Lili (1953) is a American film. Consiered one among many classic MGM releases, it stars Leslie Caron as a touchingly naïve French girl, whose emotional relationship with a carnival puppeteer is conducted through the medium of four puppets. The screenplay by Helen Deutsch was adapted from "The Man Who Hated People," a short story by Paul Gallico which appeared in the October 28, 1950 issue of The Saturday Evening Post . Following the film's success, Gallico expanded his story into a 1954 novella entitled The Love of Seven Dolls.