1953–1964: Established director
Screenwriter Helen Deutsch adapted the 1953 film Lili from Paul Gallico's 1950 short story "The Man Who Hated People". Set in France, it tells of an orphaned teenage title character who joins a traveling carnival. Lili is infatuated to Marc, a magician, while she befriends Paul, a carnival puppeteer who expresses himself through four puppets. Vincente Minnelli was approached to direct the film, but he declined due to its similarities with An American in Paris (1951). Deutsch went to Walters's Malibu beach house with the script in hand. "To tell the truth", Walters recalled, "I was more impressed by Helen Deutsch than I was by the script as it was at that point."
According to Leslie Caron, the project was developed for Italian actress Pier Angeli, but Deutsch decided to cast Caron after she attended a private screening of An American in Paris. Walters began shooting Lili on March 10, 1952, in which he not only directed, but for the first time in his own film, provided the choreography. For the visual style, Walters wanted a muted, less saturated look separate from the Technicolor musicals to evoke the post-war British films he had seen. Lili finished filming in April 1952.
An unfinished cut of Lili was screened before Deutsch, the film's producer Edwin H. Knopf, lyricist Howard Dietz, William Rodgers of Loew's Inc., and several MGM studio executives including Dore Schary and Joseph Vogel. Walters was not present at the screening as he was enjoying a ten-day vacation while preparing his next film, Dangerous When Wet (1953). He was told by Keenan Wynn that it was met with a silent response. Meanwhile, Harry Brandt, president of the Independent Theater Owners Association (ITOA), was searching for a film to screen at the Trans-Lux Theatre in New York. Brandt was shown the rough cut and loved it. Relieved, Schary accepted Brandt's terms and finished Lili for a sneak preview.
On March 10, 1953, Lili premiered at the Trans-Lux and received critical acclaim. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Lili as "a lovely and beguiling little film, touched with the magic of romance and the shimmer of masquerade." Harrison's Reports called the film an "enchanting, heart-warming picture". Lili exited the Trans-Lux on December 22, after ten months of exclusive box office, and ultimately the film earned $1.5 million in distributor rentals in the United States. A month after its release in the United States, Lili was given a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival (where Walters was awarded the International Prize for the Most Entertaining Picture), and the film was enormously successful overseas in Europe.
Lili was ranked on several critics' lists for the best films of 1953, including the National Board of Review. The film earned six nominations at the Academy Awards, winning one Oscar for Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Walters received his only Academy Award nomination for Best Director and faced formidable competition that year in George Stevens (Shane}, Billy Wilder (Stalag 17), William Wyler (Roman Holiday), and winner Fred Zinnemann (From Here To Eternity).
Between the completion and theatrical release of Lili, Walters reunited with Esther Williams on Dangerous When Wet and Easy to Love (1953). For the first film, Williams had been a box office success with Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), and MGM had wanted to capitalize on her aquatic stardom. Scripted by Dorothy Kingsley, Williams portrays Katie Higgins, an American woman who takes a challenge to swim to the English Channel. To star opposite Williams, Walters wanted to cast Fernando Lamas, but he turned it down, feeling the role was too limited. Williams consulted with Lamas, and she appealed to have his part expanded. Lamas eventually took the role as the debonair André Lanet.
Dangerous When Wet began shooting in August 1952 and wrapped two months later in October. The film's most-remembered scene was an animated and live-action musical number where Williams swims with Tom and Jerry. Williams filmed her part first with second unit director Andrew Marton, while the animation and special effects were added afterwards. Released in June 1953, Dangerous When Wet earned positive reviews from film critics. It earned $2.25 million in distributor box office rentals.
