Mark Griffin by A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life, Films of Vincente Minnelli

and haunting.” However, according to Gene Kelly, Vincente was never in love with Brigadoon , and this seems to be borne out in the claustrophobic, airless feeling that permeates parts of the film. Occasionally, the musical manages to free itself from its soundstage shackles and soars. “The Heather on the Hill” is a glorious sequence, which succeeds because of the gracefulness of Kelly and Charisse and the inspired arrangements of Conrad Salinger.
    At first glance, Brigadoon appears to contain all of the makings of a Minnelli classic: It’s a musical in which a restless soul traverses the pathways between an unsatisfying everyday existence and a far more enchanting dream world. Yet, a frustrated Minnelli, a “curiously remote” Kelly, and the drudgery
of repeating every shot a second time in the name of CinemaScope added up to a 108-minute disappointment for some observers. “I told him I thought it kind of sucked and particularly a lot of Vincente’s work,” Stone Widney says of a postscreening autopsy he conducted with Alan Jay Lerner. “It had lovely touches in various places but clumsy staging, though Alan didn’t want to hear that and I think he was probably kind of in denial about that. As long as the show gets on and it has big stars and it makes money, I think Alan felt that it was a success.” 7
    Fifty years after its initial release, Brigadoon is dismissed by some, championed by others. “I think Brigadoon is an underrated film,” says film and dance scholar Beth Genne:
    For one thing, I think that they were quite successful in transferring it to film. Some of the compositions are really beautiful, like the opening scene where the village comes back to life. . . . But I think there’s a prejudice against it because when [the stage show] first appeared, the sophisticated New York critics said—as they did with Oklahoma! —that it was corny. There was also this feeling that Brigadoon was “twee,” which means something that goes beyond cute. Like when you go to “Mrs. So and So’s Kozy Komfort Inn” and she’s got too many ribbons on everything and a few too many scented candles. . . . After awhile, you just can’t handle it. It’s overdone. I don’t think Brigadoon is overdone but it’s maybe just a little bit twee. But even so, there are some marvelous things in it. 8
    Despite some of Brigadoon ’s redeeming features, most of the critics took aim: “The whimsical dream world it creates holds no compelling attractions,” said Penelope Huston in the London Times . “Hollywood can still put its worst foot forward in the classic manner,” griped Newsweek .
    Farley Granger, who had remained friendly with Vincente after The Story of Three Loves , remembered that he and designer Oliver Smith were visiting with Minnelli when the reviews of Brigadoon were phoned in to the film’s mortified director.
    I remember that Vincente was on the phone all the time that we were having drinks. Liza, who was a little girl at the time, kept running in and out in these incredible costumes. We could hear the phone conversations coming from the other room. . . . Brigadoon had opened in New York and it had gotten roasted, and we could hear Vincente saying, “Were they that bad?” and “That bad . . . really ?” Oliver Smith, who had a very funny, dry sense of humor, would raise an eyebrow and giggle, and in would come Liza as Little Bo Peep. 9

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    “There’ll Be Some Changes Made”
    IF MGM’S PUBLICIST, Howard Strickling, was the keeper of the studio’s darkest secrets, Metro’s house designer, Helen Rose, was privy to what many leading ladies considered far more privileged information. Rose, who had costumed Minnelli’s Father of the Bride and The Bad and the Beautiful , knew which bras required significant padding or if an Oscar-winning waistline had suddenly expanded. From three-piece suits to birthday suits, Rose had certainly seen it all. As film historian David Chierichetti recalls, “Helen