IMDb plot summary: A musical remake of Ninotchka: After three bumbling Soviet agents fail in their mission to retrieve a straying Soviet composer from Paris, the beautiful, ultra-serious Ninotchka is sent to complete their mission and to retrieve them. She starts out condemning the decadent West, but gradually falls under its spell with the help of Steve Canfield, an American movie producer.
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, and Peter Lorre.
It's been awhile since I watched the original Ninotchka but I remember finding it irresistibly charming despite a silly premise. Silk Stockings... isn't. I don't know if it's the script or the fact that I personally have a very difficult time finding Fred Astaire likable or, more likely, some combination of both, but I mostly found myself wanting to just go rewatch Ninotchka instead. Most upsetting is how the couple breaks up due to a fairly serious disagreement that then just... doesn't exist at the end. And since I wasn't swept away by the couple's chemistry to begin with, I found it even more difficult to care about them steamrolling over reasons they shouldn't get together. The songs are OK, though they definitely fall into the Cole Porter trap of being too long and too repetitive (I'm never getting "glorious technicolor, breathtaking cinemascope, and stereophonic sound" out of my mind), and of course there are some good dance numbers, but it's disappointing overall.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Silk Stockings < One, Two, Three
Silk Stockings > Horton Hears a Who
Silk Stockings < The Hurt Locker
Silk Stockings > So I Married an Axe Murderer
Silk Stockings > Frida
Silk Stockings > Happy Christmas
Silk Stockings > Stephen King's The Stand
Silk Stockings < The Cat in the Hat (1971)
Silk Stockings > Grace of Monaco
Silk Stockings < Holiday
Silk Stockings < Anchors Aweigh
Silk Stockings < Another Thin Man
Final spot: #2104 out of 3336, or 37%.
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