The Movie Musical - Part Two, because I have way too much to say on the subject.
1950s
The 1950s were arguably the high point of what we think of as Classic Hollywood Musicals. Certainly the number of undeniable classics to come from this decade is impressive.
First, though, I must offer a warning. I severely dislike Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. All of them. Yes, I have seen them. No, they will not appear on this list. There is something very tedious about them that turns me off. They weigh me down. They drag. To me, a musical should be dizzyingly glorious. Rodgers and Hammerstein do not make that mark for me. Which is not to say I think they are bad movies, or even bad musicals. It just means I will never pick them for a list like this. So let the rotten tomato throwing commence.
Picking back up again, we have the fifties. Fred Astaire is still doing his increasingly older but still insanely talented thang in Royal Wedding, Funny Face, and Band Wagon. Judy Garland, quickly becoming a liability due to her substance abuse, makes the very lovely and underrated Summer Stock, which is where she sings her iconic “Get Happy” song.
Who DOESN'T "Get Happy" when watching this? That's right - I took it there!
Bing Crosby jumps into large scale musicals with High Society, a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, costarring Grace Kelly in her final role before she retired to become Princess Grace, and Frank Sinatra. The number “Well Did You Evah?” is one of my all time favorite songs. In fact, although The Philadelphia Story is clearly an untouchable classic and ranks a pure 100%, I will always contest that High Society is a 95%. I adore it. I know all the words to all the songs. Bing also brings us White Christmas, absolutely one of my favorite holiday movies.
Well Did You Evah?
Howard Keel brings his basso profundo to Hollywood musicals this decade along with Jane Powell’s soprano in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a throwaway musical for the studio that had zero expectations, yet turned into one of the biggest box office hits of the year, and absolutely a favorite of mine. He also made Kiss Me Kate, a musical interpretation of The Taming of the Shrew, starring the equally operatic Kathryn Grayson. Ann Miller’s tapdancing is beyond perfection. ZOMG, look for a super young BOB FOSSE as one of Ann Miller's suitors. If you know Fosse AT ALL, you'll have no trouble picking him out based on his movement. "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," below, is heavenly.
I can’t pass up talking about the fifties without mentioning Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe. This is one of the silliest musicals ever but I adore it with a passion, and it will always rank in my top 25 favorite movies of all time.
The rise and fall of "When Love Goes Wrong" is beautiful to watch.
Disney was in full on princess mode this decade, bringing us the “important to my childhood” Cinderella (yes, I wanted to be a princess), Sleeping Beauty, and Alice in Wonderland. Sleeping Beauty is a true favorite Disney film of mine, mostly due to its wonderful use of Tchaikovsky’s original ballet score.
Leslie Caron gets an auspicious start in movies with a number of big hits, including the still fabulous Gigi and Lili, this darling little musical that is woefully not out on DVD. However, her big break came from An American In Paris, the film that won Gene Kelly his Best Picture Oscar. Sad, really, because had the Academy known what Gene had in store for us the next year, they would have waited to award their highest honor to the more deserving film. How on EARTH can you overlook Singin’ In The Rain? Astonishingly, because Kelly had won the previous year, Singin’ In The Rain was not even NOMINATED for Best Picture. Talk about grievous error. It is very easy for me to pick this as my favorite musical of the decade, as it is consistently in contention for a slot in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. It’s sublime. Simply sublime.
1960s to present day
The 1960s saw the fall of the great movie musical. There were some stellar musicals produced, and several musicals garnered high awards. However, these were often the type of musical that I, personally, do not enjoy. In fact, I can only list a few as favorites, and most of those are Disney. The Jungle Book is good, Mary Poppins has some truly infectious tunes, and The Sword In the Stone is damn awesome. Moving on from Disney, West Side Story, though not exactly my type of musical, is very powerful, and I heart Lenny Bernstein forever and ever.
Easily my favorite musical of the sixties - yes, the above mentioned are the only ones I care about enough to mention from this decade - is The Music Man. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE The Music Man. It’s possibly my favorite stage musical of all time. I know all the words to “Ya Got Trouble” and will recite them at will to anyone willing to listen. My family is no longer impressed with this feat, and is instead annoyed. Robert Preston is forever Harold Hill. I love it!!!!
All. The. Words.
The seventies saw the continued plunge of musicals to the bottom of the barrel. It started strongly with Cabaret (easily the most frightening song in a musical full of rather frightening songs is “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” - jesus, it's spine-tingling, it's so frightening), and Bob Fosse finished the decade strongly as well with his autobiographical All That Jazz, but there wasn’t a ton of stuff in the middle. I really love Jesus Christ Superstar, but that’s a nostalgic pick more than anything. Grease was a musical I liked more when I was in high school than I do now, but it’s still worth mentioning.
