# Les Girls
**Les Girls** (also released as *Cole Porter's Les Girls*) is a 1957 American musical comedy film made by [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer) and directed by [George Cukor](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-cukor), starring [Gene Kelly](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-kelly) as a dance troupe impresario whose three former showgirls give conflicting accounts of their years together after one sues another for libel.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/les_girls) The film runs 114 minutes, was shot in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, and won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) • [3](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1958)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | New York opening 3 October 1957; general release November 1957[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) |
| Director / writers | George Cukor; screenplay by John Patrick from a story credited to Vera Caspary[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) |
| Principal cast | Gene Kelly (Barry Nichols), Mitzi Gaynor (Joy Henderson), Kay Kendall (Lady Sybil Wren), Taina Elg (Angèle DuCros), Jacques Bergerac (Pierre DuCros)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) |
| Music | Songs and score by Cole Porter, his last complete score written directly for film[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) |
| Academy Awards | Winner, Best Costume Design (Orry-Kelly); nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Sound[3](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1958) |
| Golden Globes | Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical; Kay Kendall and Taina Elg tied for Best Actress, Comedy or Musical[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050631/awards/) |
| Milestone | Les Girls was Kelly's last film musical for MGM and his last MGM appearance until *That's Entertainment!* (1974), but he later appeared in *The Young Girls of Rochefort* (1967).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) • [11](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/gene-kelly/) • [12](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The frame story is a libel trial at the London Royal Courts of Justice. Angèle DuCros sues her fellow dancer Sybil Wren, now Lady Wren, whose memoir recounts her days with "Barry Nichols and Les Girls," a large vaudeville troupe directed by the famed dancer Barry Nichols. In one chapter Sybil suggests that Angèle, now married to the French businessman Pierre DuCros, attempted suicide over her unrequited love for Barry.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography)
From this courtroom the film unfolds in three conflicting flashbacks, one from each dancer's point of view and one from Barry's. Sybil accuses Angèle of having an affair with Barry, Angèle insists it was actually Sybil, and Barry finally gives his own account.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/les_girls) Critics and programmers have repeatedly described the structure as a musical *Rashomon*, after Kurosawa's 1950 film of clashing testimonies; the critic Andrew Sarris called it "a musical Rashomon."[5](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/george-cukor-les-girls/) Throughout the film an older man passes the court building carrying a sign that asks, "What Is Truth?"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography)
## Production
Gene Kelly had long wanted to make a musical version of *Idiot's Delight*, the [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize)-winning play about a song-and-dance man touring Europe with a troupe of chorus girls. When he and producer Sol C. Siegel decided to adapt Vera Caspary's original story in 1957, Kelly did not yet know it would be his last MGM musical.[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88465/les-girls) Siegel, fresh from *High Society*, hired that film's screenwriter John Patrick and told him not even to read Caspary's story, only to work from the basic situation. Patrick built the conflicting-flashback structure around the libel suit; when he finally met Caspary, she thanked him for making her the industry's top-paid writer, having received $80,000 for the film's two-word title.[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88465/les-girls)
Casting changed substantially before production. A 20 October 1955 Hollywood Reporter news item announced [Leslie Caron](https://www.edgepedia.org/leslie-caron), Cyd Charisse, and Carol Haney as the three leads, but all were later replaced. The Finnish ballerina Taina Elg was cast as the French girl, the British comedienne [Kay Kendall](https://www.edgepedia.org/kay-kendall) as the tipsy British dancer, and [Mitzi Gaynor](https://www.edgepedia.org/mitzi-gaynor) as the American. Cukor, who came to the project late, objected when MGM insisted on Gaynor and was told he could work with her or go on suspension; he stayed and concentrated on the film's visual design, using the fashion photographer George Hoyningen-Huene as color consultant. They developed a washed-out color scheme meant to capture the squalor of a low-rent musical act while keeping a rich palette for the story.[6](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88465/les-girls) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography)
Shooting ran from 3 January to late April 1957. Siegel and Cukor had planned to scout locations in Paris, Lisbon, and Moscow, but MGM restricted the shooting to Hollywood for budget reasons; Cukor, art director Gene Allen, and Hoyningen-Huene did visit Paris to research apartments and [Folies Bergère](https://www.edgepedia.org/folies-bergere) performances for the sets.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) The choreographer Jack Cole fell ill during the final weeks of production, and Kelly directed the remaining dance sequences; Kelly also choreographed the "Motorcycle Ballet" sequence himself.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography)
