naval Air Service as a photographer from 1944 to 1946, Donen worked uncredited as a choreographer on a number of musical films. Of this period, Donen said "I practiced my craft, working with music, track and photography. I often directed the sequences. I always tried to have an original idea about how to do musical sequences." Donen has stated that he was rejected from military service as 4-F for having high blood pressure. When Kelly returned to civilian life, he and Donen directed and choreographed Kelly's dance scenes in Living in a Big Way. They then began work on an original story about two baseball players in the early 20th century who spend their off season as vaudevillian song and dance men. This film would eventually become Take Me Out to the Ball Game in 1949. Kelly and Donen had hoped to co-direct the film, but Arthur Freed hired Busby Berkeley instead and Kelly and Donen only directed Kelly's dance numbers. The film starred Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin.

1949: On the Town

After the success of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Arthur Freed gave Donen and Gene Kelly the chance to direct their next film: On the Town, released in 1949. The film was an adaptation of the Comden and Green musical about sailors on leave in New York City (the original Broadway score by Leonard Bernstein was not used in the film). This was the first movie musical to be filmed partially on location. Donen and Kelly had wanted to shoot the entire film in New York City, but producer Arthur Freed would only allowed them to spend one week away from the studio. From this week they created the films famous opening number New York, New York. On the Town stars Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller, Betty Garrett, Jules Munshin, and Vera-Ellen. Kelly, Sinatra and Munshin play three sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City whose romantic ambitions get they more than they bargained for. The film was an instant success both financially and critically. It won the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture. Screenwriters Comden and Green won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical.

Like Orson Welles, Donen made his film debut at the age of 25. Donen has stated that Kelly was "responsible for most of the dance movements. I was behind the camera in the dramatic and musical sequences." With cinematographer Harold Rosson, Donen took full advantage of this opportunity, especially in the films opening song New York, New York. Away from both studio interference and sound stage constrictions, Donen shot a dazzling scene on the streets on New York City that utilizes many cinematic techniques which would not be used again until they were popularized by the French New Wave ten years later, including spacial jump cuts, 360 degree pans, hidden cameras, abruptly changing screen direction and non-professional actors. Never gratuitous or amateurish, this scene also establishes character development and sets up the plot of the film while creating a fun, fast paced, kinetic energy that influenced all musicals that came afterwards. Donen biographer Joseph A. Casper has said that "Today the film is regarded as a turning point: the first bona fide musical that moved dance, as well as the musical genre, out of the theater and captured it with and for film rather than on film; the first to make the city an important character; and the first to abandon the chorus."

1949-1952: Contract Director at MGM

With the enormous success of On the Town, Donen was able to sign a seven year contract with MGM as a director. His next two films would both be made for producer Arthur Freed, but without Gene Kelly. After being replaced as director for the Esther Williams film Pagan Love Song over personal differences with Williams, Donen was given the chance to direct his boyhood idol Fred Astaire.

Royal Wedding starred Astaire and Jane Powell as a brother-sister American dancing team performing in England during the time of the royal wedding. Judy Garland was originally going to play the lead role, but was fired for absenteeism (and made her first suicide attempt shortly afterwards) and was replaced by Powell. In the film Powell's love affair with a wealthy Englishman (played by Peter Lawford) threatens to ruin the brother-sister act, while Astaire has found his own local love interest in Sarah Churchill. The film is loosely based on Astaire's real life career with his sister and early dancing partner Adele Astaire, who married an English Lord in 1932. The film contains one of Astaire's most famous dance sequences: the You're All the World to Me number where Astaire defies gravity by dancing first on the walls and then on the ceiling. The shot was achieved by building the set inside a rotating steel-reinforced cylindrical chamber with the camera attached to the base. Both Astaire and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner have claimed credit for the idea for the scene. The film included music by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner and was released in 1951.

In 1951 Donen made Love Is Better Than Ever. The film stars Larry Parks, who was fresh off his Oscar nominated success The Jolson Story. In the film, Parks plays a streetwise show-biz agent who finds himself compelled to marry an innocent young dance teacher played by Elizabeth Taylor. Gene Kelly briefly appears in a cameo. The film remained unreleased for over a year after Parks admitted to the House Un-American Activities Committee that he had been a member of the Communist party and named the names of other members. The film was unsuccessful at the box office.

1952: Singin' in the Rain

In 1952, Donen reunited with Gene Kelly, who had just made An American in Paris and was at the height of his fame. The second Donen-Kelly collaboration was Singin' in the Rain and would become one of the most highly praised movies in film history. The film was produced by Arthur Freed, written by Comden and Green, photographed by Harold Rosson and starred Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor and Jean Hagen. Instead of original music, the score (mostly) consists of old songs that were written by Freed and Nacio Herb Brown in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The film is a satire on Hollywood's transition from silent films to "talkies" in the late 1920s, poking fun at both the first musical films that came out of that period and the technical difficulties with early sound films. Singin' in the Rain contains many "in-jokes", such as the characters of producer R. F. Simpson and director Roscoe Dexter being loosely based on Arthur Freed and Busby Berkeley.

