The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

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movielocke
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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#551 Post by movielocke » Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:59 pm

Over the last week I watched the three "That's Entertainment!" films as well as "That's Dancing!" and it made me realize that having seen the heavy hitters of the studio isn't enough, as I really need to fill in the gaps of all those B MGM musicals (that sometimes are often A musicals) that have slipped by me. And more importantly I really need to rewatch the Band Wagon as I didn't remember any of the numbers excerpted from it, that one really did not stick in my memory at all (and I remember liking it but not loving it, but that's all).

Also I can't get the damn That's Entertainment song out of my head. stupid earworm.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#552 Post by Werewolf by Night » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:08 pm

Now imagine having it stuck in your head but with the lyrics from this 1980s TV Guide commercial.

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YnEoS
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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#553 Post by YnEoS » Thu May 25, 2017 9:45 pm

Still got notes from lots of musical viewings I need to convert into some semi-readable thoughts. I'll try to unpack them a handful at a time. Recently went through some of the other Charles Walters musicals I hadn't seen yet. Also the first Esther Williams films I've seen.

The Barkleys of Broadway (Charles Walters, 1949) - This wasn't nearly as bad as I had heard, Astaire and Rogers still have a lot of fun interactions together, and I always enjoy seeing more Oscar Levant on screen. I would've preferred if Ginger Rogers had a bit more to put us in her corner during the stuff with her stage acting career material. Still a musical with a bunch of my favorite people is hard to mess up, and it was perfectly enjoyable even though it wouldn't come close to my favorites.

Texas Carnival (Charles Walters, 1951) - Very little story or development in the romance plots here, just some mistaken identity shenanigans and lots of low tier Red Skelton gags. The actors are nice and the underwater dream sequence was well done, but otherwise I didn't find much of interest here.

The Belle of New York (Charles Walters, 1952) - I didn't find the story here to be of anything special, but for the most part all the dance scenes were completely enchanting and the whole film had a nice comfortable atmosphere. The fantasy aspect probably didn't do anything but further deflate and potential conflict in the story, but the way the characters sort of take it in stride worked for the atmosphere of the film.
SpoilerShow
the way the characters are basically like "fuck it we're flying, guess whatever we were fighting about doesn't matter now".
Not among the best, but after Texas Carnival this world was a nice refuge.

Dangerous When Wet (Charles Walters, 1953) - Pretty straightforward without too many flourishes, but plenty of nice detail work here and there and it takes the challenge of the story pretty seriously. Its a bit tricky to quite describe the appeal here, but scenes like running into Fernando Lamas on a boat in the middle of the fog just work so wonderfully, and I was grinning throughout most of the time. Again, not a favorite, but I liked it quite a bit.

Easy to Love (Charles Walters, 1953) - Now this was filled with such giddy energy and is probably my favorite Esther Williams musical for the moment. I had a bit of trouble at first going along with the premise of Esther Williams being crazy about her workaholic boss, but its treated in such a hilarious way I quickly was swept away into the joy of the film.

Torch Song (Charles Walters, 1953) - For a film being about how Joan Crawford plays a star way to obsessed with herself, way too much of this was spent with her character alone, being, well, obsessed with herself. Wasn't in the right mood to appreciate some of the camp qualities here, and outside of that there was nothing working particularly well here for me.

The Glass Slipper (Charles Walters, 1953) - Not too much to say, but this was very pleasant and cute.

High Society (Charles Walters, 1956) - Setting aside any comparison to Philadelphia story, this was quite solid and enjoyable. I wasn't crazy about Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby though they were pleasant enough, but Grace Kelly really knocks it out of the park. I prefer musicals with dancing, but the singing here was nice.

Billy Rose’s Jumbo 1962 (Charles Walters, 1962) - Very long stretched of nothing particularly interesting going on, and some not spectacular enough musical numbers to make it worthwhile enough.


