Editing Gene Kelly (section)

===1953–1957: Decline of Hollywood musicals===
At the peak of his creative powers, Kelly made what in retrospect some see as a career mistake.<ref name="Hirschhorn" /> In December 1951, he signed a contract with MGM that sent him to Europe for 19 months to use MGM funds frozen in Europe to make three pictures while personally benefiting from tax exemptions. ''[[Invitation to the Dance (film)|Invitation to the Dance]]'', a pet project of Kelly's to bring modern ballet to mainstream film audiences. It was beset with delays and technical problems, and flopped when finally released in 1956.

[[File:Its Always Fair Weather photo.JPG|thumb|[[Michael Kidd]], Kelly, and [[Dan Dailey]] in ''[[It's Always Fair Weather]]'' (1955), directed by Kelly and [[Stanley Donen]], their last collaboration]]

When Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1953, the film musical was beginning to feel the pressures from television, and MGM cut the budget for his next picture ''[[Brigadoon (film)|Brigadoon]]'' (1954), with Cyd Charisse, forcing him to make the film on studio backlots instead of on location in Scotland. This year also had him appear as a guest star with his brother Fred in the "I Love to Go Swimmin' with Wimmen" routine in ''[[Deep in My Heart (1954 film)|Deep in My Heart]]'' (1954).

MGM's refusal to lend him out for ''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' and ''[[Pal Joey (film)|Pal Joey]]'' put further strains on his relationship with the studio. He negotiated an exit to his contract that involved making three further pictures for MGM. The first of these, ''[[It's Always Fair Weather]]'' (1955), co-directed with Donen, was a musical satire on television and advertising, and includes his roller-skate dance routine to ''I Like Myself'', and a dance trio with [[Michael Kidd]] and [[Dan Dailey]] that Kelly used to experiment with the widescreen possibilities of [[Cinemascope]].

MGM had lost faith in Kelly's box-office appeal, and as a result ''It's Always Fair Weather'' premiered at 17 drive-in theaters around the Los Angeles metroplex. Next followed Kelly's last musical film for MGM, ''[[Les Girls]]'' (1957), in which he joined [[Mitzi Gaynor]], [[Kay Kendall]], and [[Taina Elg]]. The third picture he completed was a co-production between MGM and himself, a B-film, ''[[The Happy Road]]'' (1957), set in his beloved France, his first foray in a new role as producer-director-actor. After leaving MGM, Kelly returned to stage work.