Joshua Logan's 1967 film of the hit Broadway musical about the love triangle between King Arthur (Richard Harris), Guenevere (Vanessa Redgrave), and Sir Lancelot (Franco Nero) is strong on star emphasis and weak on such fundamentals as story and sets. Except for a handful of solidly dramatic scenes-such as Guenevere grieving, late in the film, for the ruination she and Lancelot have caused-there's not a lot to get excited about. (The story's theme of a lost, great society, however, certainly struck a chord in the 1960s. )The Lerner-Loewe songs ("If Ever I Would Leave You", "Camelot") pretty much sell themselves, even if they are, at best, only proficiently performed in this movie. -Tom Keogh.

Perhaps because it was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's penultimate picture together for RKO, or perhaps because it is more romantic comedy than musical, Carefree tends to be a neglected entry in the series. This is unfortunate, because it retains many of the elements that made the duo so popular while also breaking new ground. Fred plays Tony Flagg, a psychoanalyst who is asked by his friend Steve (Ralph Bellamy) to try to figure out why his fiancée, Amanda Cooper (Ginger), keeps breaking off their engagement. During the course of treatment, and in a reversal of the usual pattern, Ginger falls for Fred and begins to pursue him. The emotionally repressed doctor resists, leading to a number of comic encounters, as well as a moment of genuine heartbreak. Other innovations include Fred's dance on a driving range, a slow-motion dream sequence (which was going to be shot in color until budget concerns won out), Fred and Ginger's first screen kiss, and some of Ginger's best turns as a comic actress. More familiar elements include Ginger fronting the band at the start of a large company dance number ("The Yam," which failed to catch on as a dance craze), an expert if skimpy Irving Berlin score including the lovely ballad "Change Partners," and of course fabulous, high-flying dancing. Fred and Ginger fans can't afford to miss Carefree. -David Horiuchi.

Before his handlers persuaded him to settle for the safety of a screen franchise, the young Elvis Presley had weightier ambitions as an actor. The 1958 King Creole, his fourth feature outing, hints at the underlying seriousness of his goals. Presley plays Danny Fisher, a New Orleans teenager struggling to graduate from high school while working in a sleazy French Quarter club to support his family. He's also characterised as a troubled youth with a dangerous temper and feelings of shame and resentment toward his meek, unemployed father (Dean Jagger). When Danny's gift for singing provides him with a potential career break (and the requisite excuse for Elvis's production numbers), his involvement with a ruthless gangster (Walter Matthau) and his sultry, alcoholic moll (Carolyn Jones) threatens both his future and his family. King Creole boasts an impressive production pedigree (including producer Hal Wallis and director Michael Curtiz, the team behind Casablanca) and the supporting cast helps elicit one of Presley's most emotional performances. Jones in particular overrides the inherent clichés of her role: her self-loathing and sexuality are both palpable. Presley-still a few years away from the more sanitised image that would be integral to those franchise features-is young enough to be a credible teen, but more crucially he makes his rage and yearning largely convincing. -Sam Sutherland.

Vincente Minnelli's 1958 adaptation of Colette's story about a girl (Leslie Caron) groomed as a courtesan-but desired as a wife by a Parisian playboy (Louis Jordan)-won a lot of Oscars, but it also has the unusual distinction of being an MGM musical shot on location in the City of Lights. What a musical it is (by Lerner and Loewe): Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold crooning "Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well", plus the songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls", "Gigi", "I'm a Bore", and "She's Not Thinking of Me". Director Vincente Minnelli (Some Came Running, Meet Me in St Louis) makes a sumptuous, dreamy, almost laid-back affair of it all and the indispensable cast is forever etched into memory. Hollywood's long-running infatuation with continental grace and manners, the memory of a much earlier time imported to American movies through such immigrant directors as Ernst Lubitsch, may have finally come to a gentle end with this film. -Tom Keogh Gigi, Vincente Minnelli's 1958 adaptation of Colette's story about a girl (Leslie Caron) groomed as a courtesan but desired as a wife by a Parisian playboy (Louis Jordan), won a lot of Oscars, but it also has the unusual distinction of being an MGM musical shot on location in the City of Lights. What a musical it is (by Lerner and Loewe): Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold crooning "Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well", plus the songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls", "Gigi", "I'm a Bore", and "She's Not Thinking of Me". Director Minnelli makes a sumptuous, dreamy, almost laid-back affair of it all and the indispensable cast is forever etched into memory. Hollywood's long-running infatuation with continental grace and manners, the memory of a much earlier time imported to American movies through such immigrant directors as Ernst Lubitsch, may have finally come to a gentle end with this film. -Tom Keogh.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anita Loos' old story from the 1920s about a pair of single women in search of husbands, gets a makeover in Howard Hawks' 1953 musical. The remake stars Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe as two friends who go to Paris looking for mates. The film is charged by Hawks's stylish snap, a famous set piece or two (Monroe descending that staircase while singing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"), Russell's wit and songs by Leo Robin and Jule Styne. The film may largely be a fluff project best remembered as a showcase for its leading actresses, but then Monroe and Russell rarely got such extended opportunities to prove that they were more than cinematic icons. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

A GI (Gene Kelly) stays in Paris after the war to become an artist, and has to choose between the patronage of a rich American woman (Nina Foch) and a French gamine (Leslie Caron) engaged to an older man. The plot is mostly an excuse for director Vincente Minnelli to pool his own extraordinary talent with those of choreographer-dancer-actor Kelly and the artists behind the screenplay, art direction, cinematography, and score, creating a rapturous musical not quite like anything else in cinema. The final section of the film comprises a 17-minute dance sequence that took a month to film and is breathtaking. Songs include "'S Wonderful," "I Got Rhythm," and "Love Is Here to Stay. " -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.