With a joyful score by the Gershwins, a terrific color palate and a cast worthy of the number of dance and singing numbers expected of them, An American in Paris is a wonderful movie entertainment. Having its single detraction in a simple-minded plot, the film's actors and actresses carry the day with winning production numbers. Lucky for the film it is in the strength of their dance and music performances, in fact, to eclipse the more basic dramatic elements so it is to the plot that very little significance need be given.

It should also be noted that An American in Paris beat out Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis and A Streetcar Named Desire for Best Picture honors due to both its quality but also to the good will lent Gene Kelly as its star. In retrospect, and with a bias towards non-musical entertainment, A Streetcar Named Desire may very well be the more important film as a showcase of dramatic tension with Tennessee Williams's script and Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh's brand of screen acting. There's also a case to be made for such overlooked classics that didn't even warrant a nomination including The African Queen, Strangers on a Train, The Thing, and The Day the Earth Stood Still, each of which have their supporters.

Still, the Best Picture of 1951 centers on the struggles of an American named Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) who lives in Paris after World War II. Laboring as a painter inspired by France's capital he is otherwise considered a pleasant part of his adopted community. Because he lives hand-to-mouth his boarding housemate Adam (Oscar Levant) helps relieve their relative poverty with his piano playing and reach into the wider artistic community to keep them both amused.

When Jerry is chanced upon by a wealthy enthusiast name Milo (Nina Foch) his fortunes take a turn for the better. Coincidentally he also falls for Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron), the girlfriend-turned fiancé of one of Adam's successful musician friends named Henry (Georges Guétary). Complications ensue as Jerry courts Lise but in the closing frames true love wins out over the forces of personal loyalty since Lise truly loves Jerry even though she's devoted to Henry who protected her from the Nazis during the War.

Originally organized by Arthur Freed's production staff at MGM, An American in Paris became a collaborative effort between director Vincente Minnelli (Liza's father and Judy Garland's ex-husband) and his star Gene Kelly. Where there partnership yielded its most spectacular result is in the films 20-minute ballet that ends the film just as Jerry and Lise are reunited when all else seems lost.

Taking its lead from the symbol of a bright red rose, Jerry/Gene's ballet is set in various Parisian cityscapes, including the three-dimensional experience of painted scenes from such artists as Toulouse-Lautrec, where he dances his affections for Lise. The "American in Paris" suite plays without a note of dialogue and with each musical passage leading each dance through different scenarios and contrasting styles.

Long on its artistic license yet somehow short on inspiration when considering the movie's plot, the resulting artistic expression is absolutely brilliant. The ballet is the film's hallmark and the very thing that makes it an exceptional title from within the musical genre that tends towards contrived displays of songs from venerable composers and the showcasing of newly discovered performers.

The ballet is so striking an accomplishment, in fact, that it's hard to regard other elements in the film without first giving attention to this 20-minute odyssey into Gene Kelly's creative inspiration. Not that Kelly is alone in giving the movie considerable heft since much fun is to be had with Oscar Levant's supporting character.

The brilliance of his piano playing is integrated seamlessly into production numbers where but his comic talents are used most spectacularly when he envisions his most ambitious success in a daydream. In it he is the featured soloist with an orchestra of which he is simultaneously the conductor, audience and violin section.

Of course there is also a good supporting performance from Leslie Caron whose dancing abilities exceed her unconventional looks that are held up in the film as being beautiful, even if they aren't. As an interesting side note Caron was only hired for the role of Lise when it was discovered that the Freed unit's first choice, Cyd Charisse, was pregnant and had to be replaced. In light of such a change in the film's pre-production circumstances it's fun to speculate on what a different movie it would have been had Charisse been able to participate, especially in light of her performance in Band Wagon a few years later.