Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen (born April 13, 1924, Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.—died February 21, 2019, New York, New York) was an American motion-picture director and choreographer who was one of the most influential directors of movie musicals in the 1940s and ’50s.

Early life and work

Donen, who was the son of a dress-shop owner, faced prejudice growing up in one of the few Jewish families in his South Carolina community and frequently escaped to movie theatres. As a boy, he made 8-mm home movies and studied tap dance. After graduating from high school at age 16, he briefly attended the University of South Carolina but left for New York City in 1940 to pursue a career as a dancer. There he was cast as a chorus boy in the original production of the stage musical Pal Joey, whose star was Gene Kelly, with whom Donen would work many times over the next 15 years. In 1941 he assisted Kelly with the choreography for another stage musical, Best Foot Forward, the film version of which (1943) Donen co-choreographed and appeared in as part of the chorus. By this time he was living in Hollywood, and at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) he choreographed such musicals as Cover Girl (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), and Living in a Big Way (1947), most of them alongside Kelly. Moreover, he received a story credit for renowned choreographer Busby Berkeley’s Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), which he also choreographed.

Donen’s big chance came when he was asked by Kelly to codirect and co-choreograph On the Town (1949), a film adaptation of the 1944 Broadway hit musical written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It follows the exploits of three sailors (played by Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) on a one-day leave who find romance with three distaff New Yorkers (Vera-Ellen, Ann Miller, and Betty Garrett). The film was shot partly on location in New York City, on whose streets Donen dazzlingly directed the production number “New York, New York.”

Films of the 1950s

Donen’s first solo directorial effort, Royal Wedding (1951), was based on a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and featured Fred Astaire and Jane Powell. The next landmark in Donen’s career was another collaboration with Kelly, the huge box-office success Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Donen and Kelly codirected—and Kelly starred in—this satirical comedy about the coming of sound to the motion-picture industry. Widely considered one of the most-accomplished movie musicals ever made, it turns on a series of wildly inventive dance sequences, including a parody of Berkeley, humorous acrobatics by Donald O’Connor, Kelly’s famous splash-filled dance with an umbrella in the rain, and the sumptuously filmed “Broadway Ballet” performed by Kelly and Cyd Charisse.

A modest comedy, Fearless Fagan (1952), and Give a Girl a Break (1953), with a performance by Debbie Reynolds and the dancing of Bob Fosse and Gower Champion, preceded Donen’s next major triumph, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). A creative extrapolation of Stephen Vincent Benet’s short story “Sobbin’ Women” (based on Plutarch’s description of the abduction of the Sabine women in Life of Romulus), Seven Brides featured highly theatrical sets, athletic dancing (choreographed by Michael Kidd), and an appealing cast (Howard Keel, Russ Tamblyn, Jane Powell, Julie Newmar). It was a huge commercial and artistic success, and it earned an Academy Award nomination for best picture. Deep in My Heart (1954), a musical revue that celebrated the life and works of composer Sigmund Romberg, followed.

Kelly and Donen codirected a cast that included Charisse, Kidd, and Dan Dailey in It’s Always Fair Weather (1955), a somewhat downbeat Comden-Green story about three army veterans whose 10-year reunion illustrates that they no longer can be friends. Donen’s next film, Funny Face (1957), was among his best. Originally developed at MGM by Arthur Freed but directed by Donen for Paramount, the musical teamed Astaire and Audrey Hepburn in a May-December love story set in the world of high-fashion in Paris. Donen made the most of gorgeous cinematography, art direction, and production design, as well as an outstanding score by George Gershwin that included the songs “ ’S Wonderful” and “How Long Has This Been Going On.”

Operating as a freelance producer, Donen codirected The Pajama Game (1957) with George Abbott, who had overseen the stage musical on which the film was based. Doris Day starred as the head of the grievance committee in a pajama factory whose workers are about to go on strike. The film’s delightful score included “Hernando’s Hideaway.” The sparkling choreography by Fosse was creatively captured by Donen. With Damn Yankees (1958), Donen and Abbott codirected another musical that originated onstage under Abbott’s direction. Combining the Faust legend with baseball, the film retained most of the Broadway cast (notably Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, and Jean Stapleton) and a score that included “Whatever Lola Wants” and “You Gotta Have Heart.”

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Films of the 1960s and ’70s

As the popularity of movie musicals began to fade in the late 1950s, Donen increasingly took on other projects. In Indiscreet (1958) he used Cary Grant to good comedic effect as a diplomat-playboy who romances a famed actress played by Ingrid Bergman. Less successful were a pair of films that Donen directed starring Yul Brenner: Once More, with Feeling! (1960), another romantic comedy; and Surprise Package (1960), a caper film.

Donen fared better with The Grass Is Greener (1960), a pleasant if unremarkable marital comedy with an all-star cast: Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Jean Simmons. Charade (1963) was better still, a tongue-in-cheek suspense film that set charismatic stars Grant and Hepburn (in their only teaming) on the trail of a big cache of stolen money, with Walter Matthau and James Coburn as amusingly nefarious villains. Donen’s next significant effort was Arabesque (1966). A somewhat confusing espionage yarn set in London, it starred Gregory Peck as a bewildered American professor opposite Sophia Loren.

Two for the Road (1967), arguably Donen’s best nonmusical film, is a penetrating examination of a marriage’s ups and more plentiful downs. Hepburn and Albert Finney are both superb as the couple whose relationship is depicted in five road trips they take to the south of France. Donen makes masterful use of flash-forwards and flashbacks in this meticulously constructed, deftly edited jigsaw puzzle of a film. Although it was not a commercial success, Two for the Road gradually built a cult following, as would another of Donen’s films, Bedazzled (1967), a comic exploration of the seven deadly sins that operated as a vehicle for actors Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke. Intriguing but often overlooked is Donen’s provocative teaming of Rex Harrison and Richard Burton as a gay couple in Staircase (1969). In 1974 Donen made an inauspicious return to the world of musicals with The Little Prince.

Later films

After making his five previous motion pictures in England, Donen returned to the United States for Lucky Lady (1975), a big-budget romantic adventure set during Prohibition with Burt Reynolds, Gene Hackman, and Liza Minnelli as scheming rumrunners. It failed dramatically at the box office. In Movie Movie (1978) Donen and a cast that included George C. Scott, Eli Wallach, and Art Carney lovingly parodied two of the most popular genres of the 1930s—the backstage musical and the boxing film—but audiences seemed to have been confounded by its unusual conceit.

As his career began to wind down, Donen directed the outer-space-themed Saturn 3 (1980) and then Blame It on Rio (1984), a sex farce starring Michael Caine. He made his Broadway directing debut with The Red Shoes, an expensive musical that closed quickly in 1993. Following that failure, Donen directed television programs and made a music video for Lionel Richie, after which he effectively retired.