In the film Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are two silent film stars in Hollywood whose careers are threatened by the invention of "talkies". Lockwood and Lamont attempt to train their voices to better suit the new medium and turn their latest film into a musical. Lockwood has no difficulty with this task, but Lamont's grating voice is hopeless for sound films. With help from his best friend Cosmo Brown (O'Connor) and love interest Kathy Selden (Reynolds), Lockwood decides to dub Selden's voice over Lamont's in the film, thus saving his (and Lamont's) careers. In the end the truth is revealed to an audience at the film's premiere and Selden is on her way to a great career as a star in movie musicals.

The film was a hit when it was released in April 1952, earning over $7.6 million. Kelly's An American in Paris had been the surprise Best Picture winner at the Oscars in March 1952 (where Arthur Freed also won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and Kelly won an Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements). MGM decided to re-release the film and Singin' in the Rain got pulled from many theaters in order to showcase the new Best Picture winner. Singin' in the Rain was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Hagen and Best Original Score for Lennie Hayton. Initially the film was dismissed by film critics such as Bosley Crowther and did not begin to be regarded as one of the greatest films ever made until the late 1960s. One of the films earliest supporters was film critic Pauline Kael, who said that it "is perhaps the most enjoyable of all movie musicals- just about the best Hollywood musical of all time." It was re-released in 1975 to enormous critical and popular success. Among the films many honors it was included in the first group of films to be included in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in 1989 and has been included on Sight and Sound's prestigious list of "Top Ten Films" twice, in 1982 and in 2002. Charlie Chaplin and Francois Truffaut were among its earliest fans, and Billy Wilder called the film "one of the five greatest pictures ever made",

1952-1955: Continued Success as a Director and break from MGM

Now established as a film director, Donen continued his solo career at MGM with Fearless Fagan in 1952. Based on a true story, the film stars Carleton Carpenter as a GI who brought his tamed lion with him when he joined the army. Next came the musical Give a Girl a Break in 1953. The film stars Debbie Reynolds, Marge Champion and Helen Wood as three aspiring dancers all competing for the lead role in a new Broadway musical. Bob Fosse, Gower Champion and Kurt Kasznar also appear in the film, with music by Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin. The films most famous sequence is the Give a Girl a Break dance between Reynolds and Fosse. The scene was choreographed backwards and then played back in reverse so as to create the illusion that the two are being surrounded by hundreds of balloons that instantly appear at the touch of their fingers. Shooting the film became a bitter experience due to a major fight over the films choreography between Fosse and Gower Champion. The fight split the cast with Reynolds and Marge Champion taking Gower Champion's side and Donen taking Fosse's side. The film was not well reviewed upon release, but in later years its reputation has grown.

Donen solidified his solo career and scored another hit with the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Based on a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét, the film has music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and choreography by Michael Kidd. The cast included Howard Keel and Jane Powell. In the film, Powell plays Milly, a frontierswoman who marries Adam (Howard Keel) only hours after meeting him. When she returns with Adam to his log cabin in the Oregon backwoods, Milly discovers that her husband's six brothers are uncivilized and oafish. She makes it her duty to civilize them and, upon Milly's sarcastic suggestion, the brothers kidnap six women from a neighboring town to make them their brides. The film was shot in the relatively new format CinemaScope and is most well known for its dance sequences, particularly the "barn raising scene" in which architecture and construction become aerobatic ballet steps. Since its release, the film has been greatly criticized as being anti-woman. Novelist Francine Prose has called the film "one of the most repulsive movies about men and women that has ever been made" and calls it a musical about rape. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was one of the highest grossing films of 1954 and appeared on many critics 10 Best Films lists. The films success was a surprise to MGM, which had invested more money into two other musicals: the Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy operetta Rose Marie and Vincent Minnelli's Brigadoon, starring Gene Kelly. It was more profitable than both On the Town and Singin' in the Rain and its success was a major turning point for Donen's career.

Later in 1954 Donen made Deep in My Heart, a biography of the Hungarian-born American operetta composer Sigmund Romberg starring José Ferrer. The film included cameo appearances by many of MGM's contract players, including the only screen pairing of Gene Kelly and his brother Fred Kelly. Although it received only mediocre reviews, it was a hit financially.

