Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

According to Wikipedia this is, along with 'Singin' In The Rain', one of the finest MGM film musicals. Well, I beg to differ. To put this film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, in the same bracket as the Gene Kelly classic is absurd; this film is clearly inferior in terms of the songs, the dance routines, the comedy, the romance. In other words it falls short in every department.  An aging Fred Astaire does what he can but he really needs a Ginger Rogers to complement him but instead he, and we, have to make do with Cyd Charisse.   Quite how she became as famous as she did is something of a mystery to me given that her acting is wooden, she doesn't sing, and even her dancing is quite limited in its range.   In this film she plays a famous ballerina so it is unfortunate that the ballet sequence which is our introduction to her is so woeful as to be laughable.  Given that there is an age gap of over 20 years between the two leads, I guess we should be thankful ...