Stanley Donen - Relationship With Gene Kelly

Relationship With Gene Kelly

Donen's relationship with Gene Kelly was complicated and he often spoke bitterly about his former friend and mentor decades after having last worked with him. Kelly was never explicitly negative about Donen in later years, however Donen's biographer Stephen Silverman has asserted that Kelly's comments were often condescending and demonstrated "a long-standing attempt to diminish Donen's contributions to their collective work." The reasons for their conflict were both personal (due to both men having been married to dancer Jeanne Coyne) and professional differences (due to Donen always feeling that Kelly did not respect him or treat him as an equal). It is also debatable as to which of the two deserves more credit for the films that they made together. Between 1944 and 1955 Donen and Kelly co-directed three films and choreographed (and unofficially co-directed) the dance sequences in four other films.

Jeanne Coyne was a professional dancer, choreographer and actress born in 1923. At the age of 7 Coyne enrolled in the Gene Kelly Studio of Dance in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and developed a schoolgirl crush on Kelly that lasted her entire life. In her twenties she pursued her dancing career in New York City and was cast in Best Foot Forward, where she reconnected with Kelly and first met Donen. Like both Donen and Kelly, she moved to Hollywood in the early 1940s and worked as a dancer and choreographer at MGM. She and Donen eloped in 1948, but their marriage became strained in 1949 until they separated in 1950 and finally divorced in 1951. During their marriage Donen confided to Coyne his frustration with Kelly while making On the Town, only to find that she immediately took Kelly's side. Coyne worked as Kelly's personal assistant on such films as On the Town, Summer Stock and An American in Paris while married to Donen and continued assisting Kelly until her death. There had been rumors that Kelly and Coyne were having an affair both during and after Coyne's marriage to Donen, as well as rumors that Donen was in love with Kelly's first wife Betsy Blair. Blair's autobiography makes no mention of an affair between Kelly and Coyne nor of any romantic attachments to or from Donen. However she does state that Donen's marriage to Coyne was unhappy and that Donen was very close to both her and Kelly. Kelly always thought that Donen's impulsive marriage to Coyne showed an emotional immaturity and lack of good judgement and in an interview Kelly stated that "Jeannie's marriage to Stanley was doomed from the start. Because every time Stanley looked at Jeannie, he saw Betsy, whom he loved; and every time Jeannie looked at Stanley, I guess she saw me. One way or another it was all pretty incestuous." Kelly's marriage to Blair ended in 1957, after which he moved in with Coyne. They married in 1960 and had two children together. Coyne was diagnosed with leukemia and died in 1973. In November 2012 the Broadway musical What A Glorious Feeling debuted at the Riverside Theatre and depicted both the making of Singin' in the Rain and the love triangle between Donen, Kelly and Coyne. It starred Zak Edwards as Donen, Charles Osburne as Kelly and Summer Broyhill as Coyne.

Donen and Kelly first met during the Broadway production of Pal Joey, and became collaborators and friends during the production of Best Foot Forward in 1941. Their relationship has been described as similar to that of the characters Don Lockwood and Cosmo Brown in Singin' in the Rain, with Kelly as the star performer and Donen as his trusted sidekick. Kelly described Donen as being like a son to him and Donen initially idolized Kelly, while still finding him to be "cold, egotistical and very rough." Although Donen has credited Kelly for "jump-starting his career as a filmmaker", he has also stated that MGM producer Roger Edens was his biggest promoter. Many people believe that Donen owes everything to Kelly and Kelly biographer Clive Hirschhorn has described Donen as having "no particular identity or evident talent...and was just a kid from the south who wanted to make it in show business." However it is also true that a sixteen-year-old Donen came to New York with no connections or friends and after only two auditions landed a role on Broadway with one of its most successful directors. Donen has stated that he moved to Hollywood of his own accord, however other sources claim that he followed Kelly, who then helped him get his first job. Kelly would sometimes embarrass and patronize Donen in public, such as berating Donen for not being able to keep up with his dance steps during the rehearsals for Cover Girl. Donen has admitted that he did not consider himself to be a very good performer. Despite Donen's growing resentment of Kelly he was able to compartmentalize his personal feelings and professional attitude during their collaborations. Tensions between the two exploded on the set of It's Always Fair Weather. Donen had recently had a major hit with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and did not want to make another film with Kelly. They fought on the set for the first time, with the now more confident Donen asserting himself. Donen almost quit the film and his friendship with Kelly ended. During the making of It's Always Fair Weather, Donen's self-confidence was high due to having just made two hit films: Deep in My Heart and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, while Vincent Minnelli's Brigadoon (which Kelly was closely involved in and had wanted to direct) was a flop and Kelly's own ambitious film Invitation to Dance was completed in 1954 but was not released by MGM until 1956, and was then financially unsuccessful despite having won the prestigious Golden Bear at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival. Kelly's problems at that time also included unsuccessfully attempting to branch out into dramatic acting with The Devil Makes Three and Seagulls Over Sorrento, both of which had flopped, as well as his marriage to Betsy Blair beginning to fall apart. During the shooting of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Donen often complained about his budgetary constraints preventing him from having better sets or the luxury of shooting on location, while Brigadoon had a much larger budget. In later years Donen would state that he had nothing nice to say about Kelly. At a 1991 tribute to Comden and Green, Kelly said in a public speech that Donen "needed to grow up with" but added "I needed Stanley at the back of the camera." He also described Donen as being thought of as his whipping-boy at MGM. Although Donen often complained that Kelly never gave him enough credit for their work, Kelly did credit him for the Jerry the Mouse and "Alter Ego" dance sequences. In 1992 Donen said "I'm grateful to him, but I paid back the debt, ten times over. And he got his money's worth out of me." Betsy Blair claimed to be "surprised and bemused" of Donen's bitterness towards Kelly in later interviews.

The equality of contributions of Donen and Kelly's collaborations is debatable. David Thomson has written about "the problem in assessing career: who did what in their collaboration? And what is Donen's real standing as a director?" Thomson goes on to hypothesize that "nothing in his career suggests that Gene Kelly could have filmed himself singing in the rain with the exhilaration of Donen's retreating crane shot." However set reports state that Kelly rode the camera boom between shots and during camera set-ups. Donen has stated that "by the time you hash it through from beginning to end ten million times, you can't remember who did what except in a few instances where you remember getting an idea." Composer Saul Chaplin said that "Gene was the prime mover and Stanley an eager and talented pupil." During the shooting of On the Town, all memos and correspondence from MGM to the production were addressed exclusively to Donen, and not to Kelly. However, actress Kathleen Freeman stated that when people visited set of Singin' in the Rain to relate their experiences during the silent era, they would ask to speak Kelly. Singin' in the Rain art director Randall Duell has stated "Gene ran the show. Stan had some good ideas and worked with Gene, but he was still the 'office boy' to Gene, in a sense, although Gene had great respect for him. But they made a good team, because they were very compatible." Kelly also became heavily involved with the Singin' in the Rain script during its third draft, which is when the structure of the script in progress began to resemble the finished film. Comparing Donen and Kelly's films as solo directors, Donen's were usually more critically acclaimed and financially successful than Kelly's films. Kelly's 1969 film Hello Dolly! was the most expensive musical ever made upon its release and is credited with effectively killing the Hollywood musical. The two men were competitive about their separate careers.