Audrey: Sabrina's black dress ...

Audrey and the class of '54: it was that great year for girls in the movies, and I was 8 and just starting to watch them all .....Audrey and Grace were the two classy girls then - it was a busy year for Kelly: REAR WINDOW and THE COUNTRY GIRL, the programmer GREEN FIRE where she looks elegant in the jungle, THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI, DIAL M FOR MURDER ... while Audrey was Billy Wilder's SABRINA. 
Elizabeth Taylor was busy too, with ELEPHANT WALK, BEAU BRUMMELL, RHAPSODY and THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, before GIANT slowed her down to a film a year for the rest of the '50s. Ava Gardner was Mankiewicz's THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA; Jean Simmons was DESIREE (with Brando as Napoleon) and in THE EGYPTIAN; while Marilyn after her 1953 hits starred in two Fox movies, in Canada for RIVER OF NO RETURN, and also THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW-BUSINESS. Add in the gals in WOMAN'S WORLD: Lauren Bacall, June Allyson, Arlene Dahl; while Susan Hayward was also busy at Fox, and Ingrid Bergman was still on her Voyage to Italy before returning to the fold; Lana and Rita, Olivia and sister Joan were also filming, while Julie Harris was filming EAST OF EDEN with James Dean - while over in Italy Alida Valli was dynamic in Visconti's SENSO and teenage Sophia Loren was becoming the top Italian star, overtaking Gina and Silvana, with films like WOMAN OF THE RIVER and TOO BAD SHE'S BAD. In a year or so she would be in American movies .... while England's Kay Kendall was rising through the ranks with films like FAST AND LOOSE and DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE and Diana Dors and Belinda Lee were raising the UK glamour stakes. Doris Day was  YOUNG AT HEART, and those second-tier girls like Vera Miles, Martha Hyer, Dorothy Malone, Virginia Mayo, Shelley Winters were all busy; Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck were out west: Joan in JOHNNY GUITAR - the first film I saw, aged 8; Barbara as THE CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA. Judy of course was back with A STAR IS BORN (the film of the year), Cyd Charisse was dancing with Gene Kelly, Silvana Mangano was terrific in MAMBO, as was Linda Darnell in THIS IS MY LOVE. (By 1957 the next lot had arrived: Lee Remick, Shirley McLaine, Joanne Woodward, Carroll Baker, the grown-up Natalie Wood - and Grace had retired to Monaco, as those other blondes like Kim and Janet and Eva Marie Saint took centre stage). Back to Audrey ....

Audrey soared to prominence with Wyler's ROMAN HOLIDAY (left) in 1953, in Billy Wilder's SABRINA she is even more adorable, looking at it again now she seems the most beautiful creature ever put before a camera - like Julie Christie a decade later she totally captivates. She has some great looks in SABRINA, whether at the start up in that tree watching the Larabee's party, or on her return from Paris when David Larrabee (William Holden) zooms up to the station to drive her home with her new French chic, or that dress she wears to the Larrabee party, or that black dress with the little hat, against the New York slyline. Is there anything more chic, even after 60 years practically - well of course there is Audrey's look in FUNNY FACE, the whole BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS thing, the various Sixties looks she adopted for CHARADE, TWO FOR THE ROAD, HOW TO STEAL A MILLION, as Givenchy and Edith Head gowned her for those movies, which are still adored today.

I love how in SABRINA (of course Bogart is too old for her, as Linus - but it doesn't matter, just like it doesn't that Fred Astaire could practically be her grand-father in FUNNY FACE) Mrs Larrabee tries to put the chauffeur's daughter in her place at the party by telling her that she must come up to the house to cook something special for them to show them what she has learned in Paris. The way Sabrina says "Oh, I've learned a lot" says it all ... SABRINA is a perfect black and white film too, and remains a Billy Wilder perennial. Oddly enough, I hate his other one with Audrey: 1957's LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, another Audrey in Paris movie and a supposed tribute to Lubitsch, but a collapsed souffle for me, much as I love Gary Cooper he is simply to old with Audrey here and the film is just a damp squib. Billy regained his touch though with his next one - the funniest comedy ever made: SOME LIKE IT HOT. Indeed. More Audrey at label ...