The Musicals List REDUX

[Matt]

Hit the Deck (Rowland, 1955) - Even better than I remembered. Not just a collection of songs with a thin plot to string them together, but a perfectly cast, structured, and paced film that never wears out its welcome. And I had completely forgotten about Ann Miller's sultry non-tap-dancing "Lady from the Bayou" number. It's sort of dropped in, apropos of nothing, but it's so good.

A Damsel in Distress - The movie that Fred Astaire made when he got tired of making movies with Ginger Rogers. She went off and made Stage Door and he made what's basically an Astaire and Rogers movie without her. Joan Fontaine stands in for her and practically disappears into the scenery. She claimed the film set he career back and I don't blame her. The real star of the film is Gracie Allen, who shows she is not just one of the funniest people of the 20th century (and she is extremely funny here), but that she was a talented song and dance gal as well (when you're in vaudeville, I suspect you have to be good at everything). Her number in the fun house with George Burns and Astaire won Hermes Pan the third and final Oscar ever given for dance direction and it was well-deserved. Fun and funny (and somewhat reprised in, coincidentally, Hit the Deck). After the first act, though, Burns and Allen all but disappear, and the film turns conventional and plummets into mediocrity. It did launch Gershwin's song, "Nice Work if You Can Get It," though, which is one of the great standards.

[zedz]

10 Musicals Round-Up

Have finally made it through this ultra-cheap (in more ways than one) MGM set, so here are comments on the films I haven’t already addressed. Don't let the negative comments put you off: the set is worth the miniscule price for the otherwise OOP A Song Is Born on its own.

EDIT: Just checked on Amazon, and the price is no longer miniscule, which makes matters a lot more complicated!

The Phantom of the Opera – Dreadful late eighties umpteenth remake. Not a musical at all, but its inclusion is presumably justified because it’s difficult to make any version of this story without a couple of scenes in which somebody sings something or other. Of course, the real reason it’s here is that I’m sure MGM was hoping that careless buyers would assume it was a film version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber floater. Since it’s a Cannon production, we can probably safely assume that the very same bait-and-switch was the film’s entire raison d’etre, so: appropriate, I guess?

It’s a Pleasure – A dubious one, perhaps. Here’s another non-musical, starring non-singing, non-dancing Sonja Henie. Sure, there are some skating numbers that function somewhat like musical numbers would in a musical, but they’re few and far between, and the rest of the film is soporifically generic. Still, at least now I’ve got a little more background for a shitload of Looney Tunes gags.

Without You I’m Nothing – Didn’t bother watching this filmed Sandra Bernhard revue because – what do you know? – it’s not a musical either, but I recall it being entertaining enough at the time. It does make you wonder just how depleted the MGM holdings are if they can’t manage to scrape together ten actual musicals for a musicals box set.

Absolute Beginners – Well, at least it’s a musical, even if it’s a pretty terrible one. Julien Temple is trying way too hard, and much of the film looks like a misguided attempt at a feature length version of the ‘Girl Hunt’ ballet from The Band Wagon, a comparison that only accentuates how feeble this film is. It’s ostensibly set in 1958, but the real zeitgeist is mid-80s music video. The script and characters are lumpy and trite, with contemporary pretensions larded unhelpfully on top, and the performances radiate out from mediocre leads to acceptable as you hit the margins (i.e. the inverse of what the film needs). I recalled Bowie’s title hit as being pretty irritating and disposable, but it’s nevertheless the best song on display, though Ray Davies briefly threatens to bring things to life. It’s not a complete waste of time, since the script somehow manages to scare up one great line when a pretentious television presenter pontificates about his desire “to bring popular culture to the masses.” And its particular brand of garish kitsch is certainly preferable to . . .

A Chorus Line – Ugh. Well, I have to confess that I find the score for this musical simply dreadful, and the self-congratulatory ‘My First Acting Workshop’ psychobabble that surrounds it mortifying, but even so, this seems like a pretty terrible film of that material. Attenborough’s default position for filming the dance is from a static position way, way at the back of the stalls, punctuated by close-ups a couple of feet from the dancers’ faces. There are a few exceptions, but with material that’s already claustrophobic, this unimaginative coverage becomes utterly monotonous over the course of two (only two?) punishing hours. Frankly, if you have to see a Chorus Line movie, check out that recent documentary about casting the show. It’s nothing special, and it really doesn’t aspire to anything more ambitious than your average reality TV show (but honestly, can’t the same be said for the original Broadway show?), but it’s far less excruciating to watch. Anyway, I feel like I’ve taken one for the team here - don’t let my sacrifice be in vain! Avoid.

[colinr0380]

I have vague memories of seeing A Chorus Line decades ago and seem to remember it mostly being about a group of nervous dancers lined up in front of Michael Douglas while he shouted into their faces like an angry drill instructor, with the regular punctuation of a tearful dancer running to collect their coat from backstage after being cut from the auditions. In other words it perfectly anticipated reality television music shows! But doesn't all this really stem from 42nd Street? Except without the astoundingly well crafted transcendent musical numbers and moving acting in the backstage scenes of course!

Perhaps you would find Nick Broomfield's Driving Me Crazy to be a good palate cleanser? (Which makes me wonder where musical documentaries fit into this project, or would they not really count as proper musicals?)

And talking about backstage dramas intercut with onstage performances makes me wonder whether Altman's The Company will fit into this project. There has been discussion about Nashville here and while The Company isn't really in that league (the dramatic subplots are rather underwhelming and unmemorable), it does present a great range of different musical styles throughout.

[zedz]

I actually really like The Company (and I like the way that the conventional 'drama' is so minor and relegated to the background), but without people singing songs, it's not a musical for me. Unless you're going to include films that are structured like musicals, which means you'd be opening the floodgates to (as I think swo pointed out) Every Porn Movie Ever Made and most modern action blockbusters.

A Chorus Line is in the 42nd Street tradition, but it's very much a pretentious, navel-gazing 1970s bastardization of it: the kind of ground-breaking you do when you're digging a grave.

[colinr0380]

Of course Showgirls totally redeemed that subgenre! =;

And I agree about The Company's drama, its so slight that it doesn't even begin to get on my nerves with some of the contrivances (Campbell and her boyfriend fooling around in her apartment seemed to be about it. That and the running gag of Malcolm McDowell wearing different coloured cravats in his various scenes)

[zedz]

Oh my god, you're Jacques Rivette!

(That explains the long posts!)

[colinr0380]

Any filmmaker who can take the cliche costume hassles of a convential backstage drama and transform it into how much lip gloss and breast glitter you are applying is radically redefining the genre. Whether for good or ill, I'll leave it to the individual to judge!

[knives]

A Chorus Line is in the 42nd Street tradition, but it's very much a pretentious, navel-gazing 1970s bastardization of it: the kind of ground-breaking you do when you're digging a grave.

It's more like a bastardization of the original stage musical trying desperately to be in the 42nd Street tradition. The stage is actually really great which makes the movie all the worse.

[PillowRock]

A Chorus Line is in the 42nd Street tradition, but it's very much a pretentious, navel-gazing 1970s bastardization of it: the kind of ground-breaking you do when you're digging a grave.

It's more like a bastardization of the original stage musical trying desperately to be in the 42nd Street tradition. The stage is actually really great which makes the movie all the worse.

I completely agree. The list of things that the movie version screwed up are legion, but I think that the misguided mindset of the adaptation can be adequately exemplified by one of them.

When the song "What I Did for Love" is delivered by the company in response to the question "What would you do if all this (dance / the theater) was taken away from you tomorrow?" (which Zach asks right after one of the dancers injures his knee and has to be carried from the theater), it's the heart of the show.

When the same song is a solo for Cassie as she reflects on a past romance with the director that she's currently auditioning for, it's eye-rollingly trite and obnoxious.

[knives]

I feel dirty right now. I think I might actually like Hello, Dolly. Outside of Streisand's horrible performance (how did you do it Capt. Ascot?) it's enjoyable if way too light. Crawford gives easily the weakest performance of his career, but succeeds where it counts and I'm shocked Matthau can sing. Not very well mind you, but it's not the comic abomination I thought it would be. Now if you excuse me I need to take a shower.

[domino harvey]

It's Trad, Dad! aka Ring-A-Ding Rhythm (Richard Lester 1962) Brit teens rally the troops to stop their town's ban on youthful music. Lester's film does Tashlin's the Girl Can't Help It one better by focusing almost entirely on the acts depicted to the point that the non-musical aspects feel like the music numbers. The film literally enters Looney Tunes territory in its non-musical passages, and the resultant build-up of the great musical acts followed by laugh-out-loud funny gags is breathlessly overwhelming. And those numbers! Mixing it up with some resurgent big band jazz acts and American rock n' roll, Lester experiments and finds a new way to film every number, using the best Poverty Row tactics available to give every number its own sheen.

Besides being a joyous sample of period music, Lester's pic is also a tremendously funny one that savages fans and opponents of the music depicted and clearly aligns itself only with the acts themselves-- my favorite gag (and there are many, many to choose from) comes early, when the narrator goes on complimenting teenagers while the film keeps cutting to the same shot of a freckle-faced qt absently licking the middle of her sandwich while watching TV. Runner up is the entire performance of a group called the Temperance Seven, which I was shocked to discover was a real band-- they clearly had a very good sense of humor about their "old fashioned" style, as Lester lays into their staid antiquity with so many good visual gags (at one point a bored band member conjures an entire meal to eat while the lead crooner wails on).

The TCM print looked great, so I assume Columbia/Sony's about to put this out on MOD.

[Dr Amicus]

Ah - beat me to it. I'm pretty sure It's Trad Dad was the first proper Amicus film - I'd check my research notes, but I don't have them around. And although Domino seemed to enjoy more than I did, it is a lot of fun - and there are some absolute quality performances on offer (although Helen Shapiro is a better singer than actor - to put it mildly).

It's a few years since I saw it (my supervisor had an off-air recording on vhs) and I'd like to get a proper copy - it would make a good Flipside...

There is a follow-up of sorts - Just For Fun - at least, it's another Amicus teen musical made the same year. I have a copy sitting round and will post a report once I've watched it.

[knives]

I'm glad you're liking Lester. I agree deeply with your Tashlin comparison to the point where I think their whole careers match up. He's as firmly British as Tashlin is American so that's where I think his particular undoing came from.

[Gropius]

He's as firmly British as Tashlin is American

American-born, though. Where do people stand on A Hard Day's Night and Help! as musicals? The latter at least strays very far from realism.

[knives]

The later's definitely a musical, but I'll have to rewatch the former. I can't remember to what degree it's a concert film.

[zedz]

I'll have to rewatch both, but my fuzzy memory is that A Hard Day's Night is more a musical than Help!, because more of the songs are actually sung on-screen. Aren't a lot of the songs in Help! played out as music videos: i.e. montages of zany or not-so-zany antics accompanied by songs?

[knives]

Maybe I've got them mixed up. I haven't seen either since my theater put them on as a midnight double feature nearly eight years ago.

[Tribe]

I don't think this technically qualifies, but it sort of starts out as a "life of the Broadway career girl" musical: Valley of the Dolls!" I had never seen this until the other night, and it was so awful I stayed up until three in the morning. I especially love Susan Hayward trying to be Judy Garland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP7JdOusfwY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And, of course, there are the Judy Garland screen tests: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7QfWHz3 ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EDIT: Sorry, the first video has been edited so Judy Garland's vocals are dubbed onto the clip...Garland's vocals are not in the original.

[knives]

You have to see the Ebert penned sequel. It is phenomenal in the most unreal sense of the word (also the unrelated Gleaming the Cube).

[Tom Hagen]

I hope someone participating in this votes for at least one of the Parker/Stone movies.

[domino harvey]

I hope someone participating in this votes for at least one of the Parker/Stone movies.

I loathe the series, mainly because it's so shoddily written (it's very clear and they've admitted as such that they film first drafts), but the South Park movie is an intelligent and well-made spoof on Disney musicals that works precisely because Paramount was breathing down their necks the whole time. It'll make my list in the lower depths.

[matrixschmatrix]

Yeah, it's a shame to see how funny Parker and Stone can be when they actually put some effort into shit (and when people kill their bad ideas), but I would say all of their movies are at least pretty good- I'm a fan of Orgasmo and Cannibal, too. If nothing else, it's clear that Stone is an unironic, diehard fan of the musical genre.

[Tom Hagen]

Musicals are so far form my forte that its not even funny, but I absolutely have to get to Broadway for this. It's even funnier if you grew up around any sort of actual Mormon musical theater. I have an astonishing number of currently-practicing LDS friends who find this funny for precisely that reason.

[knives]

Don't forget Team America. It's worth it at least for Lease. Also if anyone has a soundboard for Book of Mormon I'd kill for it.

[matrixschmatrix]

Team America is burdened by a lot of the 'we didn't really think this through' political philosophizing that plagues the South Park series, but the songs are definitely killer.