Can-Can ★★ 1960

Lackluster screen adaptation of the Cole Porter musical bears little resemblance to the stage version. MacLaine is a cafe owner who goes to court to try and get the “Can-Can,” a dance considered risque in gay Paree at the end of the 19th century, made legal. Love interest Sinatra happens to be a lawyer. DC'est Manifique; Let's Do It; I Love Paris; You Do Something to Me; It's All Right With Me; Live and Let Live; Come Along With Me; Just One of Those Things. 131m/C VHS, DVD . Frank Sinatra, Shirley Macion, Laine, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Juliet Prowse, Marcel Dalio, Leon Belasco; D: Walter Lang; C: William H. Daniels.

can-can (or chahut). Boisterous (and supposedly indecorous) Parisian dance of quadrille pattern which came into vogue in 1830s, having originated in Algeria. Best-known example is Offenbach's from Orpheus in the Underworld (1858). Involves high kicking by a line of women in pretty dresses.

can·can / ˈkanˌkan/ • n. a lively, high-kicking stage dance originating in 19th-century Parisian music halls.

cancan XIX. — F., of uncert. orig.