TSPDT

Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Musical, Romance, Comedy, Musical Comedy, Musical Romance, Romantic Comedy, Drama
Key Collaborators: Cedric Gibbons (Production Designer), Albert Akst (Editor), Arthur Freed (Producer), Robert Planck (Cinematographer), Jack Martin Smith (Production Designer), Clinton Sundberg (Character Actor), Fred Astaire (Leading Actor), Judy Garland (Leading Actress), Frank Sinatra (Leading Actor), Peter Lawford (Leading Actor), Betty Comden (Screenwriter), Adolph Green (Screenwriter)

"Charles Walters is a conundrum. The director of two classic musicals - Easter Parade (1948) and High Society (1956) - he is rarely referred to as a great director, and is certainly not in the class of Vincente Minnelli. The explanation, perhaps, lies in the fact that these enduringly popular films were made under the aegis of producer Arthur Freed. Walters took the logical journey to becoming a director of musicals. He started out as a dancer and choreographer on Broadway and made his Hollywood debut as a hoofer and dance director on Seven Days' Leave (1942)." - Lloyd Hughes (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)

"From the trolley scene in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's last dance on the silver screen (The Barkleys of Broadway, 1949) to Judy Garland's timeless, tuxedo-clad performance of "Get Happy" (Summer Stock, 1950), Charles Walters staged the iconic musical sequences of Hollywood's golden age. During his career, this Academy Award-nominated director and choreographer showcased the talents of stars such as Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and Frank Sinatra. However, despite his many critical and commercial triumphs, Walters's name often goes unrecognized today." - Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance, 2014

"His forte was light comedies and musicals, which always had a foot, or at least one toe, on the ground of reality." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)

"The fact that Charles Walters's nearly two dozen musicals for MGM lack greatness should not obscure their virtues… Unfortunately, Walters, despite his years as an actor, dancer, and choreographer - he choreographed a number of MGM musicals in the early forties - never developed a distinctive style… On some occasions, Walters had to cope with grievous miscasting, especially in the case of High Society (1956), which tried to palm off Bing Crosby as an upper-crust man about town and Frank Sinatra as a chip-on-his-shoulder magazine writer." - Ted Sennett (Great Movie Directors, 1986)

"His sensibility is pitched at a certain level of fakery and remains there consistently. If the adjective 'nice' could be defined with any precision, it would apply to most of his films. At the very least, his films almost invariably turn out being more entertaining than their subject and title would indicate. Walters is often too arch and affected for comfort, but his direction of players is never lacking in knowledgeable subtlety" - Andrew Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)

"Timing and pace are important in any film, whether it be comedy or drama. And how better to learn the fundamentals of these show business ingredients by dancing?" - Charles Walters