John Huston's
Moulin Rouge

(1952)

Moulin Rouge, based on an historical novel by Pierre Le Mure, presents the life of post-impressionist artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The title comes from the celebrated nightclub and cabaret, the Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill), which inspired Toulouse-Lautrec and for which he designed posters. The film features color cinematography by Oswald Morris, BSC, and won the Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival.

José Ferrer stars as the artist Toulouse-Lautrec and his father the Count of Toulouse, with Zsa Zsa Gabor as Jane Avril, Suzanne Flon, Eric Pohlmann, Colette Marchand, Christopher Lee, Michael Balfour, Peter Cushing, Katherine Kath as La Goulue ("the Glutton"), Theodore Bikel as King Milan of Serbia, and Muriel Smith.

The opening scene discovers bohemian artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at the Moulin Rouge, where he drinks copious amounts of cognac and sketches the scandalous dancers Ascia, La Goulue, and the more respectable singer Jane Avril (Zha Zha Gabor). The chorus line dances the can-can to the familiar tune of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. It may seem strange today that this dance was considered scandalous in the 1890s—it was because the high-kicking ladies are displaying their underwear, though they have acres of it! La Goulue had a heart embroidered on the seat of her pantaloons, which she could flash to the audience.

To stretch his allowance, Henri offers to design posters for the Moulin in exchange for free drinks. After the Moulin closes for the night, Toulouse-Lautrec walks home, recalling his noble birth—he is the son and heir of the Count of Toulouse, Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec, also played by Ferrer—but his growth was stunted from childhood. On his way to his apartment he encounters streetwalker Marie Charlet (Collette Marchand—a famous ballet star making her film debut) whom he protects from the policeman Patou.

Henri takes her in, pays her to model for him, and quickly falls in love with her. His attempts to reform her fail, and she also remains pathetic and miserable, because she does not love Henri, and has been abandoned by her own lover. After throwing her out, Henri searches for her in vain and finds limited solace in alcohol. Henri resolves to end his life and turns on the gas in his apartment, but turns it off when he realizes he has not completed his posters for the Moulin Rouge. His art becomes his only comfort. Henri obtains the proprietor's acceptance for his innovative and controversial posters, and has to personally blend the inks in unconventional colors for the lithographer.

One cold morning in 1900, he sees a woman standing on the Pont Alexandre III. He mistakenly thinks she is contemplating suicide and stops to rescue her. He suggests, "The morning air is cold, but not so cold as the waters of the Seine." She is Myriamme Hyam (Suzanne Flon) who only stopped to throw a key into the river—her rejection of an affair with the wealthy and married Marne de la Voisier (Peter Cushing). Jane Avril (Zha Zha Gabor) introduces Henri to Myriamme professionally, as she is a model for Jane's dressmaker. Spiritually Henri and Myriamme are soulmates—she has spent several months' salary on his portrait of Marie Charlet, because she can see he truly loved her when he painted it. He takes her out a few times, but is conflicted about dating a beautiful woman in light of his own deformity. He cynically observes, "The wise woman patterns her life on the theory and practice of modern banking. She never gives her love, but only lends it on the best security and at the highest rate of interest."

Eventually de la Voisier gets a divorce, and Myriamme agrees to marry him.

Henri responds by descending even more deeply into alcoholism, now substituting absinth for cognac. On his deathbed, the characters of the Moulin visit him to say farewell, and his father the Count apologizes for underestimating his art, as his paintings have been selected to hang in the Louvre. He was the first artist so honored in his lifetime.

José Ferrer (Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and his father, the Comte Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec) is the only actor to have won an Oscar, Tony, and Emmy for the same role, Cyrano de Bergerac. He remains the best-known and highest-regarded portrayer of Cyrano. Bela Lugosi portrayed Cyrano in his native Hungary, and it was his favorite role. Ferrer had only recently made his film debut, as the Dauphin in Victor Flemming's Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman (1948 RKO). He is nearly as closely identified with Toulouse-Lautrec as with the role of Cyrano.

