Cyd Charisse, 1922-2008

Those legs.

More than all the slinking Cyd Charisse did with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, it’s the manic heights she scales with Kirk Douglas in Vincente Minnelli’s careening Two Weeks in Another Town that I’m thinking of. I wish there were a clip of her first scene in the film floating around youtube.

I’m pretty sure the camera starts on her legs, and then pulls back so we can watch her sidle through the stopped traffic in Rome to drape herself into a convertible where her ex-husband, the washed-up actor played by Douglas, stares. She drips jewels and desire and contempt, and it’s only the beginning.

Cyd Charisse, 86; dancer starred in movie musicals with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Los Angeles Times