The Musicals List REDUX

[domino harvey]

I don't have much to contribute to a Virginia O'Brien discussion other than chiming in that DuBarry Was a Lady is total garbage, but Thousands Cheer's pretty good.

[JakeB]

DuBarry Was a Lady is total garbage, but Thousands Cheer's pretty good.

Oh damn! And only last week I ordered the Lucille Ball box set that has DuBarry in it. Thanks for the heads up on Thousands Cheer, I also really enjoy the Eleanor Powell and Judy Garland performances in it.

I did see Best Foot Forward a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it, so there is hope that a Lucille ball musical can be entertaining.

Another underused musical star was Buddy Ebsen, I think he stopped appearing in musicals after the Wizard of Oz kerfuffle. He's really great in Born To Dance. So much style!

[domino harvey]

Best Foot Forward is indeed terrific. DuBarry has bigger problems than Ball, namely rotten direction, production design, and pacing-- and an interminable Red Skeleton perf is the cherry on the suck sundae

[JakeB]

DuBarry has bigger problems than Ball, namely rotten direction, production design, and pacing-- and an interminable Red Skeleton perf is the cherry on the suck sundae

I just watched this tonight. Jeez, I should have listened to you. Even some wonderful clowning at the end couldn't redeem it. I also skipped through the huge dream sequence after 5 or so minutes, I just couldn't take it! ](*,)

[knives]

Thank god for David Butler. I thought I was going to have to invent time travel to kill Bing Crosby with the way this has been going, but East Side of Heaven is legitimately good. It's no Calamity Jane, but it's still an oasis in a desert. The story, comedy, and music work just wonderfully. It doesn't hurt that they decided to hire an actual actress in Joan Blondell this time. I knew she was great before, but she really helps make the difference between a tolerable love interest and whatever the hell Double or Nothing had. Even Crosby seems to be giving more effort here than in the other films (while I'm on him anybody else used to the Road to films find him this young to just look weird). This isn't a contender, but it sure feels like it when compared to what's come before in the set. Now I can only hope the next two are even 3/4 as good. God, bad '30s comedy is as bad as it gets.

[JakeB]

I watched Calamity Jane again today, and I think it may have become my current choice for top spot on this list. On top of the great songs and the really charming central characters, I just love how much fun they have with the ideas of masculinity and femininity, i.e. Howard Keel dressed up as a Native American and being mistook for a woman, Phil Carey clumsily hiding his bunch of flowers from the blokes at the poker table, and Allyn McLerie offering to shoot the glass held by Doris Day. Those examples, along with Dick Wesson's drag act at the beginning and Doris Day's androgynous Calam' (I have such a big crush on her in this film) adds to the whole 'Western themed Musical' package. I just think it is all just really well conceived.

[domino harvey]

Always glad to have another on the team!

I'll See You in My Dreams (Michael Curtiz 1951) Superior musical biography of Gus Kahn, or more correctly, Gus Kahn's highly fictionalized wife (Gotta make Doris Day earn her paycheck somehow). Despite a somewhat fuzzy narrative focal point, Curtiz' film is well-made fluff of the highest order, and Day and Danny Thomas have a good chemistry together. In a sea of shitty songwriter biopix, this one fares better than most.

Easy to Wed (Charles Walters 1953) So long as you keep some of the dialog and don't futz with the plot, it's impossible to ruin source material as good as Libeled Lady. But putting Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, and Lucille Ball into a good screenplay, adding in a dash of lazy, often inexplicably Spanish-language musical numbers, and then shaking the whole thing up doesn't result in a particularly tasty concoction, though. Barely a musical, and barely worth existing in light of the superior 1936 treatment.

the Girl Next Door (Richard Sale 1953) Not only is this the best musical I've seen since this List Project got underway, it's the kind of musical that reinvigorates the soul with the possibilities of the format. June Haver's last film before she quit the biz in a failed venture to become a nun (!), and the gal goes out on top. She pitches cutesy woo with Dan Dailey's amiable single father cartoonist as they and a fine supporting cast of c-string Fox contract names work their way through a rather strong series of inventive musical numbers. Highlights include a wonderfully choreographed small space number between father and son involving thrown dishes and cups, very cute imaginary piano playing, and a recurring song with Dailey feeding lines to his co-stars. Fox tended to just throw money at any given musical and hope for the best, but it managed to pay off here. Highly recommended.

[knives]

Easy to Wed (Charles Walters 1953) So long as you keep some of the dialog and don't futz with the plot, it's impossible to ruin source material as good as Libeled Lady. But putting Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, and Lucille Ball into a good screenplay, adding in a dash of lazy, often inexplicably Spanish-language musical numbers, and then shaking the whole thing up doesn't result in a particularly tasty concoction, though. Barely a musical, and barely worth existing in light of the superior 1936 treatment.

Though my opinion on most of the actors seems fonder than you're suggesting I agree to the point I didn't bother bringing it up when TCM showed it last month. It's just such a mediocre everything that the film can't even get me annoyed over it remaking such a great film. It just kind of takes up space for me, though I found Wynn a grade A Tracy substitute.

[swo17]

Wow, there are a lot of sexy movies called The Girl Next Door.

[tarpilot]

Ggggggggggggggvgg

[domino harvey]

Godspell (David Greene 1973) I incorrectly thought before viewing that this was a counterculture-aimed witnessing tool, only to discover that it is instead a mishmash of Biblical sketches (not all from the Book of Matthew, despite the title card's claims) that is too insular to be lobbed at the unconverted. If nothing else, this film inspired a couple generations' worth of "wacky" youth-oriented approaches to biblical teachings (anyone who ever suffered as a child through a youth pastor leading a gaggle of teens in a reappropriation of "Louis Louis" knows what I'm talking about). I've always found this revue-style approach to Biblical stories and their concurrent Christian ideologies a bit disingenuous-- if these stories are so important, why dress them up with additions that border on mockery? But I can at least recognize what the musical is drawing from-- anyone new to Christian theology is going to have a much harder time. But it doesn't take much to enjoy the wonderful songs, many of which are of the instantly hummable, get out of my head already variety. Indeed, forget Christianity, one's patience with the film will depend far more on the ability to tolerate that certain breed of theatre student easily identifiable by their 24-7 mugging, as though they were always being watched-- multiply by eight and you have the hippie disciples which congregate the film for its length (the Jesus and John the Baptist/Judas avatars abstain from the wackier antics). I've been around these types long enough that the wall-to-wall mugging doesn't phase me, but I could see it being an issue. As it stands, I generally found that the youth group-styled enthusiasm of the reduced-down Christianity hits the right note of consistent enthusiasm so key to many a great musical's success. It's hard to see so many smiling faces and not smile back, especially when the approach of the film and its execution is so novel, to say the least!

the Opposite Sex (David Miller 1956) Remake one of the funniest and well-acted films of the studio era and cast a handful of the greatest stars of the musical era: this is such a sure-fire good idea that I understand how the Opposite Sex got made. What I can't understand is how astonishingly awful it is. Admittedly, most of the stars are a couple years past their use-by date, but why, with few exceptions, is June Allyson the only one allowed to sing? Why are there men in the film? And why do they have lines? And why is one given one of the few songs in the film? Why has the film become a drama? Overconfidence can bring down many promising projects, but at some point someone should have either stopped or righted this disaster. One of the worst musicals I've ever seen.

[knives]

I'm not certain if I should be liking Kismet as much as I am and I'm certainly disappointed in myself for not noticing what parts Donen directed, but all the same I found it to be a hilarious and wonderful treat with a bizarre plot and even stranger musical numbers. Those were executed in a fairly normal fashion, but with such an extension that the bizarreness was kept with them. It's an interesting stylistic play and makes me curious for Meet Me in St Louis (which I absolutely have to see before this is over) which I assume isn't a cartoon.

Likewise there's a lot about West Side Story that so forcefully pushes the medium of the musical outside of it's comfort zone that at times I wasn't sure if I should enjoy it, but that's overthinking one of the smartest Shakespeare adaptations I've seen. Usually the modern updates without absurdity or surrealism attached don't work so the film just throws out the play. I suppose in part it's to make things more family friendly, but all of the changes from the play worked to make the setting come naturally. Most important of course is throwing out the original dialogue which would stop making sense by the turn of the century. That said the one quality that they kept in that saves the movie and makes it the best Romeo and Juliet adaptation is keeping that silly romcom first half. That structural element always seems to be forgotten, but it's the leg the play stands on.

[domino harvey]

Speaking of Kismet, you can't see teenagers perform it in Pennsylvania

[knives]

Makes me glad I left. The overwhelming scent of cowshit was a good motivator too. By the way I forgot to mention this, but the degree of misconception I had for West Side Story went so hilariously far that I didn't realize Maria sang "I'm So Pretty" and thought the Romeo stand in did.

[knives]

It took a few months, but a film has finally broke me in regards to sitting through spontaneous dance. Bollywood is just strange. I don't think I have anything else to say about Lagaan. It's a film that is very serious and dramatic and than they break into song. It's not even tonally sensible song it's closer to Pennies from Heaven, but that doesn't cover the blissfully accepting nature to this shift. Just wow. I really can't get over that change because both separate parts are great, but than you mix it by having the bearded toothless guy singing and it gets into this stupefying territory. The film's also, perhaps rightfully, really racist in that Hong Kong cinema sort of way.

