At first I thought it might have been Curtiz directing her to do it as some sort of inside baseball type of thing but then I watched Call Me Madam tonight on TCM( filmed a year earlier) and she's doing it in that film too. Kind of endearing, in a way.
shareShe wanted to make sure it was really her and not some stand-in they sneaked in when she wasn't looking.
shareThe common thread between the two films is choreographer Robert Alton. He was the one giving the orders.
share i did notice Danny Kaye also kept looking at the camera when performing.
The only Abnormality is the incapacity to love
I'm starting to think it was just a habit she couldn't shake, looking at the camera. I've spotted her in several films checking the camera lense, both in dance numbers and dialogue scenes.In the Mandy number, I assume it was on purpose but in other scenes she was just caught looking at the camera for a second. She was just always aware of its presence.
shareIt could also be a way of drawing the audience into the action. It's an old stage trick, but it doesn't translate well onto the screen.
JOE TYRIA
http://www.youtube.com/user/SilverCreedWolf
In her case, I thought it translated very well.
Whereas the other performers are playing to the "house", as it were, projecting outward from the proscenium to ourselves, the audience en masse, anonymously in our theatre seats, Vera Ellen goes a step further and truly breaks through the fourth wall and engages each of us personally with a knowing smile and a wink.
Perhaps it's the fact that it just isn't done that it takes us by surprise and her charm makes it work? I'd say that's the case for me. I love it! I always notice it when she does and I am delighted.
She's always looking at the camera so people would ALWAYS know it was her dancing and nobody would EVER think she had a dancing double.
But then again...
She got my attention ... probably as a ten yo. VE looking into the camera, nice hair, waist that fades to nothing, wow.
shareI never noticed how she does this until I watched a clip of this movie on YouTube and a few people mentioned it. Now that I do catchbit happening I just love her even more. She looks do happy when she's dancing I don't mind her looking at the camera....this is gonna sound so stupid but it's like she's looking at me.
Knowing she was so anorexic I hope that joy on her face when she's dancing was part of her whole life. She's SO skinny it's hard to think someone that thin led a happy life.
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