In 1955 Donen teamed up with Gene Kelly for the third and final time. It's Always Fair Weather is a musical produced by Arthur Freed, written by Comden and Green with music by André Previn. The film starred Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Michael Kidd, and Dolores Gray, and was again shot in CinemaScope. Originally envisioned as a sequel to On the Town, Kelly, Dailey and Kidd play three ex-GI's who reunite 10 years after World War II and discover that none of their lives have turned out quite how they had expected. Kelly had approached Donen with this project as their next collaboration, and at first Donen was reluctant to accept the offer now that he was an established director on his own. Their friendship deteriorated during production of the film and Donen has said that "the atmosphere from day one was very tense and nobody was speaking to anybody." Unlike their experience on On the Town, MGM would not allow Donen and Kelly to shoot on location in New York. It's Always Fair Weather was a moderately profitable film, but no where near the hit that On the Town or Singin' in the Rain had been. It was Donen's last film with Kelly, as well as his last with Arthur Freed. After the films completion he fulfilled his MGM contract agreement as a loan out to other studios over the next few years. His last project for MGM was completing the final four days of shooting Kismet in July 1955 when director Vincent Minnelli had other commitments.

1956-1959: Career as a Hollywood Director and Independent Producer

Donen's next film was at Paramount Pictures for producer Roger Edens. Funny Face contains four of the original George and Ira Gershwin songs from the 1927 Broadway show of the same name that had starred Fred Astaire, although it is not an adaptation of that show. The film was loosely based on the life of fashion photographer Richard Avedon, who was also the visual consultant and designed the opening title sequence for the film, and was written by Leonard Gershe. Donen and Edens began pre-production at MGM, but had difficulty juggling Astaire's and Audrey Hepburn's Paramount contracts, the Warner Brothers owned rights to the Gershwin music that they wanted and their own contracts at MGM. Eventually a deal was reached that both released Donen from his MGM contract and allowed him to make his next two films at Paramount and Warner Brothers respectively. In the film Astaire plays an aging fashion photographer who discovers the intellectual bohemian Hepburn at a used bookstore in Greenwich Village and turns her into his new model while falling in love with her in Paris. The film pokes fun of Astaire's advanced age in comparison to his much younger love interest Hepburn, and was one of his last musical films. It was also Hepburn's first musical and, unlike the later My Fair Lady, she sings all the songs herself. Donen, Avedon and cinematographer Ray June collaborated very closely to give the film an abstract, smokey look that resembled the fashion photography of the time period, despite the protests of Paramount which had spent a fortune developing the crisp VistaVision. Funny Face was screened in competition at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival and received good reviews from critics like Bosley Crowther, however Sight and Sound accused the film of being anti-intellectual.

While in pre-production on Funny Face, Donen received a letter from his old boss George Abbott inviting him to make a film version of his stage hit The Pajama Game at Warner Brothers Pictures. As part of the deal to secure the Gershwin music he wanted for Funny Face, Donen was able to accept and the two co-directed the film version in 1957. The Pajama Game stars Doris Day and John Raitt, with music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross and choreography by Bob Fosse. In the film, Raitt plays plant supervisor at a nightwear factory who is in constant disputes with union organizer Day. When there is a pajama production crisis, the workers go on strike, but Day and Raitt end up falling in love. The film was shot in six weeks and Donen described his working relationship with Abbott as relaxed, stating that "[Abbott would] play tennis, come watch on the set for an hour, then watch the rushes, then go home." The film was only a modest financial success, but film critic Jean-Luc Godard praised the film and declared "Donen is surely the master of the movie musical. The Pajama Game exists to prove it."

Donen's next film was Kiss Them for Me. Donen was personally asked by Cary Grant to direct the film and began developing it while still under contract at MGM. With a plot that strongly resembles On the Town, Grant, Ray Walston and Larry Blyden star as three navy officers on leave in San Francisco in 1944. Unlike the original, this film is a dark comedy that contrasts the officers selfless heroism with their self-absorbed hedonism while on leave. The film was released in 1957 and received mostly poor reviews. It is also more famous for being the fourth and last mainstream Hollywood film that Jayne Mansfield would receive top billing in, despite her role being a supporting one.

After these three films in 1957, Donen became an independent producer and director. He had reluctantly agreed to direct Kiss Them for Me on condition that 20th Century Fox bought out his remaining contract with MGM. Now free from any legal obligations, he formed his own production company with Cary Grant: Grandon Productions, with a distribution deal through Warner Brothers Pictures. Donen would produce nearly all of his films from then on, although the company is sometimes credited as Stanley Donen Productions. Donen and Grant inagurated their company in 1958. Indiscreet is based on a play by Norman Krasna and stars Cary Grany and Ingrid Bergman. Because of Bergman's schedule, the film was shot on location in London, where Donen utilized such landmarks as the Leicester Galleries, the Royal Opera House and the Garrick Club much like he had in his directorial debut. In the film, Bergman plays a famous and reclusive actress who falls in love with the playboy-diplomat Grant. Grant tells Bergman that he is already married and cannot get out of it. When Bergman discovers that he has been lying about having a wife, she invents a charade with another man in order to win Grant's full affection. The films most famous scene involves Donen's clever circumvention of the strict Production Code. In the scene, Grant is in Paris while Bergman is still in London, and the two exchange pillow talk over the phone. Donen used a split screen of the two stars with synchronized movements to make it appear as though they were in the same bed together. The film was a financial and critical success and Donen was compared to such great directors of comedy films as Ernst Lubitsch and George Cukor.

