Mark Griffin by A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life, Films of Vincente Minnelli

“master of ceremonies.” The role practically screamed Chevalier.
    As the screenplay began taking shape, Lerner realized that his Gigi was more than slightly reminiscent of My Fair Lady . Both musicals offered a sharp-eyed social critique in the form of a sumptuous Cinderella story. There were also some unmistakable similarities in terms of the plot: Both Eliza Doolittle and Gigi undergo a stunning transformation—from gamine to goddess. And in each story, the central character, who is groomed to find a better way of life, goes a step further and finds herself—to the astonishment of her more mature love interest. Lerner began second-guessing himself, recognizing that there was more than just a passing resemblance between the two properties. “Stop trying to be different,” Arthur Freed reportedly told Lerner. “You
don’t have to be different to be good. To be good is different enough.” 3 The My Fair Lady connection would become even more pronounced when Lerner agreed to write the lyrics and convinced his initially reluctant Fair Lady partner, Frederick Loewe, to sign on to write the music for Gigi .
    In Leslie Caron, Freed had found an authentic Parisian star, but one who was anything but eager to work with Minnelli again. Throughout the production of An American in Paris , Caron had struggled with Vincente’s cryptic communication style (which Judy Garland had described as “Burmese hieroglyphics”). In January 1957, Caron wrote to Freed, expressing her preference for a real talker, such as George Cukor. Unmoved, Freed backed Minnelli all the way. The other members of Caron’s on-screen family would be played by two venerable British actresses: Hermione Gingold as Madame Alvarez, Gigi’s overprotective grandmama, and Isabel Jeans as the imperious Aunt Alicia (who gets to deliver one of the film’s most memorable lines: “Bad table manners have broken up more households than infidelity.”)
    With Gigi and her family finally in place, the search was on for an actor to play Gaston, the dashing heir to Lachaille Sugar. “It takes considerable style and skill to play a bored man and not to be boring,” observed Alan Jay Lerner, who believed that nobody could do the bored bit better than Dirk Bogarde. 4 The British leading man was seriously considered for the role but he belonged to producer J. Arthur Rank, who would not release the actor.
    Then someone suggested Louis Jourdan, who had worked with Vincente nearly a decade earlier on Madame Bovary . Sauve and exuding a distinctly cosmopolitan air, Jourdan matched Colette’s description of Gigi’s well-heeled suitor as “a man accustomed to champagne and baccarat.” Initially, Jourdan turned down the role, as he was concerned about the vocal demands involved. After being assured that he could “talk-sing” his numbers in the film (as Rex Harrison had done so effectively in My Fair Lady ), Jourdan signed on. Besides, Lerner and Loewe’s score—which included “The Night They Invented Champagne,” “I Remember It Well,” and the title tune—practically sang itself. Unless you happened to be Leslie Caron, that is.
    Caron believed that she would be doing her own vocalizing in Gigi until the day she showed up at a studio recording session, ready to lift her voice in song, only to be informed by conductor-arranger André Previn that she would be dubbed (by Betty Wand). According to Alan Jay Lerner, Caron was “furious and doubly so because she had not been forewarned.” Apparently Arthur Freed had neglected to inform his star that all of her musical numbers would be handled by a professional singer (despite the fact that Caron had
already made prerecordings of her songs with Previn). “I’m surprised she took it so hard,” Freed shrugged. as
    In April 1957, Minnelli flew to Paris, and on this trip, more than his art books went along for the ride. Vincente was accompanied by Georgette, her parents, and two-year-old Tina Nina. It was one of the rare