So far, this post would look to be about that film - of course one of my absolute favorites, and not because of my dear wife's name - but it isn't. It's actually about the furniture. Specifically, the sofa and two matching armchairs - nineteenth century or later, but made in a Louis Seize style - that were well chosen, quite appropriate adornments to the Paris salon of Gigi's Aunt Alicia. We see them very frequently throughout the film, in many separate scenes. I've become so familiar with them that, long ago, I started to notice them in other MGM films. Here are the examples I've found so far; in the future I hope to be able to add other instances of their use.
I have to apologize in advance for the poor quality of some of the images here, particularly the screen captures. I'm always very careful to share the best quality images on this blog but, in this case, I often didn't have any other options if I wanted to include the film.
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"Marie Antoinette", 1938. The first image I found marks an appearance that didn't actually happen. This is a camera set-up for a scene that was perhaps shot and then not included in the finished film. As the slate shows, this is meant to be madame du Barry's salon. But the only time this set is seen in the film, while most everything else in this corner of the room is visible, the sofa and chair are not. (The slate also mentions French director Julien Duvivier who directed scenes in the film, though sole directing credit went to W. S. Van Dyke.)
"Ninotchka", 1939. With Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas.
"New Moon", 1940. Publicity portraits of Jeanette MacDonald and a very poor screen capture featuring Mary Boland and company.
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"We Were Dancing", 1942. With Norma Shearer, Melvyn Douglas, Lee Bowman, Florence Bates, and Barlowe Borland.
"Reunion in France", 1942. With Joan Crawford and Morris Ankrum.
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| At the left, partly hidden by Ankrum, is a stool that looks like it could be part of the suite or at least covered in matching fabric. |
"Meet Me in St. Louis", 1944. With Judy Garland, Harry Davenport, and Tom Drake.
"Madame Bovary", 1949. With Jennifer Jones, Frank Allenby, Gene Lockhart, Henri Letondal, Alf Kjellin (as Christopher Kent), and Gladys Cooper.
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| Jones as Emma Bovary admires a bit of embroidered (woven? printed?) fabric that we'll soon see on the back of a chair. |
"An American in Paris", 1951. With Gene Kelly and Nina Foch.
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| More than once we see one of the armchairs flanking the front door of the Paris apartment of Milo Roberts (Foch). |
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| Later, we see another on the other side of the door. |
"Scaramouche", 1952. With Nina Foch (again) and Mel Ferrer.
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| This shot begs the question: just how many chairs were there? I'd always assumed there were only two, as I've never seen more than a pair featured elsewhere. But there appears to be at least five here. Are they all part of the same suite, or are they just covered in the same fabric? |
"The Swan", 1956. With Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Louis Jourdan, Jessie Royce Landis, Brian Aherne, and Estelle Winwood.
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And the one, "Gigi", 1958. With Leslie Caron, Hermione Gingold, and the wonderful Isabel Jeans as Aunt Alicia.
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The sofa and two armchairs were featured in the catalogue of MGM's famous/infamous 1970 studio auction. I wonder what became of them...?
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If anyone knows of additional film appearances of this suite, please let me know. I'd really appreciate it.
This is fun! I also have often watched for repeated appearances of furniture, set elements and art work in old movies. I’ve spotted one marble statue in Susan and God, Meet Me In Saint Louis, and Please Don’t Eat the Daisies. All the major studios owned vast stocks of props, and sometimes loaned them to each other or possibly rented them from the same 3rd party prop house. One of my favorites is the rococo parlor suite in Aunt Pittypat’s parlor in Gone With the Wind (Selznick Int’l) also prominently seen in Now Voyager (Warner Bros). Folks with sharper eyes than mine also make a hobby of spotting reused costumes & jewelry in old films.
ReplyDeleteKindred spirits! Such nerdy fun. : )
DeleteI will say that those who post about costume reuse often go too far, imagining that they see a previous garment in a later one, when there's no possible way that A could have been transformed into B. (I think most of them don't know enough about clothing construction.)
Speaking of jewelry, though, I did a previous post about the necklace a version of which Jeanette MacDonald can be seen wearing in this post. The work of Joseff of Hollywood, the piece was produced in various configurations. More geeky fun!
http://godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-story-of-necklace-diamonds-of-queen.html
For true film chintz, the dressing room scene used in Harlow 1965 with Carroll Baker or the bedroom set used in the Yellow Rolls Royce 1964 scenes with Jeanne Moreau.
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This sofa and chairs appear in the music parlor scenes in the latter half of The Swan (1956).
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you! I'll see if I can find images of that.
DeleteI found a few images from the film that show the chairs. (I couldn't find any that showed the sofa, sadly.) Thank you again for the heads up!
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