Disney had a couple of my favorites films of theirs this decade: Robin Hood (egregiously underrated in Disney canon) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The latter film has great songs mixed with this bizarre sense of whimsy and the fantastic that fascinated me as a child, and still has the power to enchant me today. “Substitutiary Locomotion” is marvelous. I will embarrass my sister here by telling you that after she saw this film as a young child, she had to sleep with her closet door closed for YEARS because she thought her clothes would come to life in the middle of the night. She will now kill me dead.
Substitutiary Locomotion - I'm still trying to figure out how they did that!
But my favorite of the seventies? Probably that underseen musical released in the bicentennial about the formation of the USA - 1776. Seriously guys, this is a really good musical, and it’s amazingly historically accurate. It manages to make the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence dramatic and tension filled. I’M SERIOUS!!! It doesn’t get nearly enough love, but 1776 is awesome.
The only note I have for the 1980s is this - The Little Mermaid. Disney comes back on top with fantastic songs. Apart from Angie, who DOESN’T love “Under the Sea,” or the even better “Kiss the Girl?”
With Disney’s renaissance, they bring us tons more animated films in the nineties, of which there are only a few I would list here. Aladdin is funny, and Beauty and the Beast is damn near perfection. There’s a reason it’s the only animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture. I truly believe there will never be another to be nominated, and that Beauty and the Beast will be the sole holder of that distinction forever. Also in the nineties worth mentioning is Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas, an absolute genius film.
The 2000s produced more musicals, but none of note for me. (oh wait - I do rather adore Mamma Mia!) My passion lies with forties and the fifties, the glossy, gorgeous MGM musical, saturated in rich Technicolor tones, so gorgeous you’d think the color was computer generated.
Wow. So my attempt to discuss the best movie musicals turned into a long winded discussion of the history of the genre along with a listing of my favorite musicals. My apologies. I am not known for brevity. I would have included more videos, but a number of the big musicals have disabled embedding. Sadface.
However, I want to reiterate that every single film listed here holds a soft spot in my heart. This is not a Best Of list. If it were, there would be some gaping holes. Yes, some of these movies are held in more esteem than others, some are certainly better films than others, but I love all of these musicals. They are all good stuff. I own DVDs of almost all of them.
Making a list this huge and writing a piece this long reminds me that I really really really really love movie musicals. It’s an underrated genre; it doesn’t get nearly enough respect. It’s not taken seriously because so often, musicals are also comedies, and comedies are not taken seriously because they look easy. Musicals are just as valid a genre as any other, and the greatest musicals - just like the greatest sci-fi films, greatest comedies, and greatest films noir - transcend their genre.
The 1950s were arguably the high point of what we think of as Classic Hollywood Musicals. Certainly the number of undeniable classics to come from this decade is impressive.
First, though, I must offer a warning. I severely dislike Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. All of them. Yes, I have seen them. No, they will not appear on this list. There is something very tedious about them that turns me off. They weigh me down. They drag. To me, a musical should be dizzyingly glorious. Rodgers and Hammerstein do not make that mark for me. Which is not to say I think they are bad movies, or even bad musicals. It just means I will never pick them for a list like this. So let the rotten tomato throwing commence.
Picking back up again, we have the fifties. Fred Astaire is still doing his increasingly older but still insanely talented thang in Royal Wedding, Funny Face, and Band Wagon. Judy Garland, quickly becoming a liability due to her substance abuse, makes the very lovely and underrated Summer Stock, which is where she sings her iconic “Get Happy” song.
Click to viewWho DOESN'T "Get Happy" when watching this? That's right - I took it there!
Bing Crosby jumps into large scale musicals with High Society, a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, costarring Grace Kelly in her final role before she retired to become Princess Grace, and Frank Sinatra. The number “Well Did You Evah?” is one of my all time favorite songs. In fact, although The Philadelphia Story is clearly an untouchable classic and ranks a pure 100%, I will always contest that High Society is a 95%. I adore it. I know all the words to all the songs. Bing also brings us White Christmas, absolutely one of my favorite holiday movies.
Well Did You Evah?
Howard Keel brings his basso profundo to Hollywood musicals this decade along with Jane Powell’s soprano in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a throwaway musical for the studio that had zero expectations, yet turned into one of the biggest box office hits of the year, and absolutely a favorite of mine. He also made Kiss Me Kate, a musical interpretation of The Taming of the Shrew, starring the equally operatic Kathryn Grayson. Ann Miller’s tapdancing is beyond perfection. ZOMG, look for a super young BOB FOSSE as one of Ann Miller's suitors. If you know Fosse AT ALL, you'll have no trouble picking him out based on his movement. "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," below, is heavenly.
I can’t pass up talking about the fifties without mentioning Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe. This is one of the silliest musicals ever but I adore it with a passion, and it will always rank in my top 25 favorite movies of all time.
The rise and fall of "When Love Goes Wrong" is beautiful to watch.
Disney was in full on princess mode this decade, bringing us the “important to my childhood” Cinderella (yes, I wanted to be a princess), Sleeping Beauty, and Alice in Wonderland. Sleeping Beauty is a true favorite Disney film of mine, mostly due to its wonderful use of Tchaikovsky’s original ballet score.
Leslie Caron gets an auspicious start in movies with a number of big hits, including the still fabulous Gigi and Lili, this darling little musical that is woefully not out on DVD. However, her big break came from An American In Paris, the film that won Gene Kelly his Best Picture Oscar. Sad, really, because had the Academy known what Gene had in store for us the next year, they would have waited to award their highest honor to the more deserving film. How on EARTH can you overlook Singin’ In The Rain? Astonishingly, because Kelly had won the previous year, Singin’ In The Rain was not even NOMINATED for Best Picture. Talk about grievous error. It is very easy for me to pick this as my favorite musical of the decade, as it is consistently in contention for a slot in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. It’s sublime. Simply sublime.
1960s to present day
The 1960s saw the fall of the great movie musical. There were some stellar musicals produced, and several musicals garnered high awards. However, these were often the type of musical that I, personally, do not enjoy. In fact, I can only list a few as favorites, and most of those are Disney. The Jungle Book is good, Mary Poppins has some truly infectious tunes, and The Sword In the Stone is damn awesome. Moving on from Disney, West Side Story, though not exactly my type of musical, is very powerful, and I heart Lenny Bernstein forever and ever.
Easily my favorite musical of the sixties - yes, the above mentioned are the only ones I care about enough to mention from this decade - is The Music Man. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE The Music Man. It’s possibly my favorite stage musical of all time. I know all the words to “Ya Got Trouble” and will recite them at will to anyone willing to listen. My family is no longer impressed with this feat, and is instead annoyed. Robert Preston is forever Harold Hill. I love it!!!!
All. The. Words.
The seventies saw the continued plunge of musicals to the bottom of the barrel. It started strongly with Cabaret (easily the most frightening song in a musical full of rather frightening songs is “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” - jesus, it's spine-tingling, it's so frightening), and Bob Fosse finished the decade strongly as well with his autobiographical All That Jazz, but there wasn’t a ton of stuff in the middle. I really love Jesus Christ Superstar, but that’s a nostalgic pick more than anything. Grease was a musical I liked more when I was in high school than I do now, but it’s still worth mentioning.
Disney had a couple of my favorites films of theirs this decade: Robin Hood (egregiously underrated in Disney canon) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The latter film has great songs mixed with this bizarre sense of whimsy and the fantastic that fascinated me as a child, and still has the power to enchant me today. “Substitutiary Locomotion” is marvelous. I will embarrass my sister here by telling you that after she saw this film as a young child, she had to sleep with her closet door closed for YEARS because she thought her clothes would come to life in the middle of the night. She will now kill me dead.
Substitutiary Locomotion - I'm still trying to figure out how they did that!
But my favorite of the seventies? Probably that underseen musical released in the bicentennial about the formation of the USA - 1776. Seriously guys, this is a really good musical, and it’s amazingly historically accurate. It manages to make the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence dramatic and tension filled. I’M SERIOUS!!! It doesn’t get nearly enough love, but 1776 is awesome.
The only note I have for the 1980s is this - The Little Mermaid. Disney comes back on top with fantastic songs. Apart from Angie, who DOESN’T love “Under the Sea,” or the even better “Kiss the Girl?”
With Disney’s renaissance, they bring us tons more animated films in the nineties, of which there are only a few I would list here. Aladdin is funny, and Beauty and the Beast is damn near perfection. There’s a reason it’s the only animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture. I truly believe there will never be another to be nominated, and that Beauty and the Beast will be the sole holder of that distinction forever. Also in the nineties worth mentioning is Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas, an absolute genius film.
The 2000s produced more musicals, but none of note for me. (oh wait - I do rather adore Mamma Mia!) My passion lies with forties and the fifties, the glossy, gorgeous MGM musical, saturated in rich Technicolor tones, so gorgeous you’d think the color was computer generated.
Wow. So my attempt to discuss the best movie musicals turned into a long winded discussion of the history of the genre along with a listing of my favorite musicals. My apologies. I am not known for brevity. I would have included more videos, but a number of the big musicals have disabled embedding. Sadface.
However, I want to reiterate that every single film listed here holds a soft spot in my heart. This is not a Best Of list. If it were, there would be some gaping holes. Yes, some of these movies are held in more esteem than others, some are certainly better films than others, but I love all of these musicals. They are all good stuff. I own DVDs of almost all of them.
Making a list this huge and writing a piece this long reminds me that I really really really really love movie musicals. It’s an underrated genre; it doesn’t get nearly enough respect. It’s not taken seriously because so often, musicals are also comedies, and comedies are not taken seriously because they look easy. Musicals are just as valid a genre as any other, and the greatest musicals - just like the greatest sci-fi films, greatest comedies, and greatest films noir - transcend their genre.