Donen briefly returned to the musical genre with Damn Yankees in 1958. He again co-directed with George Abbott in the same hands-off method of collaboration as their first film. Like The Pajama Game, the film includes music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross and choreography by Bob Fosse. It stars Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, and Ray Walston. Damn Yankees is an adaptation of the Faust legend involving a fan of the baseball team the Washington Senators who mentions that he would sell his soul for a good hitter for the losing team. Walston plays the Brooks Brothers suit wearing Devil, who grants Shafer his wish and transforms him into the muscular young hitter Joe Hardy (Hunter). Donen was able to shoot three real Senator-Yankee games on location with as many as seven hidden cameras at once. The low budget film was a moderate financial success and received good reviews. It was also Donen's last musical film for many years.

1960-1969: Working in England

After the production of Indiscreet, Donen made England his home base until the early 1970s. The demise of the Hollywood musical caused the string of successes Donen had directed to stall. He said that his "London base afforded me the advantage of being away from the Hollywood rat race. Just going your own way in spite of whatever anyone else is doing or in spite of what you've done already was satisfying. I also had the advantage of the European influence: their way of looking at life, of making movies." During his time in England in the early 1960s, he was credited as an influence on the then emerging British New Wave movement.

In the late 1950s, Donen signed a non-exclusive, three film deal with Columbia Pictures. His first film to fulfill this contract was Once More, with Feeling! released in 1960. The film was adapted by Harry Kurnitz from his own stage play and was shot in Paris. It starred Yul Brynner and Kay Kendall. In the film Brynner plays a tyrannical orchestra conductor whose mistress (Kendall) grows tired of his tantrums and plots to marry him in order to quickly divorce him for money. Kendall was terminally ill with leukemia during the shooting of the film and died before its release. The film was not successful financially or critically. Donen quickly re-teamed with Brynner and Kurnitz for the film Surprise Package, also released in 1960. In this film Brynner plays an American gangster who is deported to the Greek island of Rhodes. Mitzi Gaynor plays his "surprise package" that is sent to the island to appease Brynner and Noël Coward plays the King of Rhodes who Brynner plots to dethrone. The film was not a financial success and Donen has stated that the film was made because he "desperately needed money for personal reasons...it was one of the few times I've made a movie for money." These were the only two films that Donen completed for his Columbia contract. The studio cancelled the deal after their poor box office results and Donen was unable to produce the projects that he was pursuing at that time: playwright Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons and A Patch of Blue, both of which would go on to be successful films by other directors.

Grandon Productions produced Donen's next film, The Grass Is Greener, released through Universal Pictures in 1960. In the film Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr play the earl and countess of a large estate in England who are forced to permit guided tours of their mansion in order to help their financial problems. Robert Mitchum plays an American oil tycoon who has fallen in love with Kerr and Jean Simmons plays an eccentric an American heiress and Grant's former girlfriend. The film was a financial disappointment in the US, but successful in England, where the original stage version had been a West End success.

In 1963 Donen made one of his most praised films: Charade, starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy and Ned Glass. Donen had "always wanted to make a movie like one of my favorites, Hitchcock's North by Northwest." The film has been referred to as "the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made." Charade was produced by Stanley Donen Productions and released through Universal. It was adapted by Peter Stone from his own novel, had a memorable score by Henry Mancini and opening credits by Maurice Binder. In the film, Hepburn plays Reggie Lampert, a rich woman who returns home from a vacation to Paris where she discovers that her husband has been murdered and (at least) three sinister men are all searching for the $250,000 in gold that he had hidden somewhere. Peter Joshua (Grant) befriends Reggie and helps her fight off the three thugs while the two begin to fall in love. In the end no one is quite who they seem to be. The film was released in December 1963, only two weeks after the Kennedy Assassination and the word "assassinate" had to be redubbed twice. It was Donen's most financially successful film and influenced a number of romantic comedy-thrillers released in the years preceding it. Film critic Judith Crist called it a "stylish and amusing melodrama" and Pauline Kael said it had "a freshness and spirit that makes [it] unlike the films of any other country" and was "probably the best American film of last year". In 2002 the film was remade as The Truth About Charlie, directed by Jonathan Demme.