[domino harvey]

Ziegfeld Girl (Robert Z Leonard 1941) While this middle Ziegfeld film is handily the best of the three, with a script that throws out its share of amusing one-liners, on the whole it is still not all that good. Melodramatic stakes present themselves when Hedy Lamarr, Judy Garland, and Lana Turner become Ziegfeld girls and it will not surprise you to learn that one finds success, one quits for love, and one is ruined. James Stewart is also on-hand, for some reason. Lana Turner is really the only one given anything to do, and while my patience wore thin with her storyline eventually, at least it kept me distracted. There are several needlessly ostentatious musical numbers, none the least bit memorable or interesting-- Ziegfeld numbers have never translated well to the screen, ever, so this film can't shoulder all the blame. But still.

Merry Andrew (Michael Kidd 1958) Delightful musical that brings together so many elements that common sense dictates would work perfectly in tandem that it's hard to believe it took so long for Hollywood to put Danny Kaye in a musical as both a nebbish academic and a circus clown. There is, as advertised, much merriment indeed to be had as Kaye's amateur academic archaeologist runs afoul of a quintet of Italian brothers who fast-track a shotgun wedding for the already engaged prof. There are worse fates than being forced into marriage with Pier Angeli! The songs are tuneful and well-staged (as you'd expect from choreographer Kidd's only directing credit), and the script is quite clever thanks to Billy Wilder's frequent collaborator IAL Diamond. This is yet another of the audience-pleasing circus films that found favor in the fifties, and one of the best. Highly recommended, and the Warners Archive disc looks great.

Athena (Richard Thorpe 1954) Matt wasn't kidding about this one being weird. Greek mythology-named daughters of Louis Callhern's proto-Jack Lalanne look to the stars and numerology to guide their love lives and the result is... lotsa beefcake with muscular men in speedos counterbalancing Debbie Reynolds' and Jane Powell's, uh, titillating wardrobe choices? The songs aren't so hot, but they're staged well, particularly the show-stopper with Reynolds and co. rearranging a mansion's furniture in long complicated takes and movements-- it's a wonderfully complex and intricate scene worth sitting through the whole thing for. Come for that sequence, stay for the bizarre tone and halfhearted mockery of healthy living.

[Dr Amicus]

The Littlest Rebel (1935, David Butler). Well, the last couple of Shirley films were surprisingly tolerable - this reaches levels of wtf-ness previously unimagined. Dimples and Little Colonel had ... interesting ... attitudes to race, the latter being probably more ambiguous than might be imagined - this is just plain offensive. Lots of happy slaves who don't want their freedom (and don't understand the concept - actually, this could be an example of hindsight creeping in, but is probably just racist), Shirley in blackface (!) and good, honest southern plantation owner. OK, we still get Bojangles, but the routines just aren't as good as Colonel. Anyway - plotwise this is just bizarre. I'll spoiler this just in case:

Spoiler

Daddy goes off to war buts keeps sneaking back. Everyone has to leave the plantation home. Mummy gets ill and dies. Daddy gets caught coming back but the good Northern officer lets hims escape with Shirley. They get caught and Daddy and good Northern Officer get sentenced to death. Shirley goes North with Bojangles to plead for clemency - they get to see Abraham Lincoln (yes, the President...), Shirley smiles at him AND HE LETS EVERYONE OFF! Shirley now has two Daddys (she calls them this) but it's not even remotely gay. Oh no.

To be honest, this is barely a musical - but the fact that it plays on Shirley Temple's star image and privileges the musical numbers means that I'll argue it scrapes in. Not that it makes it anyway near my list, but still...

And I've still got 6 more Shirley films to get through.

[knives]

We're considering All That Jazz a musical right? Finally caught it and if I were more certain on it qualifying it would be a top ten contender.

[PillowRock]

Personally, I couldn't imagine not considering it a musical.

[domino harvey]

You can struggle with whether or not to include it on your personal list, but it's eligible (ie your vote will be counted)

[knives]

Also file this under the didn't expect to ever see file, but apparently in a musical children's film Warren Oates played support (he even gets a song) and it's not bad. Admittedly Tom Sawyer isn't the greatest film in the world either and I wish Oates had a bigger part because it's Oates, but all the same of the post Oliver musical adaptations of literature (was going to say classic, but the related Mary Poppins sure isn't classic) this is easily the best I've seen. The music is much more complexly composed here than with Poppins though the singers are significantly weaker which I suppose balances things else. With some more talent on the pipes that aspect could be truly excellent.