## Music and dance numbers
[Cole Porter](https://www.edgepedia.org/cole-porter) wrote the songs and score, with Saul Chaplin also working on the music as associate producer. Only a limited number of Porter's songs reached the final film; among those cut for budget reasons were "High Flyin' Wings on My Shoes," "Drinking Song," "I Could Kick Myself," "My Darling Never Is Late," "My Little Piece o' Pie," "What Fun," and "You're the Prize Guy of Guys."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) Songs retained in the film include "Ca c'est l'Amour," "Les Girls," "Ladies in Waiting," "You're Just Too, Too," "Why Am I So Gone About That Gal?", "Flower Song," and "The Rope Song," alongside the "Habanera" from Bizet's opera *Carmen*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography)
Several numbers became points of critical attention. In "Why Am I So Gone About That Gal?" Kelly plays a [Marlon Brando](https://www.edgepedia.org/marlon-brando)-style biker opposite Gaynor in a parody of *The Wild One*; Kelly choreographed the duet himself and inserted it during postproduction despite Cole's single-card choreography credit.[7](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/269) • [8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/1695) MoMA's notes single out "Ladies in Waiting" as a number uniting Porter's lyrics, Orry-Kelly's costumes, and Robert Surtees's cinematography to mirror the film's *Rashomon* structure, and describe the title number as accommodating Kelly's straw-hat shtick, white dancers playing African Watusis, and the "classy non-dancer" Kay Kendall in a Jack Cole striptease.[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/1695) Kendall's singing voice was dubbed by Betty Wand.[7](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/269)
## Reception and honors
At the 30th Academy Awards, honoring films of 1957, *Les Girls* won Best Costume Design for Orry-Kelly and was nominated for Best Art Direction (William A. Horning, Gene Allen, Edwin B. Willis, Richard Pefferle) and Best Sound Recording (Wesley C. Miller).[3](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1958) At the Golden Globes it won Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, and Kay Kendall and Taina Elg tied for Best Actress in the same category.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050631/awards/) John Patrick won the Writers Guild Award for Best Written American Musical, and the film was selected for Britain's Royal Command Performance, an honor bestowed in that period on one film each year.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050631/awards/)
Contemporary reviews were largely favorable. TIME's review of the New York opening called it "easily the best that Hollywood has put together since *An American in Paris* and *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers*" and singled out Kendall, predicting the film would be remembered as "La Girl, and Kay Kendall is her name."[9](https://time.com/archive/6800265/cinema-the-new-pictures-oct-14-1957/) Variety later called it "an exceptionally tasty musical morsel that is in the best tradition of the Metro studio," while a dissenting Film Culture review found the Porter score undistinguished and the film below the standard of *Singin' in the Rain* and *The Band Wagon*.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/les_girls) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 89% critics' score from nine reviews and a 72% audience score.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/les_girls)
## Place in the careers of its makers
The film marked Kelly's last film musical for MGM, although he later appeared in the 1967 musical *[The Young Girls of Rochefort](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-young-girls-of-rochefort)*.[12](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS) It was Kelly's last film musical and his last MGM appearance until a small part in *That's Entertainment!* (1974), and it was Porter's last complete score written directly for film, though he later created musical numbers for the film version of his Broadway hit *Silk Stockings*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography) It was also Kelly's first and only collaboration with Cukor.[5](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/george-cukor-les-girls/) For Kay Kendall, praised widely as the film's scene-stealer, it was one of her final performances; she died young two years later, in September 1959.[5](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/george-cukor-les-girls/) • [10](https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3370/1/geraghtykendallfinal.pdf)
The film's source has a tangled history. The credits list Vera Caspary, author of the novel *Laura*, as story author, but MGM files at the USC Cinema-Television Archives indicate that a July 1955 *Atlantic* article titled "Les Girls" by Constance Tomkinson, later expanded into a book, was used in the studio's initial treatments. Tomkinson's autobiographical writings about her months in the Folies Bergère chorus line resemble the screenplay in places, but key elements of the film, such as the libel suit and the three leads' relationships, do not appear in her work.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography)
## References
1. [Les Girls (1957), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS?cxt=filmography)
2. [Les Girls, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/les_girls)
3. [The 30th Academy Awards, 1958, Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1958)
4. [Les Girls (1957), Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050631/awards/)
5. [Les Girls, Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/george-cukor-les-girls/)
6. [Les Girls, by Frank Miller, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88465/les-girls)
7. [Watch Les Girls, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/269)
8. [Les Girls. 1957. Directed by George Cukor, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/1695)
9. [Cinema: The New Pictures, TIME, October 14, 1957](https://time.com/archive/6800265/cinema-the-new-pictures-oct-14-1957/)
10. [Christine Geraghty, Paris, Hollywood and Kay Kendall, University of Glasgow ePrints](https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3370/1/geraghtykendallfinal.pdf)
11. [Gene Kelly, The Stars, Broadway: The American Musical, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/gene-kelly/)
12. [catalog.afi.com](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52191-LES-GIRLS)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Musical and music films (individual works) › Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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