For no specific reason (other than the fact that I want to), this little essay is devoted to that artist with the most exotic of names, Hermès Pan.Pan - born Hermès Panagiotopoulos on 10 December, 1909 in Memphis, Tennessee - was (1) a movie choreographer extraordinaire, (2) Fred Astaire's house dance designer, (3) Astaire's near-doppelganger and (4) the man who, with Astaire, groomed the sublime Barrie Chase for a career on screen that could have rivaled Cyd Charisse's.
But, alas, Chase elected to retire young.
Pan's glory days were in the 1930s when he worked with Astaire and Ginger Rogers on their great Art Deco musicals. But much later - between 1957 and 1973, towards the end of his career - Pan was apparently the go-to guy for film choreography, overseeing 16 films in as many years:
"Pal Joey" (George Sidney, 1957)
"Silk Stockings" (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957)
"Never Steal Anything Small" (Charles Lederer, 1959)
"Porgy and Bess" (Otto Preminger, 1959)
"The Blue Angel" (Edward Dmytryk, 1959)
"Can-Can" (Walter Lang, 1960)
"Bells Are Ringing" (Vincinte Minnelli, 1960 - uncredited)
"The Pleasure of His Company" (George Seaton, 1961)
"Flower Drum Song" (Henry Koster, 1961)
"Cleopatra" (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963)
"The Pink Panther" (Blake Edwards, 1963 - uncredited)
"My Fair Lady" (George Cukor, 1964)
"The Great Race" (Blake Edwards, 1965)
"Finian's Rainbow" (Francis Ford Coppola, 1968)
"Darling Lili" (Blake Edwards, 1970)
"Lost Horizon" (Charles Jarrott, 1973)
Both "Can-Can" and "Flower Drum Song," made a year apart, feature ethereal ballet sequences that can be considered companion pieces. Regarding "Bells Are Ringing," although Charles O'Curran is listed as its choreographer, Hal Linden singles out Pan in his commentary on the film's DVD. For reasons that we can only assume, director Vincente Minnelli fired Pan from "Bells" but retained the one number that he choreographed - "The Midas Touch," performed by Linden and chorus girls (and basically obscured by Minnelli in the background).
Pan also choreographed Astaire's three acclaimed TV specials - "An Evening with Fred Astaire" (1958), "Another Evening with Fred Astaire" (1959) and "Astaire Time" (1960), which is where Barrie Chase comes into the picture. After a few small roles in films such as Edmund Goulding's ”Mardi Gras,” she was Astaire's new dancing partner.
In '59, Pan was hired by Frank Sinatra to choreograph "Can-Can" and brought Chase along to play the second female lead, Claudine, the main can-can dancer. (Chase, Pan and Sinatra had previously worked together on "Pal Joey.") Chase ultimately bolted the production when most of her musical numbers were given to star Shirley MacLaine, as detailed in the "Can-Can" DVD's liner notes. MacLaine herself recounted the incident to Newsweek in its May 28, 1998/Sinatra Tribute issue carrying her byline.
Talking to Sinatra in the piece, she wrote: "You strong-armed Twentieth Century-Fox to make 'Can-Can' because you thought I should do a musical. And you had them combine the two female leads into a single character so people could see more of what I could do."
Well, that's only partially true. The character of Claudine wasn't eliminated. It was watered-down but still very much in the film. And it was eventually recast with Juliet Prowse after a very wise Chase bolted. Good move.
”Can-Can” is an incredibly bad film.
Pan also performed infrequently on screen (as a "specialty dancer") - most notably with both Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth - but for the most part, he enjoyed watching his precise terpsichorean creations from the wings.
He died of a stroke at age 88 on 19 September, 1990 in Beverly Hills.
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~image~
~ Hermès Pan kicks it up with Betty Grable in Walter Lang's "Coney Island"
~ photography: Twentieth Century-Fox 1946©
9 comments:
Pan staged dances when dances were appreciated - shot straight with no hyper editing. Someone should launch a site dedicated to film choreographers, like Kidd, Fossee, Onna White, Agnes DeMille and Gillian Lynn and examine how film dance has changed due to new computer technologies that have overtaken movies. Actually, if you think about it, Fosse's stuff lends itself to fast editing - so he may be indirectly to blame for what's happened - the devastating effects of editing on film culture in general but also film dancing in particular. What happened really ?
Yes, Fosse is guilty of killing movie choreography. It started with all that jump cutting for "Sweet Charity," but then Maclaine isn't much of a dancer - so maybe he had to do that. Rob Marshall definitely followed his lead with his "Chicago" non-dancers. But let's fact it - no one would sit still for a Hermes Pan routine today
Liz & Jeff-
Fosse has a lot of explaining to do.
I prefer those movie musicals that show the full figures of the dancers as they move across the screen with the camera accompanying them. I detest the new trend of cutting back and forth among the dancers feet in action, the expressions on their faces in close-up, the on-screen viewers watching them and then back to their feet. Awful!
Charlotte- Couldn't agree with you more. -J
The worst example of bad "dancing" in a movie is "Hello, Dolly," where during the title number, a bunch of chorus boys hectically move around Streisand while she dances with her ... hands! What's madding is that the film was directed by one of Hollywood's top dancers/directors, Gene Kelly, and choreographed (I believe) by the great Michael Kid. Go figure. The begging of the end for dancing on film started with "Hello, Dolly."
Yes, Streisand's "dancing" in the "Hello, Dolly!" number. Pretty bad. Equally awful - Lucille Ball doing the same damn thing - waving her arms - in the "Mame" title number.
Do you know if Pan did all of the choreography for Astaire's movies? Or did the two men collaborate? I've never read a definitive answer to those questions.
Bill- Pan choreographed all of the Astaire-Rogers musicals. As for Astaire's non-Ginger musicals, there were an assortment of choreographers, including Pan. Fred never "officially" collaborated with any of his dance directors, although I'm sure he had input and influence. Same with Gene Kelly, always unofficially. And although Kelly directed several films, he has never been credited with choreographing any. Curious. Fred was strictly a performer, while Gene performed and also directed. -J
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