In 1966 Donen made another Hitchcock inspired film, Arabesque, starring Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck. Although the film was written by Julian Mitchell and Stanley Price, Peter Stone was brought in to do an uncredited rewrite. In the film, Peck plays an American professor at Oxford University and an expert in ancient hieroglyphics. He is approached by a Middle Eastern Prime Minister to investigate an organization that is attempting to assassinate him and use hieroglyphic codes to communicate. The investigation leads Peck to one mystery after another, often involving the Prime Minister's ambiguous mistress, played by Loren. Once again, the film was a box office success

In 1967 Donen made Two for the Road, starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. The film was conceived by Donen and written by novelist Frederic Raphael, who was nominated for an Academy Award. It features a score by Henry Mancini and a supporting roles by Eleanor Bron and Jacqueline Bisset early in her career. The film has been called one of Donen's most personal, "with glints of passion never disclosed before" and is "a veritable textbook on film editing." The films complicated and non-linear story is about the 12-year relationship between Hepburn and Finney over the course of four separate road trips that they took together throughout the years in the south of France, which are interwoven together. The film was moderately successful at the box office, while the critical reception was extremely mixed. Bosley Crowther called the film "just another version of commercial American trash." Since its release the film has attained a cult following and been cited as an early example of non-linear storytelling in film. It is also the film that Donen is most frequently asked about by film students.

While living in England Donen had become a fan of the British variety show Beyond the Fringe and wanted to work with the shows comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. The resulting film was Bedazzled, an updated version of the Faust legend in 1967. The film was written by Cook and featured music by Moore, and also starred Eleanor Bron and Raquel Welch. In the film, Moore plays a lonely young man whose unrequited love of his co-worker (Bron) leads him to commit suicide. Just then the devil (Cook) appears and offers him seven wishes in exchange for his soul. The films fun loving association with the Swinging London of the 1960s divided critics. Roger Ebert called the film's satire "barbed and contemporary ... dry and understated," and overall, a "magnificently photographed, intelligent, very funny film." Time Magazine, on the other hand, called the film the feeblest of all known variations on the Faust theme. The film was a hit, and was especially popular among American college students. It was remade by director Harold Ramis in 2000 with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. Donen considered it one of his favorite's of his own films, and called it "a very personal film in that I said a great deal about what I think is important in life."

In 1969 Donen directed Staircase, an adaptation of the autobiographical stage play by Charles Dyer, with music by Dudley Moore. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton star as a middle-aged gay couple who run a London barber shop and live together in a "bad marriage". The film was shot in Paris for tax purposes and was not a financial success. It received poor reviews upon release, but has since been reevaluated by film critic Armond White in 2007. White called the film "a rare Hollywood movie to depict gay experience with wisdom, humor and warmth", and "a lost treasure".

1970-2003: Later Career and return to Theater

After Donen's marriage to Adelle Beatty ended he moved back to Hollywood in 1970. Producer Robert Evans asked Donen to direct an adaptation of the beloved children's book The Little Prince. Composers Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe wrote the music and screenplay and filming was done on location in Tunisia. The Little Prince stars Steven Warner in the title role, with Richard Kiley, Bob Fosse, Gene Wilder and Donna McKechnie. It was Donen's first musical film since Damn Yankees. Although it contained very little dancing, Fosse choreographed his own dance scenes as the snake. It was released in 1974 and was considered a financial disaster.

Donen's next film was Lucky Lady, starring Liza Minnelli, Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds. In the film, Minnelli plays a Prohibition era bootlegger who transports alcohol from Mexico to California with the help of Hackman and Reynolds, who both compete for her affection. Donen has stated that he "really cared about [the film] and gave three years of my life to it...I think its a very good movie." The film was over-budget and unsuccessful at the box office. Most critics were unenthusiastic, however Jay Cocks praised the film for having "the glistening surface and full-throttle frivolity that characterized Hollywood films in the 1930s."

Nostalgia for old Hollywood films would be a theme of Donen's next film, Movie Movie, produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. The film, scripted by Larry Gelbart, is actually two shorter films presented as an old fashioned double feature, complete with a fake movie trailer and an introduction by comedian George Burns. The film starred George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Red Buttons, Michael Kidd and Eli Wallach and was submitted in competition at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival in 1978. The first of the two films is Dynamite Hands, a black and white tribute to boxing- morality films. The second film is Baxter's Beauties of 1933, a tribute to the extravagant musicals of Busby Berkely in color. Once again it was unsuccessful both financially and critically.

In 1980 Donen made the science fiction film Saturn 3, starring Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett and Harvey Keitel. Donen first read the script when its writer (and Movie Movie's set designer) John Barry showed it to him, prompting Donen to pass it along to Grade. Donen was hired as producer of the film, but when first time director Barry proved to be unable to direct a film Grade asked Donen to complete the film. According to Donen, "only a tiny bit of what Barry shot ended up in the finished film." The film was a critical and financial disaster, and initially Donen did not want to be credited as director.

Donen's last theatrical film to date was the May–December romance Blame It on Rio in 1984. The film is a remake of the 1977 Claude Berri film Un moment d'égarement and was written by Larry Gelbert and Charlie Peters. The film stars Michael Caine, Joseph Bologna, Michelle Johnson, Valerie Harper and Demi Moore and was shot on location in Rio de Janeiro. In the film Caine and Bologma play wealthy executives on vacation with their families, and Caine begins a romance with Bologna's teenage daughter (Johnson). The film received poor reviews, but was a modest success financially.

