FILM · 1948 · UK
The Red Shoes
- Directed by
- Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Runtime
- 133 min
- Studio
- The Archers
29 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.
29 Interesting Facts About The Red Shoes
Interesting Facts (23)
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This is one of director Martin Scorsese's favorite films and he owns a large collection of memorabilia related to it, including a pair of the red slippers signed by Moira Shearer, a copy of the screenplay signed by directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, an original set of storyboards (which were a gift from Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts), and several movie posters from around the world. Scorsese's collection of memorabilia can be viewed on the Criterion Collection's DVD/Blu-ray release of the movie.
- #005
Gene Kelly found this movie to be so great, he said he saw it over and over again. He told "M.G.M." executives to see "The Red Shoes" and the "Metro" executives found it just as beautiful. Kelly persuaded them for the go-ahead for "An American In Paris", which was inspired by "The Red Shoes".
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Anton Walbrook's character of Lermontov was generally thought to be based on ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the man behind Vaslav Nijinsky. In 1913, after learning that Nijinsky had married his prima ballerina, Romola de Pulszky, Diaghilev fired them both from the Ballet Russes. In the film, Lermontov's constant firing of dancers who fall in love is a parallel of this. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, however, were more inclined to say that Lermentov was a representation of their first main mentor, Alexander Korda.
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On her first day of shooting, Moira Shearer got badly sunburned and developed a blister on her back. Also, later in the production, she wrenched her neck quite badly when called to leap from a window and received a scratch that turned into an abscess. Shearer would often find herself being suspended in a harness for up to eight hours while being buffeted by wind machines.
- #010
Much to his surprise, Michael Powell had great difficulty persuading Moira Shearer to be in the film. She held out for a year before giving in. Shearer herself, however, did not particularly care for Powell. In later years, she described the making of the film as being a terrible ordeal. She said that Powell was distant and aloof and never really gave her much direction; further, having to dance for hours on end on concrete floors physically took a toll on all the dancers, making their legs swell.
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The final ballet, shown without Victoria dancing, has basis in fact. When Prima Ballerina Anna Pavlova died unexpectedly, according to tradition, the performance Of The Dying Swan was performed as scheduled, but without Pavlova. Her part was lit by a single spotlight and the rest of the show went on in her honor.
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A restored print has been made by Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation and the UCLA Film & Television Archive after many years' work. The restorers went right back to the original negatives, digitally repairing any scratches and misalignment. The restored print was shown at Cannes in 2009 to great acclaim and was subsequently shown theatrically as well as being made available on DVD and Blu-Ray.
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The film went massively over budget and the "Rank Company," which financed it and was to release it, had little faith in its commercial potential. It tried to bury the film by not giving it a premiere (backer J. Arthur Rank walked out of its first performance) and by just letting it quietly show at late screenings at a cinema in London. "Rank" wasn't even prepared to strike a print for the American market. Slowly, however, audiences started to pick up on the film, and "Rank" realized that it might have potential to be a breakout hit after all. Indeed, when an initial print was made for the US, it played at an off-Broadway theater for an unprecedented 110 weeks. That was enough to convince "Universal" to take up the distribution rights for the US, which it did in 1951.
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Christopher Challis had just graduated from camera operator to director of photography, having previously worked with Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, and Jack Cardiff. However, on hearing that the three would be working together on a film about ballet, he went to them and told them that he would happily revert back to the role of camera operator just for the chance of working with them again.
- #018
Upon completion of the film, J. Arthur Rank did not immediately release nor distribute it. Instead, the master film reels were stored for nearly a year on the "Rank Studio" transportation delivery-loading docks, exposed to the elements. Saddled with the film, "Rank" decided to release it to small art house theaters in London. The public enthusiastically endorsed the film, establishing its popularity. "Universal Pictures," in 1951, acquired the North American distribution rights to the film and placed it primarily in art-house movie theaters. The San Francisco Fine Arts theater screened the film four times daily for two years to sold-out houses.
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Emeric Pressburger originally wrote the script in 1937 when producer Alexander Korda was casting around for a project for his wife, Merle Oberon. The intention was that a professional dancer would fill in for Oberon in the dancing scenes. Nothing ever came of it, mainly due to the intervention of the war, and Michael Powell and Pressburger were able to buy the rights for the screenplay back from Korda for £12,000 in 1947. To do this, however, they had to pretend that it was purely for sentimental reasons and not because they wanted to make it into a film. Having worked for Korda before, they both knew that he was a shrewd businessman and that, if he detected they really wanted the property, he would have raised the price.
- #021
The directors decided early on that they had to use dancers who could act rather than actors who could dance. To create a realistic feeling of a ballet company at work, and to be able to include a fifteen-minute ballet as the high point of the film, they created their own ballet company using many dancers from The Royal Ballet.
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Behind the Scenes (2)
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Art director Hein Heckroth was a painter who had never worked as the art director on a film before. He had designed the costumes for previous The Archers' productions like "Black Narcissus (1947)." He created a 15-minute "animatic" (filmed storyboard) reel to convey the type of mood and feel his sets would give, which acted as an ideal guide for cinematographer Jack Cardiff.
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Characters & Cast (3)
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Casting the lead role of Victoria "Vicky" Page was a tough call for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Ideally, they wanted a ballerina who could act and who also was ravishingly beautiful. But J. Arthur Rank, desperate to break into the American market, wanted a recognizable American star for the lead and tried to borrow either Lauren Bacall or Angela Lansbury from the companies where they were under contract, Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, respectively. They were thrilled when they discovered Moira Shearer, who was second to Margot Fonteyn at the famous Sadler's Wells Ballet, but she initially rebuffed them. In the year it took to persuade her to come around, the directors were forced to consider casting actresses like Ann Todd and Hazel Court and cheating with a real ballerina in the ballet sequences.
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Career & Awards (1)
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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