Summaries

Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.

Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is "discovered" by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise, a young French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist, while romantic complications abound.—Scott Renshaw <[email protected]>

Jerry Mulligan is an ex-serviceman who stayed on in Paris after the war. He's now a struggling artist trying to sell his paintings on the sidewalk. He's had little luck until the rich Milo Roberts sees him. She offers to help him with his career but is clearly more interested in Jerry than his work. She rents a studio for him and plans his first exhibition. For his part, Jerry falls for a lovely young French woman he sees in a nightclub, Lise Bouvier. She however is being pursued by Jerry's friend, entertainer Henri Baurel. When Baurel gets the opportunity to tour in the US, he wants Lise to marry him so they can go together. She is in love with Jerry but feels she can't abandon Henri who saved her during the war. She has only a short time to decide.—garykmcd

Struggling to make a name for himself as a painter in picturesque post-World War II France, the vivacious and optimistic former G.I., Jerry Mulligan, comes to realise that making it big in the artistic Parisian metropolis is easier said than done. Then, when he least expects it, Jerry finds an eager patron in the person of the affluent heiress, Milo Roberts, and has a chance encounter with the love of his life and a friend's steady girlfriend, Lise Bouvier. Suddenly, the happy-go-lucky artist has to choose between a brilliant career and true love. Can the American in Paris have it all?—Nick Riganas

Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an American ex-GI who stays in post-war Paris to become a painter, and falls for the gamine charms of Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron). However, his paintings come to the attention of Milo Roberts, a rich American heiress, who is interested in more than just art.—maschzentertainment

Details

Keywords
  • love triangle
  • paris france
  • singer
  • painter
  • fantasy sequence
Genres
  • Drama
  • Romance
  • Musical
Release date Nov 10, 1951
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Approved
Countries of origin United States
Language English German French
Filming locations Paris, France
Production companies Loew's

Box office

Budget $2723903
Gross US & Canada $267824
Opening weekend US & Canada $182606
Gross worldwide $275077

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 54m
Color Color
Aspect ratio 1.37 : 1

Synopsis

Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam (Oscar Levant) is a struggling concert pianist who is a long time associate of a French singer, Henri Baurel (Georges Guétary). A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in Jerry more than his art. Jerry remains oblivious to her feelings, and falls in love with Lise (Leslie Caron), a French girl he meets at a restaurant. Lise loves him as well, but she is already in a relationship with Henri, whom she feels indebted to for having saved her family during World War II.

At a raucous masked ball, with everyone in black-and-white costumes, Milo learns that Jerry is not interested in her, Jerry learns that Lise is in love with him, but is marrying Henri the next day, and Henri overhears their conversation. When Henri drives Lise away, Jerry daydreams about being with her all over Paris, his reverie broken by a car horn, the sound of Henri bringing Lise back to him.

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