Zsa Zsa Gabor did one thing on screen, which was to arrive. In Moulin Rouge John Huston used that well for a few minutes at a time; the rest of a long career mostly asked her to play herself, and she obliged.
Fi1m perspective
Jane Avril comes through the crowd at the Moulin Rouge in a Schiaparelli gown, sings, is affectionately rude to the little man drawing at his corner table, and leaves. Georges Auric's waltz comes in under her and stays after she has gone. That is more or less the whole of the part, and in our review of Moulin Rouge (1952) we called her a poster that moves, which was meant kindly. Huston, Oswald Morris behind the camera and Ralph Kemplen at the cutting bench build a room for her to walk through, and she walks through it beautifully. We were glad each time she came back and did not miss her when she went, which is about the best a cameo can hope for.
The career is short on second acts. Richard Tauber put her on the stage in Vienna; she reached America in 1941; a television appearance in 1951 led to a film debut in Lovely to Look At (1952) and, the same year, to Avril, her most substantial film part. Lili (1953), opposite Leslie Caron, was among her better-received supporting turns. After that the roles got smaller and the billing got odder: a strip-club owner for Orson Welles in Touch of Evil (1958), the lead in Queen of Outer Space (1958), and thirty-odd films and a great deal of television in which she was increasingly asked to play a woman called Zsa Zsa Gabor, culminating in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), where the character is called exactly that.
What she had was a look, an accent and a manner, all of them her own and none of them adjustable. Huston is reported to have told her on Moulin Rouge to forget about acting and make love to the camera, and whether or not he said it, it describes what she did for forty years. Given a strong director and a large production she was a fine ornament; given a scene that needed her to change her mind in the middle of it, she was stranded. The obituaries agreed that she was better known for being Zsa Zsa Gabor than for anything she did in character, and we do not think they were unfair. She said herself, 'I love to act, darling,' and we believe her; the pleasure shows, even when the acting does not.
It is a small body of work to judge and we have judged a small part of it. Our advice is the first twenty minutes of Moulin Rouge, where she is one bright piece of a hall full of them, and to stop there before the film sits down. She was never going to be the story. She was good at being the poster.
Biography
Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917–2016) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Born Sári Gábor in Budapest, she began her stage career in Vienna after placing in the Miss Hungary contest in 1936 and emigrated to the United States in 1941.
She made her film debut in Lovely to Look At (1952) and appeared the same year as Jane Avril in John Huston’s Moulin Rouge. Subsequent film roles included We’re Not Married! (1952), Lili (1953) and Touch of Evil (1958). She also appeared in television series such as Gilligan’s Island, Batman and The Love Boat, and later films including The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991).