On another note, what other Esther Williams movies are actually musicals and have a big Busby Berkeley type aquatic number at the end? I was expecting to run into a bunch, and ended up mostly empty handed. I also watched **Million Dollar Mermaid** which has some big swimming numbers, but no singing. **Texas Carnival** and **Dangerous When Wet** were pretty lacking in this department besides their big effects scenes.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#554 Post by domino harvey » Thu May 25, 2017 10:29 pm

Jupiter's Darling has a memorable underwater number, though perhaps more for Williams' sheer outfit!

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YnEoS
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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#555 Post by YnEoS » Fri May 26, 2017 9:58 pm

Here's another batch of miscellaneous musicals I watched a while back. Unfortunately I didn't always take the most detailed notes so my comments might be a bit vague on areas that didn't stand out too strongly. I'll try not to build up so much of a backlog. I've got some more on a bunch more early hollywood stuff, and some Weimar Operettas that I'll try and flesh out soon, might rewatch a few of my favorites from them so I can make sure I do them justice.

Broadway Melody of 1938 (Roy Del Ruth, 1938) - This is kind of a bunch of different gags and routines all strung together on what barely passes as a plot, but all of it was incredibly fun.

The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (Don Weis, 1953) - I enjoyed this films complete commitment to chaos and destruction, nice to see some good dancing on a lowe budget too.

Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954) - The actors kind of swallowed up by the cinemascope format and the big painted backdrops in this one, but there are a few nice flourishes like the way the camera moves along with Cyd Charisse's ballet dancing. This was enjoyable, but I don't think it holds as much impact in home viewing formats. Would be curious to see how it is in a theatrical screening, if I ever find the opportunity.

Red Garters (George Marshall, 1954) - I appreciated the sentiments of this film and its go for broke stylization, but I just wasn't particularly compelled by the story and its difficult for me to appreciate the flourishes without the basics working. The color scheme was also a bit too much for me after a while.

Lucky Me (Jack Donohue, 1954) - Nice cast and some good songs, it was nice seeing Nancy Walker in another musical after Best Foot Forward, though she has less to do here. The decisions of Robert Cummings's character were consistently cringey, but I guess thats motor that keeps the plot moving here. Very enjoyable overall.

Daddy Long Legs (Jean Negulesco, 1955) - Overall pretty outstanding, but I did find the age difference made it difficult to be completely involved in this. I'm sure I've enjoyed plenty of other films with similar age gaps where less attention was called to it, but the nature of the relationship did feel a bit mor awkward being more explicitly an aspect of the plot. I think it would've worked better if there was more of the story from Leslie Caron's character. Outside that though I loved seeing some of my favorite actors do a musical together. Will definitely be one I hope to reviist from time to time.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#556 Post by YnEoS » Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:39 am

Last edited by YnEoS on Wed Aug 09, 2017 6:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#557 Post by Rayon Vert » Mon Aug 07, 2017 3:28 pm

Some Like It Hot is a musical? (Also The Sound of Music is '65, not '68.)

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#558 Post by domino harvey » Mon Aug 07, 2017 3:34 pm

I just checked and Rick Altman considered it a musical, which is good enough for me

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#559 Post by domino harvey » Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:04 pm

Revisited Good News recently and for the first time watched the deleted musical number, "An Easier Way," included on the DVD, and wow, this is up there as one of the great travesties of cut songs in the history of the genre (The one-shot "Is It a Crime?" always comes to mind for me as the quintessential unjustly scrapped number, especially since it's better than anything else found in Bells Are Ringing). Had it stayed in, it would easily be the second best number in the film (nothing could possibly top "Pass the Peace Pipe"). It would have also tipped the scales back into June Allyson's favor, as her other solo songs are pretty forgettable. I couldn't find it on YouTube, so sorry, you'll have to dig out your discs to watch it, but wanted to put it on y'all's radar in case like me you didn't realize it was lurking there

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Favorite movie musical sequences, and why

#560 Post by spoon99 » Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:05 am

As a kid, I loathed musicals, still mentally scarred by my mom dragging me to see a revival of The Sound of Music. As an adult, I love them, not only because they are a uniquely (Bollywood aside) American art form, but also because the filmmakers do some really interesting things in how they handle the relationships between artificiality and relative realism. Plus, good songs and dancing :)

Three faves:

The Trolley Song from Meet Me in St. Louis (Vicente Minnelli, 1944): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmx1L8G25q4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Other than at the beginning (the "reveal"), this is mostly interesting for the composition and use of color, but I love the song and Judy Garland's performance.
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The Barn Dance from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954): https://vimeo.com/47889430" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I love this movie from beginning to end, partially because of its absolutely Neanderthal (and that's an insult to Neanderthals) sexual politics . . . but then the filmmakers tip their hat by audaciously turning 'The Rape of the Sabine Women' into 'Them Sobbin' Women.' This is my favorite sequence, for its humor, physicality and sheer exuberance. Always makes me smile.
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"I've Seen it All" from Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier. 2000) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8FJyhnC2Eo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Von Trier does something interesting here: the sound is a fairly flat stereo, and only during the musical sequences does it open up into an enveloping surround sound. In that sense, it may seem like the musical sequences are just music videos (and they do stand on their own) that were plopped down into the movie. But nothing could be further from the truth -- they both propel the narrative and add immensely to the tone. This is my favorite. IMO one of the most beautifully edited musical sequences ever, not only in the global sense, but for more micro bits, like starting about a minute in, in the clip.
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I hope this is an appropriate topic. Would be great to find out what YOUR fave movie musical sequences are, and WHY.

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Re: Favorite movie musical sequences, and why

#561 Post by dda1996a » Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:43 am

I used to dislike musicals, until I realized the reason was I was watching the bad ones. I still haven't seen many of the classics, but from the few musicals I've seen:
Singin in the Rain - Gotta Dance :probably my favorite musical and I remember how awestruck I was seeing this for the first time with all the bright colors and choreography.

Once - When Your Mind's Made Up: theres nothing complicated about this film, no choreography or dancing, which is why I love it so much. Just a simple and well done film about music and love. The songs are just brilliant.

All That Jazz- the entire film really, but especially the last number.

Blues Brothers - Everybody Needs Somebody to Love: what more needs to be said?

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Re: Favorite movie musical sequences, and why

#562 Post by Lost Highway » Fri Mar 23, 2018 4:48 am

My first choice is my favourite number but after that it gets difficult. As someone who’s always loved movie musicals, favourites become difficult to pick.

Two already mentioned: Meet Me in St Lois being my favourite movie musical, The Trolley Song would by a top choice as well. All that Jazz is probably my favourite post-60s musicals and I’m especially fond of this scene, blending naturalism with Fosse’s signature choreography it conveys pure joy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KA0sB3iJ-uY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My favourite 50s musical is Howard Hawks’ still underrated Gentlemen Prefer Blondes which always appears to get listed as an also-ran. It contains two of my favourite musical sequences in Jane Russell‘s Ain’t there Anyone Here for Love and Monroe‘s Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend. Hawks celebrated male cameraderie but when he dealt with women, they were the guys equals in every respect. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes celebrates a female friendship. Two gals with opposite outlooks on life, who look out for each other. Russel is good matured and easy going, outwardly tough but a romantic at heart. Monroe appears to be a superficial nitwit, but she‘s whip smart and her logic of how to get by at times when women’s choices were limited, is hard to fault.

I’m going for Diamonds, there isn’t much that can compare in the way the Technicolor pinks and reds sear themselves into the eye (YouTube can’t do this justice). The song is witty, Monroe positively glows, she and the entire number pop off the screen.

Image

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tbf_o5NF9vU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

After that there are dozens of scenes I love, so instead of going for more familiar scenes, I'll go for more obscure ones. This is an animated musical scene from the UPA musical Gay Purr-ee. The lead character was voiced by Judy Garland, but this is a number performed by Paul Frees as the villain. It best features UPAs modernist style which was in stark contrast to Disney's more naturalistic animation. The film is a riot of mid-century graphics, this is the closest an animated movie comes to had Saul Bass made one. Disney would later rip this off for its far tamer Aristocats.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTiPr2l_6o8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Herbert Ross' remake of Dennis Potter's BBC mini-series Pennies from Heaven was a flop but the musical numbers are stunning and one of its greatest joys is Christopher Walken, a trained dancer, as a hoofing pimp.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fElXbJjNJQI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One of the most original musicals is the folk horror film The Wicker Man. It combines Paul Giovanni's original compositions with folk songs which he arranged. I think it's one of the best musical scores ever and the lilting, seductive songs are in stark contrast to the sinister conspiracy Sgt. Howie walks into.