In 1986 Donen directed a musical sequence for for an episode of the popular TV series Moonlighting. Also in 1986, Donen directed the music video for Lionel Richie's song "Dancing on the Ceiling". He was the producer for the televised ceremony of the 58th Academy Awards, which included a musical performance of the song "Once a Star, Always a Star" with June Allyson, Leslie Caron, Marge Champion, Cyd Charisse, Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, and Esther Williams. Later in the show Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds presented the awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

In 1989 Donen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina. In his commencement address, Donen stated that he thought he was unique in being the first tap dancer to be a doctor and then proceeded to tap dance for the graduates. At around the same time Donen taught a seminar on film musicals at the Sundance Institute at the request of Robert Redford.

In 1993 Donen was preparing to produce and direct a movie musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Michael Jackson. After allegations that Jackson had molested young boys at his Neverland ranch became a tabloid scandal, the project was abandoned. Later that year Donen directed a stage version of The Red Shoes at the George Gershwin Theater. Donen replaced the original director Susan Schulman just six weeks before the show opened. It closed after four days.

In 1998 Donen was granted an Honorary Academy Award "in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation." In his acceptance speech, he danced with his Oscar statue while singing Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek", a song first popularized by his boyhood idol Fred Astaire. After listing the names of many of the actors, musicians and technicians that he had worked with during his career, Donen modestly declared one of the secrets to being a great director is "You show up--and stay the hell out of the way. But you gotta show up or else you can't take the credit and win one of these guys." Martin Scorsese presented the award and created a montage of Donen's films for the show.

Donen's last film to date was the 1999 made-for-TV movie Love Letters, which aired on ABC. The film starred Steven Weber and Laura Linney and was based on the play by A.R. Gurney. In the film, Webber plays a successful US Senator who finds out that his long lost love Linney has recently died. The two had only corresponded through letters over the years, and Webber remembers Linney through his collection of old love letters.

In 2002 Donen directed Elaine May's musical play Adult Entertainment starring Danny Aiello and Jeannie Berlin in Stanford, CT.

Legacy

Donen and Gene Kelly are credited with helping to further the art of movie musicals by transitioning them from realistic backstage settings to abstract surrealistic films. After the success of The Jazz Singer in 1927, Hollywood quickly switched over to sound films and hired many songwriters and actors from the Broadway musical stage (as depicted in Singin' in the Rain). Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown were one of many lyricist and composer teams that moved to Hollywood during this time period and helped create the movie musical genre. Amongst other films, the team contributed songs to the 1929 Best Picture winner Broadway Melody, which was promoted as the first "all singing, all talking, all dancing" Hollywood film and was satirized in Singin' in the Rain. Another major musical in the early days of sound film was 42nd Street, the first major success of Busby Berkeley, who directed the musical numbers. This film helped establish the Backstage musical, in which the film's plot revolves around a musical show and the people involved in putting the show on. The musical performances in the film are therefore realistic in that they are justified by the plot, but at the same time do nothing to futher the story in and of themselves. Berekeley continued to make highly successful musicals of this kind throughout the 1930s. Donen has stated that he disliked the musicals of Busby Berkeley and that his own films were "a reaction against those backstage musicals." Other successful musicals of the 1930s include the Astaire/Rogers musicals and the Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald operattes. Often the musical numbers in these films were either within the context of a stage performance in the plot of the film itself or they seemed tacked on and gratuitious, doing nothing to futher the story or develop the characters. Although Donen credits earlier musicals by René Clair, Ernst Lubitsch and Fred Astaire as having been integrated musicals, he also states that "in the early musicals of Lubitsch and Clair, they made it clear from the beginning that their characters were going to sing operatically. Gene and I didn't go that far. In 'Moses Supposes', he and Donald sort of talk themselves into a song."

Arthur Freed was eventually promoted to producer in 1939 and established the Freed Unit, which was famous for producing all of the musicals for MGM. Donen credits Freed as being the driving force behind the evolution in movie musicals, stating that "why Arthur made such a big contribution to musical movies was because he was singularly equipped to do so...[he] just had some sort of instinct to change the musical from a backstage world into something else. he didn't quite know what to change it into, just that it had to change."

Cover Girl is credited with transitioning musicals from the filmed Broadway shows that had been made since the innovation of sound films to a musical films that integrated the music into the story and characters. Donen and Kelly are usually considered to be the main contributors to this new style in movie musicals.

Martin Rubin has credited Take Me Out to the Ball Game (which was directed by Berkeley) as an "indication of changing trends in musical films" and were a step away from the Berkeley spectacles towards a "relatively small-scale affairs that place the major emphasis on comedy, transitions to the narrative, the cleverness of the lyrics and the personalities and performance skills of the stars, rather than on spectacle and group dynamics." Rubin credits Donen and Kelly with making musicals more realistic, compared to Berkeley's stlye of a "separation of narrative space from performance space"

David Thomson dismisses most of Donen's later comedy films, but praises him for leading "the musical in a triumphant and personal direction: out of doors...Not even Minnelli can rival the fresh-air excitement of such sequences. And few can equal his integration of song, dance and story." Andrew Sarris dismisses Donen as being without a personal style of his own and as being dependent upon his collaborators on his better films.

