Lili (1953 film)

Lili
Directed byCharles Walters
Screenplay byHelen Deutsch
Based onThe Man Who Hated People
1950 in The Saturday Evening Post
by Paul Gallico
Produced byEdwin H. Knopf
StarringLeslie Caron
Mel Ferrer
Jean-Pierre Aumont
Zsa Zsa Gabor
CinematographyRobert H. Planck
Edited byFerris Webster
Music byBronisław Kaper
Gerald Fried (uncredited)
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's, Inc.
Release date
  • March 10, 1953 (1953-03-10)
Running time
81 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,353,000
Box office$5,393,000

Lili is a 1953 American film released by MGM. It stars Leslie Caron as a touchingly naïve French girl whose emotional relationship with a carnival puppeteer is conducted through the medium of four puppets. The film won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and was also entered in the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. It was later adapted for the stage under the title Carnival! (1961).

Lili's screenplay, written by Helen Deutsch, was based on a short story and treatment titled "The Seven Souls of Clement O'Reilly" written by Paul Gallico, which in turn was based upon "The Man Who Hated People," a short story by Gallico that appeared in the October 28, 1950 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. After the film's success, Gallico expanded his story into a 1954 novella entitled Love of Seven Dolls.