For Easy to Love (1953), Williams plays an overworked star attraction at a Florida water show who is romantically entangled with several men, portrayed by Tony Martin, John Bromfield, and Van Johnson in their fifth film together. The film was shot on location in the Cypress Gardens near Winter Haven, Florida. This time, Busby Berkeley directed the film's aquatic numbers. Released on Christmas Day 1953, Variety noted the film's lightweight plot but called the film a "masterpiece of modern moisture". The Los Angeles Times noted the film was "giddy with girls, music and occasional flashes of comedy, and gaudy and glamorous with spectacle. Its story is the old "she would love, and he would not; gosh what?" formula which the movies can always resurrect and which this time is of fair prescription."
The 1953 film Torch Song was adapted from the short story "Why Should I Cry" by I. A. R. Wylie. It was intended to be a segment for the anthology film The Story of Three Loves, but it was instead reworked into a full-length film. At the time, Joan Crawford left Warner Bros. and returned to MGM. There, MGM executive Benny Thau sent her the Torch Song script. Crawford read the script and insisted on Walters as her director after she watched Lili. Walters admittedly thought the script was "a little dumb", but agreed to direct the film.
In the film, Crawford portrays Jenny Stewart, a temperamental Broadway star, who kindles a romance with a blind pianist (Michael Wilding). During rehearsals, Crawford had been nervous about her dancing, having not done so for several years. Following her suggestion, Walters appeared on screen as Crawford's dancing partner in the film's first scene. To keep the costs under a million dollars, the musical numbers were borrowed from playback recordings cut from previous MGM musicals. The film's showstopper "Two-Faced Woman" featured Crawford in blackface makeup, with her singing dubbed by India Adams. Filming was finished after 24 days.
Released in October 1953, Torch Song received positive reviews from critics, though it did not perform well with general audiences. Marjorie Rambeau, who portrayed Crawford's mother in the film, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Retrospectively, its reputation has soured, and it was lampooned on an episode of The Carol Burnett Show.
Shortly after, Walters directed the stage musical By the Beautiful Sea, which featured lyrics and music by Dorothy Fields and Arthur Schwartz, respectively. It told of the residents of a Coney Island boardinghouse during the vaudeville era. During rehearsals, Walters held creative disagreements with Schwartz concerning the choreography. The musical previewed in New Haven, Connecticut on February 16, 1954. Afterwards, Walters asked to be relieved before its Broadway run. Marshall Jamison was hired to replace him.
Back at MGM, Walters directed The Glass Slipper (1955), adapted from Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon's 1944 play, which itself is based on the fairy tale "Cinderella". As a follow-up to Lili, Walters reunited with Leslie Caron (who was cast as Ella), screenwriter Helen Deutsch, and producer Edwin Knopf. Michael Wilding was cast opposite as Prince Charles. Elsa Lanchester portrayed the stepmother while Estelle Winwood played the fairy godmother. Roland Petit, the film's choreographer, devised the ballet sequences.
On March 24, 1955, The Glass Slipper premiered at the Radio City Music Hall to accompany their Easter pageant. The film received a lackluster response from critics. Variety wrote: "While Slipper has charm and a somewhat similar ugly duckling-love triumphant story, it has neither the tremendous heart impact of Lili nor sufficient freshness of theme treatment to duplicate the [picture]'s acceptance."
Walters was assigned to direct I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) with his choice of June Allyson as Lillian Roth. Instead, the part went to Susan Hayward. As a result, Walters quit the project, and MGM suspended him for three months. When his suspension was over, Walters directed The Tender Trap (1955) based on the 1954 play by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith. Frank Sinatra portrayed Charlie Reader, a bachelor Manhattan talent agent, whose childhood friend Joe McCall (David Wayne) falls in love with Charlie's girlfriend Sylvia Crewes (Celeste Holm) while Charlie romances Julie Gillis (Debbie Reynolds), a young actress whom he represents.
Most notably, The Tender Trap was Walters's first film in the CinemaScope widescreen process. To make use of the format, Walters came up with the first scene of Sinatra, framed in an extreme wide shot, singing the title song "(Love Is) The Tender Trap" as he advances towards the camera. Released in November 1955, the film earned $3 million in domestic rentals. Bosley Crowther wrote "Walters's direction is smooth and lively, the settings and costumes are chic and the whole thing looks very delicious in color and Cinema-Scope." The title song was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" from the film of the same name.
