When I reviewed the young adult novel “Daddy-Long-Legs” by Jean Webster last week, I recalled that a movie by the same name had been made, and I headed over to Amazon to find it. It arrived in yesterday’s mail, and I had a wonderful time last night watching it.
As I expected, the movie was quite different from the book, so I don’t worry about repeating myself as I review the film.
Jervis Pendleton (Fred Astaire) is a happy-go-lucky and slightly immature bachelor millionaire. He’s never been married, has never taken business very seriously, and is only kept on track by his assistant, Griggs.
On a trip to Paris, the Pendleton car breaks down and Jervis heads up the road to find a telephone. Instead, he stumbles on an orphanage and Julie Andre (Leslie Caron) the oldest orphan at eighteen. He’s taken with her easy way with the children and her obvious intelligence, and wants to offer her more. Speaking to the head mistress, he discovers that because of circumstances beyond their control, Julie will most likely spend her whole life at the orphanage, helping to run it.
Jervis decides to sponsor a college education for Julie, complete with clothing, travel expenses, new luggage – the whole works. His conditions are that she never know who he is and that she write to him once a month to keep him updated on her education. After making all the arrangements, however, Jervis forgets the incident and it’s business as usual. Julie’s letters go into a file that he never opens.
Meanwhile, Julie is having the time of her life at college, but after two years of faithfully writing her guardian and getting no reply, she feels lonely and sends him a letter, begging him to write. This letter is read by Jervis’s secretary (Thelma Ritter) who demands that Jervis take the time to read the file. He does, and is deeply touched, to the point where he goes out to the college to meet her in person, as Jervis. He doesn’t reveal himself as her sponsor until the end of the film.
I greatly enjoyed this movie. We’ve always known Fred had an amazing sense of timing and rhythm, and we see more of this in his opening number. I thought the dream sequences were a bit overdone and there were far too many of them, but they weren’t overshadowed by the movie, which was sweet and romantic.
A few interesting points – this movie was one of Fred’s favorites, but it was filmed shortly after the death of his wife, which had upset him so badly he almost didn’t finish the role. He changed his mind, however, and enjoyed the experience.
Leslie Caron designed her own costumes for the film, following Fred’s admonition to stay away from feathers. Fred apparently had some bad experiences with Ginger’s elaborate costumes.
At the time of filming, Leslie was twenty-four and Fred was fifty-six. Their age difference was mentioned throughout the film, one of the first times such a dramatic gap was shown in Hollywood.
This film was not rated.
Related Blogs: