Thoughts on Dan Dailey

I just finished The Girl Next Door which stars Dan Dailey as probably the only cartoonist who is also an accomplished dancer. I've seen a couple of Dan Dailey movies (alas no movies with his best dance partner Betty Grable, how Mother Wore Tights is not a DVD is a mystery to me) and I've always enjoyed him, but I have found something lacking.  He was a very tall dancer (and very handsome) and more on the graceful side than the athletic; so more Fred Astaire than Gene Kelly. Watching The Girl Next Door, I finally figured out my problem.  In the movies that I have seen with him, the costumers did not dress him to show off his dancing.  I'm not suggesting that they should have gone full Gene Kelly in The Pirate and dressed him in skin-tight shorts, but Dan Dailey was often is very loose (and high waisted!)  pants which did not lend themselves to showing off his body movements.  There is one Dailey/Grable movie on DVD (through Netflix anyway) which I might have to move to the top.  As a side note, the other Dan Dailey movie that I have seen was It's Always Fair Weather which I enjoyed mostly because Michael Kidd (the choreographer of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) played on the characters and Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd's dancing was so good (even though Gene Kelly clearly choreographed the dance moves to suit his body and height, Kidd was a very inches shorted than Kelly and Dailey was several inches taller).