Lili (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Jun 05, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Charles WaltersRelease Date(s)
1953 (April 29, 2025)Studio(s)
Metro-Goldywn-Mayer/Loew’s, Inc. (Warner Archive Collection)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: C+
Review
When Leslie Caron made her heralded screen debut in An American in Paris in 1951, a star was born. Lili, released two years later, presented the young actress in one of her best-known roles.
Caron plays Lili Laurier, a sixteen-year-old whose father was her only family. Now that her father has died, Lili travels to a French coastal town to find her father’s old friend and ask for a job in the man’s bakery. Learning that the baker, too, has passed away, Lili falls into despair. Traveling carnival magician Marc (Jean-Pierre Aumont) is strolling around the small town and notices Lili. Her despondent air touches him and he offers her kind words of reassurance. Lili falls in love with him and accepts a job waitressing at the show’s cabaret. What neither Lili nor anyone else know is that Marc is secretly married to his assistant, Rosalie (Zsa Zsa Gabor). Lili is so entranced by Marc and his magic that she neglects her job to watch his show and is promptly fired.
Puppeteer Paul Berthalet (Mel Ferrer) tries to cheer Lili by speaking to her through his puppets. She responds to the puppets as if they’re living people. Her reaction moves Marc to work her into the act and the puppet show becomes a big draw. As himself, however, Paul is cold and unkind to Lili because he’s jealous of her infatuation with Marc. We learn that Paul was a famous dancer before his leg was injured in the war and now suffers from a lack of self-worth.
The film features the song, Hi Lili, Hi Lo, performed by Caron and the puppets, and two production numbers that allow Caron to show off her dancing skills. In one, Marc, Rosalie and Lili form a jealous trio with the two women circling Marc, the prize they both covet. Dressed in long, matching sequined gowns, they move seductively as Aumont occasionally spins around, looking uncomfortable. The second is a fantasy ballet in which Lili imagines herself and the puppets-come-to-life walking down a surrealistic road. As Lili dances with the puppets, they each turn, one by one, into Paul, who walks in the opposite direction and fades away. This sequence makes clear that the puppets represent various aspects of Paul’s personality.
Caron is a good fit for the role. Not only is she an accomplished ballerina, she’s also lovely, with a soft, wide-eyed, expressive face that conveys Lili’s youth and innocence. We believe that she would interact with the puppets as if they were real, flesh-and-blood people. Although Lili’s affection for Marc seems rather abrupt, the actress makes it credible.
Aumont’s Marc is the handsome heartthrob Marcus the Magnificent, a star in his small world and the object of Lili’s affection. He’s kind to Lili and regards her as the child she is. He and Rosalie keep their marriage secret so he can continue to attract a female audience.
Ferrer plays Paul with the right combination of arrogance, condescension, and bitterness. Paul is one of many men permanently injured during the war. Some overcome their anger, others cannot. Paul is consumed with self-pity that affects those around him. We never see him smile until the very end. The flaw in Ferrer’s performance is his obvious lack of dance technique in the fantasy ballet. Even with a permanent leg injury, a former premier dancer should still have some muscle memory in the rest of his body.
The glamorous Zsa Zsa Gabor plays Rosalie as the appropriately glamorous assistant, with Marc’s magic removing articles of her clothing to the delight of the audience. With flawless features, she shines in a fairly small role.
Lili is not a full-out musical, though it does have a couple of musical sequences. The story is a simple one—a kind of fairy tale in which a poor, orphaned girl finds happiness in small-time show business. With charm, humor, and heart in a vaguely defined world where sadness and aimlessness can be cured by a bit of fantasy, Lili casts an enchanting spell.
Lili was shot by director of photography Robert H. Planck on 35 mm film with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The picture on the Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection is clear but lacks the sharpness of their other releases. The color palette is vibrant, especially in the carnival scenes with a ferris wheel, multi-colored balloons, tents, crowds of people, and the brightly attired puppets. Zsa Zsa Gabor wears a form-fitting, slinky, sequined dress in Marc’s magic act. Paul is usually dressed in dark colors, particularly blue to suggest his dark mood. The entire film was shot on sound stages and on the MGM back lot. A stone bridge in the film was also used in Royal Wedding and The Three Musketeers. The magic performed by Marc relies more on editing than sleight-of-hand as Rosalie “disappears” from behind Marc’s cape.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio. English SDH subtitles are an available option. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Leslie Caron speaks with a slight French accent, appropriate to the French setting, and Zsa Zsa Gabor has her distinctive Hungarian accent, but other actors either don’t attempt an accent or slip in and out of one. Hi Lili, Hi Lo is the only song in the film, performed by Leslie Caron and heard later orchestrally. The Oscar-winning score by Bronislau Kaper is light and frothy for the most part.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from the Warner Archive Collection include the following:
- The Impossible Possum (6:33)
- Pecos Pest (6:43)
- Puppy Tale (7:01)
- Theatrical Trailer (3:15)
The Impossible Possum – In this 1954 Technicolor cartoon, directed by Dick Lundy, Barney Bear sets out to trap a possum for his dinner, but the task proves difficult until he uses a puppet of a girl possum. This was the last Barney Bear cartoon produced by MGM and features synchronized action as well as old-fashioned silent movie gags.
Pecos Pest – Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, this Technicolor Tom & Jerry cartoon was released in 1955. Jerry’s eccentric uncle, Pecos—a Texas mouse—comes to spend the night with him before his musical performance on TV the next day. He decides to rehearse with his guitar but each time he plays, one of his guitar strings snaps off. Fortunately, he’s able to replace them by picking off one of Tom’s whiskers each time. Tom isn’t happy about this and tries to keep his remaining whiskers out of the clutches of Uncle Pecos.
Puppy Tale – In this 1954 Tom & Jerry cartoon from MGM, Jerry rescues a bag of puppies from the river. Most run away immediately but one stays behind. Jerry attempts to get rid of it but eventually takes pity and invites the frisky pup inside, where he has to hide it from Tom. Tom, finding it in various hiding places, keeps throwing the pup out. When a thunderstorm begins, Tom feels sorry for the pup, goes out searching for it, and falls into the river himself. Jerry becomes the unlikely rescuer.
Lili is based on the short story The Man Who Hated People by Paul Gallico and was inspired by the children’s TV puppet show Kukla, Fran and Ollie. It’s a pleasant picture with a winning performance by a young Leslie Caron. The carnival setting provides plenty of Technicolor pizzazz and the puppets by Paul E. Walton and Michael O’Rourke are amusing co-stars. The film suggests a simpler time, and retains its charm all these decades later.
- Dennis Seuling