Here are some school children and their teacher performing a musical celebration of the phallus:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqKYzRjhNPw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Favorite movie musical sequences, and why

#563 Post by GoodOldNeon » Fri Mar 23, 2018 5:00 am

I love musicals and could do this all day, so I'll limit myself to five:

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - I Will Wait For You

The scene before Guy leaves to go to war is my favourite scene from any musical; possibly my favourite scene from any film. Every time the strings swell and the main melody kicks in a chill runs down my spine and I get choked up. It's just perfect in every way.

Footlight Parade - Human Waterfall

Anything choreographed by Busby Berkeley is fantastic.

Top Hat - Isn't This a Lovely Day?

My favourite Fred and Ginger number. The moment when Ginger gets up from the chair and starts copying Fred's moves will always make me smile.

Singin' in the Rain - Make 'em Laugh

Singin' in the Rain is my favourite musical, and any number from the film would be a good choice. For pure entertainment value it's hard to beat this one.

Purple Rain - Purple Rain

Purple Rain isn't much of a film, but the climactic final performance makes up for all of its shortcomings, and then some.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Proj

#564 Post by L.A. » Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:23 pm

I’m not quite sure does this quite warrant to be here but there is one film that I saw at a local film theater on March 17th; my second from North Korea (the first one being the notorious Godzilla-ripoff Pulgasari (1985) about a decade ago) called Sea of Blood (1969) which is a revolutionary war opera (based on a play by Kim Il-sung), produced by (and also rumored to have been the co-director) Kim Jong-il. It is set in the 1930s during the Japanese occupied Korea and after the Koreans suffer mistreatment from the Japanese soldiers they decide to take revenge and to join the communist revolution and fight against them. If you are open-minded and don’t mind the propaganda and the running time of over four hours then give it a try. The music is probably the highlight the film, impressive arias. Unfortunately I don’t know the names of the songs but it is on YouTube albeit without subs.

The opera is the country’s longest running production, having been staged over 1500 times.

Once again if there is a more proper topic then feel free to move this, mods.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#565 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:37 am

Image

So… barring any new recommendations that cross my path, I don’t have any more unwatched musicals to see after this round of catch-ups! Wow! And boo hoo, &c

Anna (Pierre Koralnik 1967)
Jean-Claude Brialy’s photog goes on the hunt for Perfect Beauty Anna Karina, unaware that she’s under his nose the entire time thanks to Clark Kent camouflage. A musical starring Karina, Brialy, and Serge Gainsbourg, with songs written by Gainsbourg, sounds like a can’t-miss prospect, but it misses all right. The songs are awful (I suspect Gainsbourg only got Marianne Faithful to show up for her cameo by giving her the only good song of the lot) and the direction resembles b-roll footage of a William Klein failure.

8 femmes (François Ozon 2002)
80% of the French actresses Americans have heard of headline this weird murder mystery musical set in the 50s. Like the Women, there are only female speaking parts, but unlike the Women, this movie has no clear tone, and not in a fun way. I’m not sure what Ozon thinks he’s doing here, but what we get is a total mess of over the top mugging from all principals (with Emmanuelle Beart the funniest and Isabelle Huppert surprisingly the most annoying) as they try to solve which of the titular eight women killed the head of the household. Oh and then the films grinds to a halt for poorly staged music numbers, nearly all of which involve the principal performer in crude spotlight facing the camera while left to their own devices for what constitutes choreography. Embarrassing. By the time the film tries to fold in lesbianism (over and over), incest, and suicide, I was completely done with this. The costumes and set direction are great. What’s occupying them is not.

Haut bas fragile (Jacques Rivette 1995)
A coma victim recovers and uncovers, a thief steals and dances with wild abandon, and a librarian seeks a song she’s sure connects with her unknown birth mother, among other adventures. Oh, and after about an hour into this three hour movie, we occasionally get musical numbers. Here Rivette truly surprised me: of all the French directors in this write-up, he’s the least-flashy and thus the one I least expected to understand and show how movement works in a musical. But he gets it, so clearly and without it ever interrupting his other goals here. For once, invoking a classic musical as inspiration (here Give a Girl a Break and I Love Melvin) yields actual on-screen evidence of someone having seen and processed their inspiration. A folding chair, an errant sander, a gazebo, patio furniture: zero-frills props, and yet Rivette figures out how to use them and film with/within them in long takes dedicated to kinetic interactions of bodies to each other and the chosen close-quarter prop. The only bad thing about these numbers is that we only get four of them and all together they probably run less than ten minutes within a three hour film. The remainder of the movie is enjoyable in the lazy way the best of Rivette can pull off. And not one fucking actor participates in an acting workshop the entire time. How nice to be reminded again that I can like Rivette. Recommended.

Jeanne et le Garçon formidable (Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau 1998)
Promiscuous Virginie Ledoyen falls for Mathieu Demy, who’s dying of AIDS, in this grossly ill-conceived musical. Demy conceals his illness from Ledoyen until after they’ve slept together, and she is totally fine with this. At no point does anyone in the film consider this a conversation that should have been held before they slept with each other. The film plays at tackling big issues, as in its opening number with an immigrant custodial staff singing and dancing about how they’ll never be French citizens, but the film quickly follows this up with a ching-chong Asian joke, so, uh, let’s chuck those progressive bonus points out the window immediately. I hated the main character and how the film indulged her, I thought the Demy riffs (two characters are constantly missing a crucial piece of information about a shared third party, and for no reason) were lame and uninsightful, and I found the music… okay, if unimaginatively staged in performance (as seems to be the standard in these modern musicals).

On connaît la chanson (Alain Resnais 1997)
Resnais’ usual suspects gather for a romantic comedy in which characters sporadically break out into song. So, a musical, but here everyone just lip-syncs to recordings of French pop songs that last anywhere from five to thirty seconds. The gag here is that the songs are not gender-matched, and indeed the first joke of the film is a flashback to a Nazi officer singing along to Josephine Baker. As a rom com, this isn’t half bad— the characters are standard-issue, but the performers are all game. As a musical, I have some larger issues, as I could never tell what the film was going for in its gimmick. Is this a commentary on how pop songs, like quotes from movies and TV shows, stay with us and provide us guidance in our real lives? Is it an ironic distancing tool to make the conventions of the musical ordinary and unadorned by making them conversational and without dance or presentational obfuscation? The title means “We know the song,” and there is a clear “Aha” factor being played with in the often unexpected choices. One problem: I’m American and have no prior exposure to nearly all of these songs, so there is an unsurpassable obstacle for me “getting” this one on the level it operated on for French audiences on first release (it was, indeed, hugely popular and was by far Resnais’ highest grossing film) by not being able to recognize the baggage many of the song choices carry. As a weird kind of Dennis Potter-esque jukebox musical variation, it’s interesting, but I feel like it’s a movie I may never be able to meet on its referential level. But it has the rare distinction of being one of the few post-Muriel Resnais films I didn’t hate, so there’s that.

I did not realize beforehand that co-stars here Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri not only wrote this film, but also Resnais’ hideous Smoking / No Smoking two-hander (which they of course did not star in). Interesting that they parlayed their success at screenwriting these and Un air de famille into a series of films written by and starring the two and directed by Jaoui, the most famous of which being the Cesar-winning and Oscar-nommed Le Goût des autres.

Robin and His Seven Hoods (Gordon Douglas 1964)
Frequently inept filmmaking abounds in this gangster-era Robin Hood update. For instance, the entire introduction of the Robin Hood theme doesn’t even come til halfway through the movie, and out of nowhere based on a tossed-off side plot. Frank Sinatra and some of his fellow Rat Pack cronies are hoods who want to do good, and Peter Falk is their opponent, a hood who wants to do bad (and seems content to merely phone in his perf from A Pocketful of Miracles, though here as there he’s the best thing about the film). And Barbara Rush has a weird running joke concerning her seduction tactics that almost works. The musical numbers, written by Nelson Riddle, are almost uniformly awful, though Sammy Davis Jr at least gets a catchy if unconvincing ode to guns that gains a new level of cognitive dissonance when paired with Davis’ effeminate performance style.

