From ballet to movies, Cyd Charisse was a cool classic
The rap on Cyd Charisse was that she was a far better dancer than an actress, but I don't care what you say: The lady had presence. When that endless leg stretched out before Gene Kelly's dazzled eyes in "Singin' in the Rain," you knew a star was being born.
Like all the pure dancers of Hollywood - Fred Astaire, Kelly, Eleanor Powell - Charisse, who died on Tuesday at 86, expressed persona through movement rather than dialogue, and in her case that persona was smoky, sinuous, and cool: a quintessential '50s mix of sex and poise. She was the choreographic equivalent of a classic Sinatra LP.
She also had one of the great Hollywood birth names: Tula Ellice Finklea. Born in Amarillo, Texas, and nicknamed "Sid" by a brother who couldn't pronounce "Sis," she moved to Hollywood when she was young to study ballet. After dancing with the Ballets Russes and a first marriage to her teacher, Nico Charisse, in Paris, Charisse made the move into film, starting with 1943's "Something to Shout About." (It wasn't.)
It was her dance number with Astaire in 1946's "Ziegfeld Follies" that made audiences sit up and wonder who the hell was dancing with Fred. She still had to wait six more years, until the climactic "Broadway Melody" set piece of "Singin' in the Rain," to become a full-fledged household name. After that it was more Astaire ("The Band Wagon," "Silk Stockings") and more Kelly ("Brigadoon," "It's Always Fair Weather"), and a 60-year marriage to singer Tony Martin, who survives her.
Class is what she had, and legs as long as Manhattan. Of all her movies, the one I treasure most is 1955's "It's Always Fair Weather" - the dark, dyspeptic answer-musical to "Singin' in the Rain" - in which Charisse entertains a gym full of pug-faced boxers who toss her around the ring in delight and sing "Baby, You Knock Me Out."
That she did.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will devote its Friday, June 27, prime-time lineup to a three-film tribute to Charisse. It will include "Singin' in the Rain" (1952), "The Band Wagon" (1953), and "Silk Stockings" (1957).
Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com. 