Meanwhile, Sol C. Siegel became MGM's first independent producer in 1955. He chose to do a musical remake of the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story, retitled High Society (1956). Grace Kelly portrayed Tracy Lord opposite Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Celeste Holm in the other leads. Sinatra took three months to agree to do the film on the condition that Walters is hired as director. At the time of filming, Kelly was engaged to Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and wore her real engagement ring while on set. Production wrapped in March 1956, and on April 19, she was married.
Buoyed by the publicity of Kelly's marriage to Rainier III, High Society held a widely attended world premiere at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles on August 1, 1956. The film was MGM's highest-grossing release that same year. It received mixed reviews from film critics, some of whom unfavorably compared the film to The Philadelphia Story. Time magazine called the film "strictly plebeian." Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote "In spite of all of gaiety, beauty, fine musical and script authorship, High Society is peculiarly hollow in certain aspects, and leaves one with perhaps keener remembrances, if he has any, of the production without music previously made." The duet number "Well, Did Ya Evah?" between Crosby and Sinatra however has been praised.
Walters directed the military comedy Don't Go Near the Water (1957). Adapted from the 1956 novel of the same name by William Brinkley, Glenn Ford leads a group of U.S. Navy public relations officers on a combat-free South Pacific island during World War II. The film premiered in New York on November 14, 1957 and was a box office success. At the Golden Globes, the film received a nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy while Ford was nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Walters was often called to film reshoots for other directors' films. In October 1957, he helped choreograph the number "The Night They Invented Champagne" for Vincente Minnelli's Gigi (1958), which starred Leslie Caron. Later on, test previews for Gigi were poorly received, in which MGM president Joseph Vogel ordered for nine days of reshoots. Since Minnelli was filming The Reluctant Debutante (1958) in Europe, Freed selected Walters and cinematographer Ray June to film the reshoots. Walters did uncredited directing for Cimarron (1960) and Go Naked in the World (1961).
Adapted from Winifred Wolfe's 1957 novel, Walters directed Ask Any Girl (1959) with Shirley MacLaine and David Niven. MacLaine plays Meg Wheeler, a naïve small town girl who relocates to New York City and works as a secretary for a market research firm. There, she falls in love with her boss Miles Doughton's playboy younger brother Evan (Gig Young). Walters reteamed with producer Joe Pasternak, and production lasted 43 days from December 1958 to January 1959. In May 1959, Ask Any Girl premiered at the Radio City Music Hall. A box office success, the film received complimentary reviews. Wanda Hale of the New York Daily News noted Walters's "skillful direction to get just the perfect performances from his cast and to keep the humor rolling without stopping for a quiet moment."
In 1958, MGM acquired the screen rights to Jean Kerr's novel Please Don't Eat the Daisies. Doris Day and David Niven were cast in the lead roles Kate and Larry Mackay, respectively. Pasternak hired screenwriter Isobel Lennart to adapt the novel, which itself was inspired by Kerr's marriage to her husband Walter, the drama critic for the New York Herald Tribune. Walters was selected to direct the film adaptation, who admittedly was not a fan of Day. He then read Lennart's screenplay and remarked, "My God, this is Doris Day." Walters wanted to cast Betty Grable as Dorothy Vaughn, a temptress Broadway actress, but Janis Paige was cast instead.
Principal photography for Please Don't Eat the Daisies was shot between August to October 1959. Afterwards, Walters left for Europe with Roger Edens to do location scouting for Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962). On March 31, 1960, the film opened at the Radio City Music Hall. Though it received mixed reviews, Please Don't Eat the Daisies was MGM's second highest-earning film of the calendar year 1960 (behind BUtterfield 8), in which it earned $5.5 million in distributor rentals. The film later inspired a sitcom, which aired on NBC from 1965 to 1967. A month before Please Don't Eat the Daisies premiered, Walters was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his services to film.
