I always seek out the work of Vincente Minnelli, a director who gave us many Hollywood classics. This was an interesting film, but not an extremely compelling one.<br /><br />It was all kind of predictable since you could see the handwriting on the wall: the death of Moira, the growing up of Ricky Nelson / Farley Granger, and the ultimate success of Douglas and Angeli. For example, you knew Angeli's character would not die up on the trapeze since she had already suffered the death of her husband. Finding a new love added to her happiness, so it would have been cruel to audiences back then to have her die in the end.<br /><br />I have not yet seen The Red Shoes, so I was not shocked or disappointed how much the sequence resembled the earlier film. Moira and James Mason were both fine. She was a real beauty. According to the TCM host Robert Osborne, a previous film starring Mason was also used as the basis of this sequence too. <br /><br />Leslie Caron is always delightful; her best performance, for me, is in Lili. As for beauty, I have never thought she was beautiful. Cute in an odd way but never beautiful. I thought she was charming. Nelson, Barrymore, and Granger were also fine.<br /><br />Kirk Douglas looked Hollywood hunky and totally like a leading man, one who was almost too handsome for his own good; Angeli's performance had the doe like look of innocence she portrayed well. The trapeze sequences did look realistic, and I suspect Douglas did most of his stunts himself. He was quite the athlete, and he looked convincing in the part. Angeli also looked quite believable as well.<br /><br />The film is worth seeing, even if nothing for the great stars of classic Hollywood.<br /><br />I also enjoyed hearing the Paganini theme; I had loved it in Somewhere in Time as well, so I was surprised to hear it in another earlier film as well.<br /><br />It's worth checking out, but not a film I think I would have the patience to see over and over.