What's not, and I suppose this would have to be the case for any family intended Twain, is the pure dumbing of the material. Of course this isn't one of his smartest works to begin with, but there's still a lot of good that gets left out of these movies which are total surface area as this one is. But the surface area is fun enough where it makes a perfectly okay story though it lacked a certain punch just as a courtroom drama. The one legitimately bad note though is the actor who plays Tom who at the best of moments has a bland screen presence. He has none of the wit nor insanity of the book's character and he doesn't even have that quality of mischief that's so identifiable with the character. Leave it to Beaver had worse brats. The way the characters treat him as a result makes no sense. even his big song doesn't fit at all and just sort of sits there as the only dud. Ugg, at least my mind was blown a second time when I noticed a really young Jodie Foster. For some reason I though Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore was her first role. So mediocre, but a pleasant mediocre. I'm also pretty sure they somehow turned the material racist.

[Feego]

While I greatly enjoy musicals, this is one genre that I am sadly not very knowledgable of, and I have not seen nearly enough musicals of note. Therefore, I will be keeping up with this thread as a way of familiarizing myself with great musicals but most likely will not contribute a personal top-50 list.

One musical that I though was worth mentioning, and that is likely low on others' radar, is Bryan Forbes' The Slipper and the Rose (1976). I confess that the film is more of a sentimental childhood favorite, but I think it has a few elements that make it worth at least one viewing.

As a retelling of the Cinderella story, it makes a point of fleshing out the prince (played by Richard Chamberlain) more than usual and of addressing some of the political obstacles that would prevent a prince from marrying a local servant girl (although in Disney-esque fashion, those obstacles are easily and quickly dispensed with). The film is populated with a who's who of great British character actors, including Kenneth More, Michael Hordern, Dame Edith Evans, Annette Crosbie, and Margaret Lockwood in her final movie role (and her major comeback after a 21-year absense from the screen) as the stepmother. Newcomer Gemma Craven plays Cinderella, and while her voice is not as strong as Chamberlain's, she brings a sweet innocence and at times great strength to her performance.

By 1976, this probably looked to be a very old-fashioned musical, and the numbers indeed bring to mind something like Oliver!. What makes the film particularly memorable to me are the songs and score by the Sherman brothers. I actually find their work here more sophisticated and memorable than in Mary Poppins, and they received Oscar nominations for Best Song Score and Best Original Song ("The Slipper and the Rose Waltz"). The film is a bit hard to see now in its original widescreen glory, as the Image Entertainment DVD is long out of print and fetches high prices on eBay. Someone has uploaded it on YouTube, but it's unfortunately cropped. Still, at least it gives you some idea.

I certainly wouldn't say this film is a masterpiece (because it isn't), but in my own uninformed opinion, I think the music warrents a recommendation.

Edit: Ah yes, I forgot to mention that the costumes in the ballroom sequence are so garishly pastel that they lend the film (or at least that scene) a slight camp appeal.

[zedz]

I hate to trot out the old 'dog ate my homework' excuse (and it surely won't help my credibility if I confess that I own this t-shirt), but my computer seems to have devoured my provisional musicals list, so I'll have to reconstruct it forensically.

The reason I noticed is that I had two new films to add in for consideration. Don't know if they'll make my list yet, but they're worth a look.

Hellzapoppin - I knew this only by reputation, and it lives up to its rep for anarchic craziness. It's a musical, but the musical numbers are almost without exception the drabbest and most generic part of the film. I say "almost without exception," because the film also contains one of the most exhilarating musical numbers of the 40s - the completely arbitrary jazz number with Slim & Slam that starts cool and then explodes into a spectacular abandoned dance by the Congeroos. If this film makes my list, it'll be on the strength of those five incredible minutes.

The Moon over the Alley - I saw this a long, long time ago but didn't remember much about it other than the moody photography and ambience and the bold conceit of it being a musical. This time, I could see how rough it was around the edges, but it still preserved its powerful sense of place and I was struck but just how strong the songs were - and that's what held it together for me.

[knives]

IMDB doesn't eat your homework, just saying. I also save my provisionals as a pm at the start of the list period.

[knives]

Aar-Paar
My second Indian musical (and incidentally my second non-ray Indian film)! In a lot of ways it's easier to swallow than Lagaan though I think I prefer that film. The run time is still ridiculously huge even if it's cut nearly in half. I think I'm beginning to have an understanding on the differences from Indian musical numbers and American. They don't seem to have taken hold of the Disney method and the movie does basically stop to have a musical number on those occasions, but unlike the '30s American movies these are huge elaborate numbers that would make MGM blush. They also really don't seem to care for tone as this movie is pretty grim and fits well into the various realist movements taking hold around the world at the time and then it's time for a musical number.

That's not to say that the musical numbers are completely out of place in the movie. Usually they do elaborate on some part of the film like it was an exterior monologue, but they do come and go seemingly at random and with no consideration for tone (though the love duet is done fairly normally).I definitely highly recommend this one as both an interesting musical and great film.