Silk Stockings was a 1954 musical composed by Cole Porter, to a stageplay by George Kaufman, Leueen McGrath and Abe Burrows that was in turn based upon the 1939 film Ninotchka, Melchior Lengyel's romantic fable about the seductive charms of capitalism and one particular capitalist that warm the heart of a dedicated apparatchik, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Greta Garbo, Silk Stockings was made into a movie in 1957 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Fred Astaire (his last MGM musical), Cyd Charisse and Peter Lorre (in a singing role). It was directed by Rouben Mamoulian. The film is historically significant as it marked the end of Astaire's nearly quarter-century career in movie musicals; after the film's release, he announced his retirement from the genre, after which he appeared in primarily straight dramatic roles (although he continued to dance in a series of Emmy Award-winning TV specials into the 1960s). Astaire would return to musicals 11 years later in Finian's Rainbow. One of his last performances in Silk Stockings is the song "The Ritz Roll and Rock", a parody of the then-emerging rock and roll genre. The song ends with Astaire symbolically smashing his top hat, an article of clothing that was considered one of his early trademarks. External links
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