The 1950s weren’t entirely a wasteland of “elegant and tasteful” (read: boring) mink. There were exceptions, usually in the form of stoles, and this next update is the poster child of 1950s fox stoles. It also contains my main weakness: pink-dyed fox. Silk Stockings is, like fox stoles, something the ’50s presented a lot of musical remakes of “old” films. In this case, the old movie was 1939’s Ninotchka. Ninotchka is one of Greta Garbo’s last films and committed the cardinal sin of presenting her as a Russian who wore no fur. Silk Stockings doesn’t quite make up for this, but it’s a solid film nonetheless.

Silk Stockings – The Film

The plot of the film follows the main beats of Ninotchka. Certain elements changed to provide the thinnest excuse for people to sing. Fred Astaire plays a film producer who snags a Russian composer to write music for his films. The Kremlin sends agents to get him back, but they are corrupted by “decadent” western ways. They then send Ninotchka Yoschenko, a true fan of Communism, to bring them all back. She proves to be a tougher nut to crack. Since this is a 50’s musical, though, said nut is cracked, and everyone lives happily ever after in the decadent western paradise.

Silk Stockings – The Furs

Perhaps in homage to the original, Agent Yoschenko is, sadly, not clad in any decadent western fur coats. Fur fashion is handled by Peggy Dayton (Janis Paige), the star of producer Steve Canfield’s (Fred Astaire) film. Given a choice, I would have preferred Cyd Charisse to be the one swathed in big fox stoles, but, given an ideal choice, I would have picked Greta Garbo over either of them.

Peggy Dayton arrives in a big way. It’s a 50’s musical, so entrances are essential, and this one features a white fox stole and muff combo.

The shot is pretty much wide throughout, sadly. I could have used a closer view of this outfit.

Later, Miss Dayton and Agent Yoshenko briefly meet up, with their contrasting styles on clear display.

Cyd departs, leaving us with an extended conversation between Canfield and Dayton, with Janis Paige vamping around in this fantastic dyed fox stole.

The film’s insistence on wide shots is somewhat frustrating. Though I’m ordinarily no fan, I would have liked the opportunity to direct the “pan-and-scan” cut of the film. Granted, people might wonder where Fred Astaire went to after a while.

Widescreen does have its uses, as this glamor pose on the couch, wrapped in thick dyed fox, does Miss Paige well.

Finally, we come to that strange, remarkable rarity: the fur-clad musical number. This one features a favorite: a pink-dyed fox. Fox is a little more “in your face” from a fashion perspective, and brightly dyed versions play that up nicely.

In this musical number, Peggy tries to “convince” the Russian composer to work for Steve Canfield.

I would have signed up pretty quickly, but it’s a long musical number, so it takes some time.

Sadly the oversized pink fox trim doesn’t hang around the whole time, but in taking it off, the film does something akin to a closeup, which is impressive, considering.

Overall this is an excellent example of 50’s fox stoles and an even better example of a fantastic dyed fox. Still, it suffers for its legacy, as throughout my thoughts drifted first to thinking of Cyd Charisse in those fox stoles, then to the great one herself, Greta Garbo, who would have filled them out gloriously. Well, Garbo filled out any fur gloriously, so that’s not really saying much, I know. Apologies to Janis Paige, of course, but really, I can’t think of many women who would weather a Garbo comparison.

Despite having almost 7 minutes of fur, the ratio is pretty slim because this is (as I believe I’ve pointed out before) a 50’s musical, and they were generally pushing the duce / duce-and-a-half mark.

Fur Runtime: approx 7 minutes
Film Runtime: 117 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 5%