Szép leányok, ne sírjatok! (Márta Mészáros 1970)
Jaroslava Schallerová from Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is engaged to one boy but runs off with another in this slim narrative that primarily exists so that the film can play countless tracks of Hungarian psych rock and “beat” music over the action. The film reminded me of the later No One Knows About Persian Cats in the way it blends performances into the narrative and focuses primarily on the music, not the plot. While the music is great, the film itself isn’t particularly good. My advice? Run it in the background and don’t bother trying to follow along.

That Night in Rio (Irving Cummings 1941)

Two Don Ameches, one Carmen Miranda, one Alice Faye, one (underplaying!) SZ “Cuddles” Sakall, a couple forgettable numbers, and a few silly scenes of mistaken identity make for one forgettable movie musical.

Thoroughly Modern Millie (George Roy Hill 1967)
Hard to believe a musical centered around white slavery is a failure, but if you find the idea of a cabal of Evil Asians conspiring to continually drug and kidnap Mary Tyler Moore for sale into prostitution hilarious, man, you are in luck! This Jazz Age mistake is dragged down by lousy numbers, many of which aren’t even sung diagetically (they are instead sung in voice-over, because this is one of those musicals that is embarrassed to be a musical), and a broad, unfunny central performance by Julie Andrews, who here even before SOB is subject to a barrage of lame breast jokes for no known reason.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#566 Post by Werewolf by Night » Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:51 pm

After Ozon's great breakthrough with See the Sea, Water Drops on Burning Rocks, and Under the Sand, 8 femmes was so surprisingly unpleasant and poorly made that I started watching his films with great reluctance. After Swimming Pool and Le temps qui reste, I just gave up altogether. I'm tempted to say Marina de Van was the real talent behind his early successes (not to mention Fassbinder and the endless charms of Ludivine Sagnier and Charlotte Rampling), but IMDb tells me she also "collaborated" on the script for 8 femmes, so maybe not? Unless her collaboration consisted of trying but failing to talk Ozon out of everything he did in that movie.

And now I'll sit by and wait for someone to reply, inevitably, "Actually, all of Ozon's films are bad."

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#567 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:58 pm

I really enjoyed Une nouvelle amie and L'amant double and didn't care for Jeune et jolie, but haven't seen any other Ozons than these and the above mentioned 8 femmes. I know if 8 femmes had been my first, it may have been my last though!

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#568 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Jul 20, 2018 2:45 pm

Domino -- Some offbeat recs -- for next time perhaps...

Shostakovich's Cheryomushki (screen adaptation directed by Gerbert Rappaport) -- my favorite Russian musical -- A room of one's own, that's all the proletariat want for true happiness. (maybe borrows a tiny bit plot-wise from Boris Barnet's Girl With a Hatbox). One of my top musicals... ever.

Speaking of Barnet -- His Bountiful Summer -- an ode to collective farming (more charming than it sounds) has enough songs (perhaps) to qualify as a musical.

One last Russian musical -- Grigori Alexandrov's Volga, Volga -- Reputedly Stalin's favorite. Two musical troupes travel along the Volga on the way to a competition in Moscow....

From Japan -- Masahiro Makino's The Singing Lovebirds - a late 30s musical, featuring Takashi Shimura as an antiques-obsessed umbrella maker, who wants/needs to sell off his beautiful daughter to a wealthy creditor, while she is in love with an impoverished samurai (played by super-star Chiezo Kataoka -- who temporarily disappears in mid-film due illness and a short inflexible shooting schedule -- requiring a lot of last-minute improvisation -- which might explain the unusually "free" feeling of this film).

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#569 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:05 pm

I've heard of none of these, so thanks for the tips!

