Moira Shearer

   In the 1948 film, The Red Shoes, the director Michael Powell sets out to take full advantage of two of Moira Shearer’s many talents, most specifically her brilliant dancing and her beauty. His goal was to create of her a fairytale princess.

   This is most obviously apparent in the scenes depicting the arrival in Monte Carlo of Victoria Page or, Vicky, the ballerina that Shearer depicts. Her impresario, Boris Lermontov puts her up in the Hotel de Paris, where, he assures her, she’ll be “most comfortable”. Lermontov and his team including the ballet master, the music director and conductor and the stage designer are staying at a villa down the coast in Cap Ferrat.

   When, in London, Lermontov announced to Vicky that he had selected her to travel with his company to Monte Carlo, he didn’t divulge to her what role she might dance in his new ballet. However, once she was settled in at the hotel, he summons her to the villa to tell her of his decision.

Michael Powell directs the scene in The Red Shoes, where Vicky, played by Moira Shearer, leaves the Hotel de Paris for her meeting with Boris Lermontov, director of the ballet company. Lermontov’s limousine can be seen through the front door. Photographer unknown.

He sends his chauffeur to pick her up in his Hispano-Suiza landaulet. Vicky, as she later explains to Lermontov, was about to go out to dinner with friends in her sumptuous full-length Jacques Fath gown, a diamond tiara perched atop her Titian hair. In response to Lermontov’s summons she changes her plans and leaves the hotel. We see her cross the lobby and, displaying a fine ankle, daintily descend the front steps to be shown to the car by the chauffeur.

   He drives her along the Corniche to an entry to the steps leading up to the villa, helps her out of the car and says to her, “Montez, Mamzelle”(climb up, Miss). As he leaves, Vicky pushes open the massive iron gates and begins her ascent of the 150 weed-strewn steps on this warm Mediterranean evening. A few frames later we are shown her arriving at the top with not a trace of perspiration on her beautiful brow.

Vicky begins her long climb to Lermontov’s villa. Screenshot from The Red Shoes.

This is, of course, all the stuff of fantasy. Even though it has already been established that Vicky is a socialite and, perhaps a well-healed one, it seems unlikely that she would have packed that bulky Jacques Fath dress for her debut appearance in Monte Carlo. No impresario, however maniacal, would have subjected his prima ballerina-to-be to that treacherous climb especially as the main entry to house had a driveway leading up to the main door.

Vicky nears the top of the steps to Lermontov’s villa. Cap Ferrat and the Mediterranean are in the background. Photographer unknown.

Instead, Powell was intent on creating of this scenario an image of fantasy in as many ways he could. In addition to highlighting Shearer’s beauty, Powell sets out to augment it with the allure of the Riviera and the quality of the evening light. He has created his fairytale princess.

   When she reaches the villa Vicky is welcomed by Lermontov who, in due course, offers her the job. He then sends her home for an early night, apparently, without any dinner.