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With her are Maurice Chevalier, the perennial spirit of the boulevard himself, as Honore Lachaille; Louis Jourdan as his nephew, Gaston; and Isabel Jeans and Hermione Gingold as Gigi’s aunt and grandmamma, respectively.

“My grandmamma brought us up to read our Bible every day,” she said.

In the book, Grandmamma gives the boy two white mice as a consolation, named William and Mary, who serve no particular plot point except to get the boy into the ballroom where he trains them to walk a tight rope.

In the book, Grandmamma is getting on in years and catches pneumonia, which requires she and the boy check into the previously mentioned hotel by the sea, where the air will be good for her.

First, the movie calls her “Grandma” instead of “Grandmamma” and makes her Alabamian rather than Norwegian.