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#570 Post by knives » Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:12 pm

There's a ton of Indian films as well if you are okay with an average run time of three hours. I especially like of the very small number I've seen Lagaan (really any Aamir Khan film), Aar-Paar, and Iruvar. I assume some of our more knowledgeable members could give better recommendations.

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#571 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:41 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Jul 20, 2018 4:05 pm
I've heard of none of these, so thanks for the tips!
There was a subbed (somewhat restored) DVD of Cheryomushki once upon a time. I don't know of any English-subbed DVDs of any of the others. (There was a French-subbed DVD of the Barnet film, however).

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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#572 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:24 pm

This is one of my favorite dance numbers. Buddy Ebson shows his dancing chops, Jimmy Stewart not so much, but overall just a joyous, fun dance number, which also includes Eleanor Powell, Una Merkel, Sid Silvers and Frances Langford.
Born to Dance (1936)- "Hey, Babe, Hey"

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FrauBlucher
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Location: Greenwich Village

Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#573 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:32 pm

Love this dance number from Stanley Donen's Royal Wedding.
"How Could You Believe Me..." Fred Astaire and Jane Powell

A mostly fluff musical but several great dance sequences. Of course the memorable Astaire dancing on the walls and ceiling. He was 52 at the time. Pretty impressive. I was surprised to see on Wikipedia that this MGM film is in the public domain. How'd that happen?

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#574 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jul 19, 2020 1:23 am

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical is just.. incredible, and I mean that in relation to both its quality and the awe at what it accomplishes. The satire takes full advantage of the absurdist possibilities in exaggerating the dynamics of era-specific behaviors, fear-mongering drug effects, and the history of musical numbers becoming stranger and stranger over the years, and acceptable as such. It's a good musical, a slapstick comedy in the vein of the Stella branch of The State, and an intuitive sociopolitical commentary. I agree with domino that having a stake in the game of the war on drugs is helpful, but not a definitive stance. As someone who has made a 180 degree turn on my feelings on marijuana over the years (I will still definitively side with legalization, but with a bitter taste in my mouth after being exposed to some actual terrible effects that people don't talk about, like the reality of its prevalence of physical addiction... but in a culture where it's so celebrated not even my colleagues who are drug counselors at small substance use agencies are privy to cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome!) I have very complicated feelings on substance use, yet this was incredibly effective at exposing those positions openly via a mix of lyrical ambiguity and overstated animated choreography of visual ideas that flaunt conflicting positions and and actions. The irony points to drug use and its interpersonal consequences being worth talking about openly rather than sweeping them under the rug, either by restricting or liberating usage under institutional delegation, which doesn't help bring awareness to complex issues. By making a loud, bold film with musical numbers and wild artifice as the only platforms of authentic expression about the topics (hey, just like a studio era musical..) there's a subtext that demands that both sides of the issue recognize the other. Plus, it's just a hilarious, silly blast.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Musicals List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#575 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Sep 07, 2020 7:50 pm

Finally caught up with Chicago, which I ignored for years because.. well it just seemed to have all the ingredients of a terribly bombastic thin piece of extravagance, and to my surprise it was actually pretty good! A lot of what works is credited to the filmmakers' logical design, who embrace the central conceit of the classical musical in not only externalizing emotion but sublimating the discomforts of real life into passionate expressions of lighthearted carefree attitudes that don't exist in real life. The jailhouse song is a great example of this, where the women lying depressed and trapped in a defeatist mental graveyard get the opportunity to rationalize their crimes and champion their own perspectives when no one else will. The entire film is full of layered exhibitions of greatness, selling its ideas through Mashall's understanding of what musicals are from a thematic rather than simply cinematically-linguistic angle, as well as the chaotic possibilities of fantasy projected onto moving images. Wish-fulfillment for Star-making validation is sourced in a psychic reactivity to painful hopelessness that may as well follow Newton's physics in conception. When empowerment is matched with this much frenetic phantasmagoria, we're reminded that such an experience is not a facade but is accessible in the magic of one's imagination, internal outlook-development, and of course the movies. This film recognizes that we are all the star of our own movie regardless of in what capacity of realism we actualize that frame of reference.

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