Five years before she’d star in the Oscar-winning musical Gigi, Leslie Caron took the lead in a song-and-dance flick with a similar title. This steers us toward 1953’s Lili.

After her father dies, orphaned teen Lili Daurier (Caron) finds herself alone. However, when she encounters a traveling circus troupe, she makes new friends.

Lili falls in love with charming magician Marcus (Jean-Pierre Aumont) but ends up closer to gruff puppeteer Paul (Mel Ferrer) and his creations. This leads to choices Lili needs to make to determine where her heart should take her.

According to the film’s tagline, “you’ll fall in love with Lili”. Did I?

To some degree, mainly via Caron’s charming lead performance. While Lili exists as a thinly-written role, Caron brings warmth to the part.

Which the film desperately needs, as much of the premise looks creepy – to modern eyes, at least. The 16-year-old Lili gets involved with much older men, and that aspect of the movie hasn’t endured well.

Of course, these age discrepancies didn’t seem as problematic 62 years ago. Audiences would’ve viewed a 16-year-old as more “adult” than we do now.

That said, the filmmakers clearly do recognize the “Ick Factor”, as they allude to the age gap in a slightly contemptuous manner. Or at least we get a recognition that Lili seems awfully young and innocent for her potential suitors.

Even if we ignore that issue, Lili becomes a tough sell. This occurs mainly because the film offers the flimsiest of wafer-thin plots.

Really, we get little more than a love triangle among Lili, Paul and Marcus – and a not very interesting love triangle at that, mainly because the film fails to do much to develop any of the roles. All three remain one-dimensional and without much real personality.

As implied, Caron brings enough sunshine to the lead to semi-overcome these constraints. Nonetheless, the movie still lacks the story and character development it needs to turn into anything memorable.

Indeed, Lili struggles to fill even its miniscule 81-minute running time. While not a true musical, it comes with interludes that lean in that direction, and these take up a decent chunk of the film’s length.

Those behind Lili clearly took an earlier Caron project as inspiration for its construction. Without question, Lili brings multiple echoes of 1951’s Oscar-winning An American In Paris.

I found those scenes to become a drag on Paris, mainly because I feel they cause the story to slow. However, Gene Kelly and his colleagues at least executed those dance numbers in an elegant and impressive manner.

I can’t say the same for the clumsy and amateurish production pieces found in Lili. These lack any life or fluidity and fail to help the film in any way.

Other than the way in which they pad the running time, that is. As mentioned, Lili offers flimsy characters and story beats, so it needs these tedious musical elements to fill space.

And fill space they do, as the movie comes with far too many scenes that extend well past their breaking point. This doesn’t go just for the dance segments, as we also find sequences like Paul’s puppet show that just never want to end.

Essentially, Lili offers maybe 30 minutes of content spread to 81 minutes of film. Even with a lovely turn from Leslie Caron, this becomes a tedious dud.

Lili appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became an excellent Technicolor presentation.

In terms of sharpness, the movie usually demonstrated nice delineation. A few shots seemed just a smidgen soft, but those issues occurred infrequently, so the majority of the flick looked concise and accurate.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and no edge enhancement became apparent. Grain remained appropriate, and no specks, marks or other defects showed up at any time in this fresh presentation.

Colors were strong. I thought flesh tones were a bit on the brown side, but that was a reflection of Technicolor – and too much makeup. Otherwise, the hues tended to be vivid and full.

Blacks seemed deep and dense without too much heaviness. Shadow detail worked similarly well, as dimly-lit shots were appropriately clear and thick. I found little about which to complain here and thought the Blu-ray brought the movie to life in a positive manner.

The DTS-HD MA monaural audio of Lili appeared fine for its era, and speech was appropriate. The lines showed age-related thinness as well as some iffy looping but they were always perfectly intelligible and without edginess.

Effects became a minor aspect of the track, and they resembled the dialogue. Those elements lacked much depth but they were without notable problems.

Music was acceptable for its age, as the songs and score tended to be a bit tinny. There wasn’t much range to the music, but again, that stemmed from the limitations of the very old source. This became a perfectly adequate mix for its vintage.

In addition to the film's trailer, we find three classic cartoons from the 1950s. The set features The Impossible Possum (6:33), Pecos Pest (6:43) and Puppy Tale (7:01).

Possum focuses on Barney Bear as he tries to trap and eat a rodent. Though he appeared in 26 shorts over 25 years, Barney never really caught on, and Impossible demonstrates why, as the character seems too dim-witted and unsympathetic to become a star.

In Pest, we find a Tom and Jerry affair in which Jerry's Uncle Pecos visits and upsets Tom because he uses the cat's whiskers as guitar strings. It offers a weird but fairly amusing experience.

Finally, Tale brings more from Tom and Jerry, as Jerry rescues a litter of puppies tossed into the river and finds one becomes very attached. Geez, that's a horrifying basic concept for a cartoon, and Tale can't quite overcome the awfulness of the "attempted drowning" premise.

Despite the best efforts of lead actor Leslie Caron, Lili becomes a tedious mix of dance and romantic drama. It lacks even the slightest substance and becomes a meandering drag. The Blu-ray boasts excellent visuals as well as acceptable audio and minor supplements. This turns into a weak excuse for a coming of age tale.