She gets the least amount of notice of any of the major cast players (and incredibly was billed below Eva Gabor and Jacques Bergerac in basically bit parts) but I think Isabel Jeans steals this movie as pretentious old courtsean Aunt Alicia. She also looks terrific in the film considering she is 66 years old and playing Hermione Gingold's younger sister (though actually six years Gingold's senior).
shareI had the great fortune to view this movie at a local rep., house just last night.
What a treat to see it on a big screen in all its Cinemascope glory.
I've always loved this movie, and think that the entire cast is wonderful, but yeah - Isabel Jeans is brilliant in every scene that she's in. For a small part she really steals the show - which, given the caliber of the rest of the cast is no small achievement.
All in all, a wonderful film.
You're right, she certainly does steal the movie and deserved higher billing. I suppose, at the time Eva and Bergerac were more popular. What a great movie. You were so lucky to see it on the big screen.
share"A TOPAZ?! Among my jewels? Are you mad!" HAhahHAH! She is great. I love her in 'The Magic Christian" also.
"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"
Isabel Jeans is remarkably beautiful and I hope to
look as well put together when I am 66. Did you notice
the way she was stroking the skin on her neck upward while
in the bathtub? Oh! I should have been treating my skin with
such care since age 18!
Agreed. She is brilliant. I think she should have gotten the Oscar.
Wendy Hiller was so good, but Jeans put across one of the most self-assured and formidable characters ever filmed.
Mamita asked how Gaston's mistress committed suicide:
Aunt Alicia: The usual way - IN-sufficient poison.
Makes me howl every time.
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She should have won the Oscar just for the way she said "Dipped!" LoL. Classic!
shareShe should have won the Oscar just for the way she said "Dipped!" LoL. Classic!
Sorry to disappoint you, michaelj. Straight female here. Have a feeling that's something you don't encounter very often.
shareAunt Alicia has the most interesting character in this very flimsy little tale.
Isobel Jeans' performance in this film is a direct STEAL from Edith Evans' Bracknell.
A flimsy little tale that just happens to be one of the most exquisite films ever made.
share^ Yes, the dictionary tells us that 'exquisite' means 'Extremely beautiful …delicate…A person who is affectedly concerned with appearance…delicate - fine - dainty… dandy - fop.
All of this is true of 'Gigi' which if remade on an empty sound stage in black and white drab would be a flimsy and sad tale.
But, as we all agree, Isabel Jeans is wonderful!
To quote All About Eve: "You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point."
shareNone of the actors or actresses from Gigi got even nominated for an Oscar :(. What a pity. Isabel Jeans and possibly Hermione Gingold both deserved at least nominations for their scene-stealing work here.
I have to honestly admit that I wasn't particularly enchanted with Maurice Chevalier. I thought he over-acted and came off as slightly creepy rather than charming. Reportedly, Leslie Caron found it difficult to work with both him and Louis Jourdan. However, she adored both Isabel and Hermione who, in real life, were both very different from the strict, controlling characters they play in this film. She described Hermione as funny and light-hearted while Isabel was disciplined, but very sweet.
I'm with you on disliking Chevalier, but I don't like him in anything, his smug unctuous personality always gets on my nerves. I don't know why he got a special Oscar in 1958 as he was never that great and his career was hardly one of the biggest of stars of the 1930's.
shareHermione actually won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in GIGI so it was a shock when she didn't even receive an Oscar nomination for her work. I wouldn't have minded seeing her win, she was delightful certainly and at least this movie established her in a big way in America, she must have lived off her Gigi fame a good twenty years with multiple film and television appearances.
share"Now, Alicia, just because Gigi doesn't want to marry Gaston, it doesn't make her a little monster."
"It doesn't make her a little princess, either!"
I saw this movie when it first came out. I was a LITTLE young to get every innuendo, but being a precocious child, I didn't miss much. And one couldn't miss the brilliance of Isabel Jeans.
My mother was worried when I latched onto "a TOPAZ, among MY jewels?!" A few years later, she accepted the inevitable.