Lili

Perhaps too deliberately charming for its own good, but this adaptation of a Paul Gallico novel about a 16-year-old waif who falls unhappily in love with a carnival magician (Aumont), thus adding to the bitterness of the crippled puppeteer (Ferrer) who loves her from afar, is actually rather delightful, thanks to Caron's touching performance and Walters' delicately stylish direction. Caron's scenes with the puppets (through whom Ferrer talks to her, and whom she accepts as her living friends and confidants) are in fact brushed with a touch of genuine fairy-tale magic. Not really a musical (though it has one hit song, 'Hi Lili, Hi Lo'), it ends with an ambitious ballet which is attractive but seems oddly out of key with the rest of the film.