Welcome to "Saturday Night at the Movies."

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

Tonight's movie is the musical romantic comedy "Funny Face" released by Paramount Pictures in 1957, Stanley Donen directed from a screenplay by Leonard Gershe with songs and music from George and Ira Gershwin.

"Funny Face" stars Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, and Kate Thompson, with support from Michel Auclair, Robert Flemyng, Virginia Gibson, Sue England, and Ruta Lee.

Maggie Prescott, the editor of "Quality," a high-tone women's fashion magazine, aided by her bevy of eager assistants is constantly searching for ideas and looks that will keep her readers chasing after the latest trends.

After her advice to Think Pink!

leads to a national craze for the color, Maggie's next inspiration is an issue of a magazine dedicated to clothes for the woman who isn't interested in clothes, but when she brings her usual models and concepts to photographer Dick Avery's studio, he finds himself unable to produce anything that lives up to the theme.

So Dick, Maggie, her assistants and models take a trip to Greenwich Village where they spot a Bohemian bookshop devoted to volumes on philosophy.

In her usual commanding fashion, Maggie takes over the nearly empty bookshop ignoring the spirited protests of the young clerk, Jo Stockton, and ultimately kicking her out.

Once the fashion shoot is completed, Maggie and her crew sweep out again, leaving the bookshop in a shambles.

Only Dick stays behind to help Jo restock the shelves and clean up the mess.

While they work their conversation turns to Paris, a city Dick praises for its beauty, but Jo is interested in going to Paris primarily to meet Professor Émile Flostre, the originator of empathicalism, the philosophy of empathy Jo embraces.

Before he goes, Dick impulsively gives Jo a kiss, leaving her bewildered and intrigued.

Soon after Maggie decides to present her magazine's audience with the "Quality" woman, a woman with an indescribable something her readers will embrace, who will model clothes designed exclusively for her by French couturier, Paul Duval.

Dick shows Maggie enlargements of photographs he took of Jo during the shoot at the bookshop, and convinces her Jo should be the "Quality" woman.

Jo herself, on the other hand, thinks the whole idea is ridiculous and resists until she learns the photoshoot will take them all to Paris, finally giving her the opportunity to meet her idol, Professor Flostre.

Some 30 years before the release of "Funny Face" Fred Astaire starred with his sister, Adele, on Broadway in a bit of musical comedy fluff about love and stolen pearls, featuring music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira.

That show was called "Funny Face" but apart from Fred Astaire in a leading role and four of the Gershwin Brothers songs, the 1927 stage musical, and the 1957 motion picture have nothing in common.

Instead, Leonard Gershe based his screenplay on his own unproduced musical "Wedding Bells" loosely based on the romance of his friend, fashion photographer, Richard Avedon, and Avedon's wife Doe, herself a fashion model, who remained famously unfazed by her celebrity.

Not only was Avedon the inspiration for fashion photographer, Dick Avery, but his photographic work adorns the credits, which he also designed, and the walls of the offices of "Quality" magazine.

Avedon was also responsible for creating the series of location fashion shoots showcasing Audrey Hepburn at various places around Paris that make up one of the highlights of the film.

Some of Avedon's favorite models appear in the film, including Dovima as the sultry Marion, and Sunny Harnett and Suzy Parker as dancers in the opening number "Think Pink!"

To further ensure the authenticity of the movie's depiction of the fashion world of the later '50s, Audrey Hepburn's Paris gowns were all created by French designer, Hubert de Givenchy, who had earlier designed her wardrobe for 1954 "Sabrina."

Edith Head received sole screen credit for the movie's costumes, but Givenchy was nominated alongside Head for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

If "Funny Face" reminds you of the many great MGM musical films produced by Arthur Freed in the '50s, films like "An American in Paris" in 1951, "Silk Stockings" in 1957, or "Gigi" in 1958, there's a good reason for that.

One of the producers who worked for the studio's legendary Freed Unit, Roger Edens, bought "Funny Face" for MGM as a vehicle for Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn.

But Hepburn was under contract to Paramount Pictures, and the studio would not loan her out to rival MGM.

Instead, Freed not only allowed Edens to take the project to Paramount, but also lent Paramount many of the leading lights of MGM's Freed Unit as well.

These included the film's director, Stanley Donen, musical director, Adolph Deutsch, arranger, Conrad Salinger, choreographer, Eugene Loring and cinematographer, Ray June.

Audrey Hepburn had long idolized Fred Astaire and agreed to make "Funny Face" only if he would be her co-star.

The film was her first musical and featured her own distinctive singing voice in the lovely, "How Long Has This Been Going On?"

She also showed off her dancing skills in two dances with Astaire and her modern dance solo in a Parisian nightclub.

Hepburn was understandably nervous when she began working with Astaire, who was some 30 years older, and approaching the end of his career in film musicals.

Hepburn had some training as a dancer, but Astaire had been dancing professionally for over 50 years, since he was seven years old.

But as Hepburn later put it when they first met, "Fred literally swept me off my feet," putting an arm around her waist and twirling her around.

Astaire worked tirelessly with her and she thoroughly enjoyed the many long hours they spent rehearsing together.

Hepburn at the time was married to actor Mel Ferrer, who was scheduled to shoot "Elena et les Hommes" on location in Paris with Ingrid Bergman in June, 1956.

So location work for "Funny Face" was scheduled for the same time.

But it proved to be a difficult shoot, in part because of political unrest in the city, and in part because of the unseasonably rainy weather.

The rain could be accommodated as in the fashion shoot featuring Hepburn with the balloons, but proved troublesome in other ways.

For example, when it came time to shoot, "He Loves and She Loves" at a country chapel in Chantilly, with Hepburn in a bridal gown and white satin slippers, the rain soaked ground made dancing both messy and difficult, even for a seasoned professional like Astaire.

Both cast and crew were increasingly on edge until Hepburn complained with mock indignation, "Here I've been waiting 20 years to dance with Fred Astaire and what do I get?

Mud."

Kay Thompson makes a rare motion picture appearance as Maggie Prescott, the imperious editor in chief of Quality Magazine.

Her character was based on Diana Vreeland, then editor of Vogue, or possibly Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar.

Kate Thompson was what is now known as a multi-hyphenate, she was a nightclub singer, composer, dancer, and choreographer, as well as an actress, and worked with MGM's Freed Unit as a vocal coach, most notably for Judy Garland.

Apart from her leading role in "Funny Face," Thompson became best known as the author of the "Eloise" books, a series of children's picture books about the adventures of little girl who lived in the Plaza of Hotel in New York City.

The second, published in 1957, the same year "Funny Face" was released was aptly titled, "Eloise in Paris."

When "Funny Face" opened, Ausley Crowler of the New York Times, called it, "Delightfully balmy, colorful and glittery, extraordinarily stylish, with class in every considerable department on which this sort of picture depends."

Although the movie is often now considered a classic of its kind, it did not perform well at the box office at its initial release, earning only two and a half million dollars on its $3 million cost.

Margret wrote for Turner Classic Movies in 2005, "With a few exceptions, the reviews for "Funny Face" were very good, and the film did well in the big cities.

However, it may have been too sophisticated for mass audiences.

Today, in an era of celebrity fashion worship, "Funny Face" looks better than ever and remains one of the treasures of the American Film musical."

Please join us again next time for another "Saturday Night at the Movies."

I'm Glenn Holland, goodnight.