Invitation to the Dance
The first segment, "Circus", set to original music composed for the film by Jacques Ibert, is a tragic love triangle set in a mythical land sometime in the past. Kelly plays a clown, who is in love with another circus performer, played by Claire Sombert. She, however, is in love with an Aerialist, played by Youskevitch. The Clown, after entertaining the crowds with the other clowns, sees his love and the Aerialist kiss and wanders into a crowd in shock. That night he watches them dance together, and after the Lady finds him with her shawl, he confesses his love to her. The Aerialist finds them and thinks she has been unfaithful and leaves her. Determined to win her, the Clown tries to walk the Aerialist's tightrope himself, only to fall to his death. Dying, he urges the two lovers to forgive each other.
The second segment, "Ring Around the Rosy", set to original music by André Previn, tells several romantic stories tied by the exchange of a gold bracelet. The bracelet is originally given by a husband (David Paltenghi) to his wife Daphne Dale. She gives it to a flirtatious artist (Youskevitch), at a party, infuriating the husband, who stalks off. The artist gives the bracelet to a model (Claude Bessy), who gives it to her boyfriend the Sharpie (Tommy Rall). He in turn gives it to the Femme Fatale (Belita), only to have her present it to a Crooner (Irving Davies) after his performance. When the Hatcheck Girl (Diana Adams) orders him to leave, the Crooner gives her the bracelet. She returns home to her boyfriend, a Marine (Kelly). When he sees the bracelet, he angrily takes it and storms out. Coming out of a bar, he encounters a Streetwalker (Tamara Toumanova) and dances with her, giving her the bracelet as pay before walking off again. The next person the woman meets is the Husband who bought the bracelet. He recognizes it, buys it back, and reunites with his wife, returning it to her.
The third segment, "Sinbad the Sailor", is a fantasy consisting of live action and Hanna–Barbera-directed cartoons set in the casbah of a Middle Eastern country. This segment includes complex dance sequences showing a live Kelly dancing with cartoon characters; predating many ideas which reappeared in Mary Poppins. (Walt Disney was a friend of Gene Kelly's, and Disney animators provided technical consulting for the MGM animators on blending live action with animation for this film.) Use is also made of the original themes of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade by the MGM music department team of adapter Roger Edens, conductor Johnny Green and orchestrator Conrad Salinger. Kelly plays a sailor who is sold a magic lantern. Rubbing the lamp, he discovers a childlike Genie (David Kasday). Put off by the Genie at first, the Sailor soon befriends him and changes his clothes into a miniature sailor suit to match his. The Genie's uses his magic to transport them both inside a book of One Thousand and One Nights. This puts him in conflict with a cartoon dragon, and then two palace guards wielding swords, and falling in love with a cartoon harem girl. With the Genie's help, he defeats the two guards by out dancing them. The Harem Girl then joins him and the Genie, after he changes her clothes into a Women's Naval Uniform. The film ends with the three of them dancing into the distance together.
psychedelic, romantic