Lili
Trailer
Synopsis
Members of a circus troupe "adopt" Lili Daurier when she finds herself stranded in a strange town. The magician who first comes to her rescue already has romantic entanglements and thinks of her as a little girl. Who can she turn to but the puppets, singing to them her troubles, forgetting that there are puppeteers? A crowd gathers around Lili as she sings. The circus has a new act. She now has a job. Will she get her heart's desire?
Context & Trivia
The 1953 film "Lili" is based on Paul Gallico's 1950 short story "The Man Who Hated People," which was inspired by the popular television puppet show "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" by Burr Tillstrom. In the film, puppeteer Paul Berthalet (played by Mel Ferrer) communicates with Lili through four hand puppets: Carrot Top (a brash red-haired boy), Reynardo (a sly fox), Marguerite (a vain ballerina), and Golo (a cowardly giant). These puppets are central to the plot, as Paul, a former dancer crippled by a war injury, can only express his emotions and love for Lili through them. Lili's natural interaction with the puppets, treating them as real people, becomes the most valuable part of the carnival's puppet act. The puppets were created and performed by cabaret puppeteers Walton and O'Rourke, not Mel Ferrer. The film is notable for how the puppet sequences are treated as emotionally real relationships, and Leslie Caron's ability to interact with them naturally is key to the film's success.
Puppeteers
Mel Ferrer
Direction
Charles Walters
Writing
Helen Deutsch, Paul Gallico
Cast
Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kurt Kasznar, Amanda Blake, Alex Gerry, Ralph Dumke, Wilton Graff, George Baxter, Eda Reiss Merin, Reginald Simpson, George Davis, Mitchell Lewis, Fred Walton, Jeannine Ducasse, Claude Guy, Richard Grayson, Charles Walters, Dorothy Jarnac
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