TV REVIEW : LIZA’S SPLENDID PORTRAIT OF MINNELLI

“Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente,” which airs tonight at 8 on Channel 28 and at 9:30 on Channel 15, is a splendid summary of the career of director Vincente Minnelli, who died last July at 83. Too easily remembered primarily as Liza’s father (or Judy Garland’s ex-husband), Minnelli gets his due in this 77-minute program hosted by his daughter and written, produced and directed by film historian and Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel.

It starts out on precisely the right note when Liza describes her father as a blend of style and innocence, twin characteristics to be found in all 34 of his films, for Minnelli’s forte was 1702391922terrific visual flair. Born in Chicago to a theatrical family, Minnelli, who was a soft-spoken perfectionist, studied painting before becoming a staff designer at Radio City Music Hall.

He also worked for showman Earl Carroll (with whom he is glimpsed as a shy young man in a clip from a promotional film) and designed various Broadway shows. His big Hollywood break was when he joined MGM’s famed Arthur Freed unit in 1940 “to learn the business and be an idea man.” (His first idea was to create a fantasy orchestra out of fruit--to be animated by George Pal--for “Strike Up the Band.”) Fantasy--and dreams--were to be trademarks of the director, who is heard explaining the value of dreams in revealing a character’s true nature.

Wisely, Schickel and Liza Minnelli allow Vincente Minnelli’s work to speak for itself, starting with the innovative, all-black musical fantasy “Cabin in the Sky” (1942), which marked Minnelli’s directorial debut. Schickel includes virtually all the great Minnelli moments, starting with “The Trolley Song” from “Meet Me in St. Louis,” which segues into the bus sequence in “The Clock.” There’s Gene Kelly’s great “Mack the Black” ballet from “The Pirate,” also represented by “Be a Clown,” which marked the final collaboration of Minnelli and Judy Garland.

There is Lana Turner’s hysterical drive in the rain from “The Bad and the Beautiful”--and Jennifer Jones’ delirious waltz from “Madame Bovary”; there are the justly celebrated musical sequences from “American in Paris” and “Gigi” plus the tragic carnival finale from “Some Came Running.” (One goof in the narrative: Hermione Gingold played Gigi’s grandmother, not her aunt, who in fact was played by the late Isabel Jeans.)

Schickel does not overlook dramatic films in favor of the more familiar classic Minnelli musicals, and he includes, among other moments, the sinuous Fred Astaire-Lucille Bremer “Coffee Time” number from that true film maudit , “Yolanda and the Thief.” Ah, but there should have been a glimpse of Yolanda (Bremer) in her bathtub, more fabulous than any tub in any DeMille film!

On a personal note, Liza says how her father made her mother feel beautiful on the screen for the first time and tells what it was like to visit her father’s sets while she was growing up. “Minnelli on Minnelli,” which boasts many rare family photos provided by the director’s widow, Lee, ends fittingly with Liza’s testament to her remarkably gifted, gentle and loving father, saying that she learned from him that anything is possible--”as long as you do it in the right way.”

We can be grateful that “Minnelli on Minnelli” was done in the right way.