Chinese Spectacle – In the ‘Limehouse’ number from MGM’s all-star musical cavalcade, 1946′s Ziegfeld Follies, Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer are like two porcelain figures dancing against chinoiserie background. The setting is a fairy-like Chinese garden, complete with bamboo bridge overlooking a pond in which float vari-colored water lilies, trees of black accordi-pleated chiffon, small half hidden nooks of fern, against a chartreuse background all of which heighten the fantasy and dream quality of the scene. Astaire and Miss Bremer, dressed in Chinred, are like two China dolls come to life in their stylized number for the musical in Technicolor, which was directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by Arthur Freed
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