30 Years of Brilliance: 1930-1959
Vincente Minnelli had early experience as a child performer before becoming a set and costume designer, and then a director on Broadway. He was taken to Hollywood by the celebrated producer of musicals, Arthur Freed. After directing musical mumbers in some Busby Berkeley films, Minnelli's first feature as director was 'Cabin in the Sky' in 1943.
His talent both as a creator of stylish spectacle and as a director of actors became evident in 'Meet Me in St. Louis' in 1944 with Judy Garland. He married Garland, the first of his four wives, in 1945 and their daughter, singer and actress Liza Minnelli, was born in 1946. More musicals followed, including 'The Pirate' in 1948, also starring Garland, and the sumptuous and innovative 'An American in Paris' in 1951. The latter saw Leslie Caron make her film debut and starred Gene Kelly at the peak of his powers. Minnelli even managed to create a passable version of Paris in Hollywood studios, on the back lot. His work became distinguished for its visual beauty: in his words, 'The search in films, what you try to create, is a little magic.'
Although Minnelli continued to direct further magical musicals such as 'The Band Wagon' in 1953 with fred Astaire, and 'Gigi' in 1958 with Caron and Maurice Chevalier, he was turning his hand to comedy with films such as 'Father of the Bride' in 1950, and to melodramas such as 'The Bad and the Beautiful' in 1952 with Kirk Douglas as a megalomaniac Hollywood producer. Minnelli's dramas from this period are equally memorable, and equally stylishly mounted with fluid camerawork and elegant design. They include 'The Cobweb' in 1955, a mdeical drama with a stellar cast; 'Lust for Life' in 1956 with Douglas as van Gogh and 'Home from the Hill' in 1960 starring Robert Mitchum.
