Lili

US (1953): Drama/Musical/Romance

The wonderful Leslie Caron stars in this Oscar^®-winning musical fable with a touch of the bizarre. Caron plays Lili, a recently orphaned waif hopelessly in love with a carnival magician. Mel Ferrer plays Paul, a gruff puppeteer who can express his softer side only through his puppets. Sound weird? It is. Caron's performance is lovely. She is, as always, a graceful dancer, but she is also able to pull off the much more difficult task of making Lili pure and innocent without being icky -- she talks to Paul's puppets with complete conviction. (The puppets, created by Michael O'Rourke and Paul E. Walton, are incredibly creepy.)

Younger viewers will take Lili at face value, but adults may well get sucked into its unintentional dark side: homelessness, suicide, emotional repression, and giant dancing puppets all come into play. Also enjoyable is Zsa Zsa Gabor, who does a great job standing around looking pretty as the magician's assistant. Charles Walters directs. Cast also includes Jean-Pierre Aumont, Kurt Kaznar and Amada Blake. (MGM) (Amazon.com)

 Use this link to view the original theatrical trailer for Lili on TCM.com.

6 nominations, 1 Award