Among Donen's admirers are film directors Lindsay Anderson, Charlie Chaplin, Jules Dassin, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, Karel Reisz, Martin Scorsese and Francois Truffaut. Donen's skill as a director has been praised by such actor's as Cyd Charisse and Audrey Hepburn. Debbie Reynolds has downplayed his contributions to Singin' in the Rain, stating that "Stanley just operated the camera, because Stanley didn't dance."

Relationship with Gene Kelly

Donen's relationship with collaborator Gene Kelly was strained and he often spoke bitterly of Kelly in interviews decades after having last worked with him. Kelly was never explicitly negative about Donen in interviews, however Donen's biographer Stephen Silverman asserts that Kelly's comments were often condescending and demonstrated "a long-standing attempt to diminish Donen's contributions to their collective work." The reasons for the conflict between the two men were both personal (due to both men having been married to dancer Jeanne Coyne) and professional differences (due to Donen always feeling that Kelly did not respect him or treat him as an equal). It is also debatable as to which of the two deserves more credit for the films they made together. They co-directed three films and choreographed (and unofficially co-directed) the dance scenes in four other films.

Jeanne Coyne was a professional dancer, choreographer and sometimes actress born in 1923. At the age of seven Coyne enrolled in the Gene Kelly Studio of Dance in Johnstown, PA and developed a schoolgirl crush on Kelly that lasted her entire life. As a young woman, she went to New York and landed a role in Best Foot Forward, where she reconnected with Kelly and first met Donen. Like both Kelly and Donen, she moved to Hollywood in the early 1940s and worked as a dancer and choreographer at MGM. She and Donen eloped in 1948, but their marriage became strained in 1949 until they separated in 1950 and finally divorced in 1951. During this period Coyne was working as Kelly's personal assistant on films like On the Town, Summer Stock and An American in Paris. When Donen was frustrated with Kelly during the making of On the Town, he confided his anger to Coyne only to find that she immediately took Kelly's side. There had been rumors that Kelly and Coyne were having an affair both during and after Coyne's marriage to Donen, as well as rumors that Donen was in love with Kelly's first wife Betsy Blair, and that she reciprocated his affection. Blair's autobiography makes no mention of an affair between Kelly and Coyne or of any romantic attachments to or from Donen. However she does state that Donen's marriage to Coyne was unhappy and that Donen was very close to Kelly and herself. Kelly always thought that Donen's impulsive marriage to Coyne showed an emotional immaturity and lack of good judgement in Donen and in an interview Kelly stated that "Jeanne's marriage to Stanley was doomed from the start. Because every time Stanley looked at Jeanne, he saw Betsy, whom he loved; and every time Jeanne looked at Stanley, I guess she saw me. One way or another it was all pretty incestuous." Kelly's marriage to Blair ended in 1957, after which he moved in with Coyne. They married in 1960 and had two children together. Coyne was diagnosed with leukemia and died in 1973.

Donen and Kelly first met during production on the stage show Pal Joey, and became collaborators and friends during production of Best Foot Forward. The relationship between the two has been described as similar to that of the characters Don Lockwood and Cosmo Brown in Singin' in the Rain. Kelly described Donen as being like a son to him and Donen initially idolized Kelly, while still finding him to be "cold, egotistical and very rough." Although Donen has credited Kelly for "jump-starting his career as a filmmaker", he has also stated that MGM producer Roger Edens was his biggest promoter. Many sources believe that Donen owes everything to Kelly and Kelly biographer Clive Hirschhorn as described Donen as having "no particular identity or evident talent...and was just a kid from the south who wanted to make it in show business." However it is also true that a sixteen-year-old Donen came to New York with no connections or friends and after only two auditions landed a role on Broadway with one of its most successful directors. Donen has stated that he moved to Hollywood of his own accord, however other sources claim that he followed Kelly, who then helped him get his first job. Kelly would sometimes embarrass and patronize Donen in public, such as berating Donen for not being able to keep up with his dance steps during the rehearsals for Cover Girl. Donen has admitted that he did not consider himself to be a very good performer. Despite Donen's growing resentment of Kelly he was able to compartmentalize his personal feelings and professional attitude during their collaborations. Tensions between the two exploded on the set of their last collaboration as co-directors on It's Always Fair Weather. Donen had recently had a major hit with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and did not want to make another film with Kelly. They fought on the set for the first time, with the now more confident Donen asserting himself. Donen almost quit the film and his friendship with Kelly ended. In later years Donen would state that he had nothing nice to say about Kelly. At a 1991 tribute to Comden and Green, Kelly said in a public speech that Donen "needed [him] to grow up with" but added "I needed Stanley at the back of the camera." He also described Donen as being thought of as his whipping-boy at MGM. Although Donen often complained that Kelly never gave him enough credit for their work, Kelly did credit him for the Jerry the Mouse and "Alter Ego" dances. In 1992 Donen said "I'm grateful to him, but I paid back the debt, ten times over. And he got his money's worth out of me." Donen was consistently bitter about Kelly in later interviews, which Betsy Blair claimed to be "surprised and bemused" of.

The equality of contributions of Donen and Kelly's collaborations is debatable. David Thomson has written about "the problem in assessing [Donen's] career: who did what in their collaboration? And what is Donen's real standing as a director?" Thomson goes on to hypothesize that "nothing in his career suggests that Gene Kelly could have filmed himself singing in the rain with the exhiliration of Donen's retreating crane shot." Donen has stated that "by the time you hash it through from beginning to end ten million times, you can't remember who did what except in a few instances where you remember getting an idea. Gene is responsible for most of the dance movements. I was behind the camera in the dramatic and musical sequences." Composer Saul Chaplin said that "Gene was the prime mover and Stanley an eager and talented pupil." Comparing Donen and Kelly's films as directors, Donen's were usually more critically acclaimed and financially successful than Kelly's films. Kelly's 1969 film Hello Dolly! was the most expensive musical ever made upon its release and is credited with effectively killing the Hollywood musical. The two men were competitive about their separate careers. During the making of It's Always Fair Weather, Donen's self-confidence was high due to having just made two hit films: Deep in My Heart and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, while Vincent Minnelli's Brigadoon (which Kelly was closely involved in and had wanted to direct) was a flop and Kelly's own ambitious film Invitation to Dance had been shot in 1952 but was not released by MGM until 1956, and was then financially unsuccessful. Kelly's problems at that time also included unsuccessfully attempting to branch out into dramatic acting with The Devil Makes Three and Seagulls Over Sorrento, both of which had flopped, as well as his marriage to Betsy Blair beginning to fall apart. During the shooting of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Donen often complained about his budgetary constraints preventing him from having better sets or the luxury of shooting on location, while Brigadoon had a much larger budget.

Personal Life

Donen has been married five times and has three children. All of his marriages ended in divorce. His first wife was dancer, choreographer and actress Jeanne Coyne. She married Donen on April 14, 1948. They separated in April 1950 and officially divorced in May 1951. Donen's second wife was actress Marion Marshall, who had been the girlfriend of Howard Hawks and later married actor Robert Wagner. Donen and Marshall had two sons together: Peter Donen, born in 1953, and Joshua Donen, born in 1955. These sons comprise the name of Cary Grant's character in the 1963 film Charade. Donen and Marshall were married from 1952 until 1959. Donen's third wife was Adelle, Countess Beatty. She had previously been the second wife of the 2nd Earl Beatty. They had one son, Mark Donen and lived together in London. They were married in 1960 and separated in 1969 before divorcing in 1971. Donen's fourth wife was the French actress Yvette Mimieux. They were married from 1972 until 1985, but remained close friends after their divorce. Donen's fifth wife was Pamela Braden, who was thirty-six years younger than him. Donen proposed to her four days after having met her. They were married from 1990 until 1994.

In the early 1940s Donen dated actress Judy Holliday while still working on Broadway. He also dated Elizabeth Taylor for a year between his first and second marriages. Donen's current long time companion is writer and director Elaine May.

Donen's eldest son Peter Donen was a successful visual effects artist who worked on such films as Superman III, Spaceballs, The Bourne Identity and The Truth About Charlie. He also designed the title credits for Blame It on Rio. Peter Donen died of a heart attack in 2003 at the age of 50. Donen's second son Joshua Donen is a Film producer. He has worked on such films as The Quick and the Dead, Drag Me to Hell and the TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand . Donen's third son Mark worked as a Production Assistant on Blame It on Rio.

In 1959, Donen's father Mordecai Donen died at the age of 59 in Beufort, South Carolina. His mother Helen Donen died in 1989 at the age of 84. Donen delivered the eulogy at his mother's funeral.

With the deaths in the 2000s of Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Robert Wise and Jules Dassin, Stanley Donen became the last surviving notable film director of Hollywood's Golden Age. He has never officially retired and occasionally makes appearances at film festivals and retrospectives of his work. He was the subject of the 2010 documentary Stanley Donen: You Just Do It.

Works

Filmography

Stage Work

Awards and Honors

Further reading

• Joseph A. Casper. Stanley Donen, Scarecrow Press, 1983.
• Stephen M. Silverman. Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies, Knopf, New York, 1996
• John Wakeman. World Film Directors, Volume 2. The H. W. Wilson Company. 1988. pp. 273-282.

External links

• Extracts from Silverman's biography of Donen