Sol Siegel, then the head of production of MGM, assigned Walters to direct The Spinster, which was based on Sylvia Ashton-Warner's novel of the same name. Ben Maddow wrote the screenplay, which tells of Anna Vorontosov, a Pennsylvania teacher who travels to New Zealand to educate Māori children. By 1960, Julian Blaustein was the producer, while Shirley MacLaine, Laurence Harvey, and Jack Hawkins headlined the cast. The production was intended to shoot on location in New Zealand by October 1960, but Walters called off the shoot after reviewing rushes of the second unit footage.
Filmed instead on the MGM sound stages, production for The Spinster was difficult for Walters and the two leads. Since Harvey was needed for Summer and Smoke (1961) by November 19, Walters was forced to rearrange his shooting schedule, by which he filmed Harvey's scenes first. Furthermore, Harvey and MacLaine did not get along on set. In November 1960, Walters told The New York Times: "This is absolutely murderous. We have got to do all our key scenes in one bunch. Every day and every moment is a climactic scene. I have never done anything like this before. I never want to do anything like this again. There is not enough time for anything, least of all, time for rehearsal, which is particularly important in this sort of rush situation."
Released in May 1961, the film, retitled Two Loves, received negative reviews from film critics and was a box office disappointment. A. H. Weiler of The New York Times called the film "nothing better than a murky drama, despite the lovely colors in which it was filmed. The problems of the amour-harried principals, though seriously stated, seem as distant as New Zealand, in which it all takes place."
In 1961, after he signed a new five-year contract with MGM, Walters announced he would direct Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962) based on the Broadway musical, which featured music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. A passion project of his, Walters had intended to direct the film in 1947 before he was reassigned Good News. The film starred Doris Day, Jimmy Durante, Stephen Boyd, and Martha Raye. Budgeted at $5.3 million, principal photography stretched from January to May 1962 on the MGM studio backlot. Walters brought Busby Berkeley out of retirement to film the circus numbers.
Released in December 1962, Billy Rose's Jumbo premiered at the Radio City Music Hall to accompany their annual Christmas stage show. Critical reaction was fairly positive, with the Los Angeles Times stating the film is "as corny and wonderful as the circus, and I urge you to put it down right now as a Christmas gift for yourself and the kids." The film however was a box office flop.
While he was looking at circus acts in New York, Walters and Roger Edens attended a showing for the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Unimpressed, Walters reflected: "Anyway, when we got back to the coast the first thing we heard was 'We've bought Molly Brown and we want you to do it.'" With Lawrence Weingarten as the producer, Walters had wanted Shirley MacLaine in the lead role. Meanwhile, Debbie Reynolds campaigned intensively for the role. However, MacLaine was forced to withdraw as she was under contract to Hal B. Wallis, and Reynolds was given the part. Walters drove to Reynolds' Beverly Hills residence to talk her out of the role. There, he told her she was too "short for the part." Reynolds refused to turn down the part, replying, "It's possible, Chuck, you could be wrong."
In September 1963, exterior filming for The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) was done on location in Montrose, Colorado. The rest of the production was moved to the MGM studio backlot. Six weeks into the production, Walters changed his opinion. Reynolds reflected: "He came to me and said: 'I have to admit that I was wrong. You are playing the role really well. I'm pleased.'" As filming proceeded, MGM reduced the production budget of Molly Brown by $1 million in favor of Doctor Zhivago (1965). Therefore, Walters considered removing the six-number dance number "He's My Friend". To retain the number, he decided to film it with the entire cast in one day, using two cameras to reduce shooting time.
The Unsinkable Molly Brown held its world premiere at the Denham Theater in Denver, Colorado on June 11, 1964. After the Los Angeles premiere, the film opened at the Radio City Music Hall on July 16. It ran for ten weeks and became the highest-grossing film at the theater, earning $2 million. Within the United States, it earned $11 million at the box office. The film received six nominations at the Academy Awards, including Reynolds' nomination for Best Actress.