Zsa Zsa Gabor (Jane Avril) gave her signature performance in this film. Jane Avril featured in several of Toulouse-Lautrec's Moulin Rouge posters, and she had a long and lucrative career as a performer after she left the Moulin. She is shown as a contemporary of La Goulue, but she was actually hired by the Moulin to replace La Goulue who left the Moulin to go on tour. She was equally popular, though more restrained and introverted—perhaps less scandalous—than her predecessor.

Suzanne Flon (Myriamme Hyam)

Katherine Kath (La Goulue—"the Glutton") La Goulue was immortalized in Toulouse-Lautrec's posters for the Moulin. Her partner was Valentine le desosse ("the boneless,") an amateur who so enjoyed dancing in the Moulin that he refused payment. La Goulue died in poverty in 1929. She was the highest-paid entertainer of her day, but was unable to maintain her popularity after she left the Moulin. She was nicknamed "the Glutton" due to her habit of swiping drinks off of patron's tables—sometimes right out of their hands—and draining them as part of her act.

Muriel Smith (Aicha) was an American singer who had starred in Broadway musicals including Carmen Jones and The Cradle Will Rock. Aischa is presented as La Goulue's principal rival.

Colette Marchand (Marie Charlet), a celebrated ballet star, made her film debut in Moulin Rouge and her performance was nominated for the best supporting actress Oscar. Marie Charlet was not a streetwalker in real life, but merely one of Toulouse-Lautrec's models.

Theodore Bikel (King Milan of Serbia) originated the role of Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music on Broadway and also appeared in the film version of My Fair Lady (1964 Warners). King Milan abdicated the Serbian throne in 1889 to prevent a civil war, and lived comfortably in exile in Paris until his death in 1901. Though the film refers to him as Milan IV, he was actually Milan I. He was not actually a patron of Toulouse-Lautrec's, but the artist insulted the king while drunk.

Peter Cushing (Marcel de la Voisier) made his film debut in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948 London), and played Baron Frankenstein in the Hammer series and Professor Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958 Hammer). He also played Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars.

Christopher Lee (Georges Seurat) played the monster in Curse of Frankenstein (1957 Hammer), and the title roles in The Mummy (1959 Hammer) and Horror of Dracula. He portrayed Dracula in Hammer sequels well into the 1970s, and played Count Dooku in Star Wars, as well as Saruman in Lord of the Rings. He was knighted in 2009.

Michael Balfour as Dodo

Eric Pohlmann as Picard

Moulin Rouge was shot in three-strip Technicolor, but printed with a subdued palette. This involved renting special cameras from the Technicolor Corporation. Studios also had to buy high-quality black-and-white film stock from the company. A prism in the camera split the image where it was simultaneously exposed onto three strips of black-and-white film. Each of the three images was expose through a different primary-color filter, and the resulting black-and-white images were then printed with the corresponding color to produce the final image. Rushes were only black-and-white. Except for problems producing a true red—techicolor red was usually a bit tomato orange, the process produced vibrant, deeply-saturated colors, which Huston felt would not accurately represent Toulouse-Lautrec's color palette. The process was completely abandoned within two years after Moulin Rouge, and Technicolor switched to producing high-quality prints from Eastmancolor or other single-film stocks as well as providing the widescreen processes VistaVision and Technirama. Vincente Mannelli chose Anscocolor for his biography of Vincent Van Gogh, Lust for Life, starring Kurt Douglas, because he felt Eastmancolor was too harsh compared to Van Gogh's paintings. Oswald Morris would also design a subdued color scheme for Huston's Moby Dick (1955 Warners).

John Huston was one of Hollywood's highest-regarded directors. He started as a short-story writer and became a screenwriter. He got his big break when he was permitted to direct his script for Dashiel Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (1938 Warners) starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor.

Georges Auric was a leading French composer, one of The Six, who also composed film music. His film scores include Caesar and Cleopatra (1946 Eagle-Lion).

Oswald Morris, BSC, the dean of British cinematographers, photographed almost all of Huston's films. His films with other directors include The Guns of Navaronne (1962 Columbia). He was particularly adept with Technicolor, and later Eastmancolor and widescreen.