Very hard to choose, for me. My top picks, though:
• “Gold Diggers of 1933” or “Footlight Parade” (1933), the two best Busby Berkeley films.
• “Broadway Melody” (1929), 'cause my pal Anita Page is in it.
• “The Gay Divorcée” (1934). I love all the Astaire/Rogers films, but this one’s my fave.
• “Tin Pan Alley” (1940). Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Jack Oakie and John (sigh!) Payne—how can you go wrong?
• “Springtime in the Rockies” (1942). Carmen Miranda’s best showcase—and Betty Grable, too!
“The Wizard of Oz” (1939)
“Oliver!” (1968)
It may be a trite answer, but mine is The Wizard of Oz. Even today when Dorothy first opens the door of the house, actually pauses as if to say “Folks you aren’t going to believe this,” and the world goes from black and white to COLOR - that is just such a great moment. Plus, I happen to love singing “If I Was King of the Forest.”
What makes a king out of a slave?
What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
What makes the elephant charge with tusk
From the dawniest dawn, to the duskiets dusk?
What makes a muskrat guard his musk?
Add the fact that Victor Fleming made both the Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind in 1939 and you’ve got something. Spielberg, schmeilberg.
1776
When John and Abigail are singing “Till Then”, I get all choked up - every time…
I saw “1776” on Broadway, and loved it. When the film came out I loved that, too. Part of it was the almost iconoclastic treatment of American icons – yet the musical was MUCH closer to reality than the over-reverent stories we’re taught in school. Part of it was that the songs in it never received the “Scmaltz/Elevator Music” treatment. 1001 Strings, Ferrante and Teicher, and the rest of those schmaltz-meisters never played the hits of 1776. Part of it was that a lot of that stuff took place near whgere I lived
(John Adams: Wake up Franklin, you’re going to New Brunswick (N.J.)
Franklin: Like hell I am! What for?
R.I. delegate: The Whoring and the Drinking!
Franklin: (getting up)Why didn’t you say so?)
Author Peter Stone included a scene in the New Brunswick hotel that was axed before the production hit Broadway. That hotel still exists – it used to be the Indian Queen tavern on Albany Street, and has now been moved to a nearby park. Stone (who wrote the screenplays for “Charade”, “Mirage”, and “Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe”, as well as the “book” for the recent musical “Titanic”) did a lot of his meticulous research at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
As an undergraduate, I acted in our college production of 1776. I was Charles Thompson. I had more lines than anyopne else. But I never forgave them for cutting all my singing lines.
My Least favorite movie musicals are “Lost Horizon” and “Man of la Mancha”. I finally taped the former last night. I’ve wanted to tape it for years for my annual Bad Film Festival. It looks as if it’s every bit as bad as I remember. The latter is the most seriously miscast musical ever (with the possible exception of The Wiz). For God’s sake – Richard Kiley and Joan Deiner and the rest of the cast was still around and hale and hearty. Why cast people who can’t sing? Peter O’Toole? Sophia Loren? And James Coco has the opposite problem – he sings too well for his part.
Cal, I think we have to remember Jean Seberg here. Circumstancial evidence suggests she may have been the worst singer of all time. She’s in “Paint Your Wagon” with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin. Clint and Lee get to sing, but they dubbed Jean’s voice. That can’t be good.
I just saw A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in film class and I really liked it.
I’m also kind of partial to South Park: Biger Longer and Uncut. 
We have a 2 and 3 year old who love the following:
South Pacific
Some network - ABC, I think - is doing a new version of this in a week or two and get this: Glenn Close is playing Nellie Forbush. WTF??? She is at least 30 years too old to play that part! And while she’s quite attractive, she looks her age, so she is just so wrong! She’s actually younger than the guy playing Emile, who is supposed to be at least 20 years older than her. I am so disgusted and annoyed; what, can no other actress in Hollywood carry a tune? Who was the complete nimrod who did the casting? I am just revolted by this.
Next post: I’ll tell you how I really feel about it. 
Cannibal: The Musical
and
O Brother, Where Art Thou
Cannibal: The Musical is one of those movies that my boyfriend tried to get me to watch for YEARS, and I kept putting him off on the grounds that it sounded really stupid. Well, it turned out to be really hilarious, and the musical numbers were great, to boot.
And of course, O Brother has the most phenomenal movie soundtrack I’ve heard in years.
With out a doubt my favorite musical is Guys and Dolls. Every song in the movie is fun to sing. And Marlon Brando looks so yummy.
(Don’t tell anyone, but I developed a hugh crush on Fenris when he quoted Sky Masterson in a thread earlier today)
1776 and My Fair Lady tie for second place.
Favorite: The Music Man
(also earning exceptionally high marks are Sound of Music, Oliver, and the Astaire/Rogers movies (you know, the ones where he plays a dancer? ;)))
Least Favorite:
Xanadu.
I still haven’t forgiven certain persons for forcing me to watch that one.
My personal fave is Sound of Music. I grew up wanting to be a nun because of that film.
My least favourite - Mary Poppins. I loved the songs but Dick Van Dyke’s accent haunts me to this day. Oi!
My Fair Lady
The King and I
Lil Abner
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
least favorite—Paint Your Wagon…Clint Eastwood
…Lord help us all.
Whist I am unhappy to be the one who is breaking it to you Miss Zumba, there is every possiblity that he knows.
(Damon Runyon rocks!)
Fav movie musicals…
Singin’ In The Rain. It’s famous for a reason. And the Moses Supposes scene, the “Good Mornin’” scene and the “Singing In the Rain” scene can always bring a smile to my face. Plus it’s so quote-able:
Waddaythink IiiII am, dumb or som’thin’?
I’ve got more money that Calvin Cooledge. Put tigither!
Lina! She can’t sing, she can’t dance and she can’t act. The triple threat.
Farewell, Lady Barrymore. I must tear myself from your side!
Now look at me. I got no money, I got no fame. But I’ve got…I’ve got…Hey Don! What have I got?
If we can bring just a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as if all our hard work ain’t been in vain fer nuthin’
I also dearly love Danny Kaye’s The Court Jester.
I love Guys and Dolls, if only for Nicely-Nicely and Miss Adelede’s performances
The movie version of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was pretty good. Robert Morse and Michelle Lee were excellent and Rudy Vallee just stole the show.
And you’re all pikers when it comes to worst movie musical ever(Although Paint Your Wagon came close). Burt Reyonlds (can’t sing, dance or act),Madelyne Kahn (cansing dance and act and very well, thank you) Sybill Shepard (can’t sing or dance, can sort-of act), Dulio Del Prete (can’t sing, dance, act or keep a career in Hollywood) Eileen Brennan (can sing, dance and act, but I don’t like her stuff) and John (Magnum P.I.) Hillerman (CAN act, can’t sing or dance) starred in a LIVE movie musical (they sang while they danced…they didn’t go back and record the vocals) called AT LONG LAST, LOVE. It made my eyes and ears bleed. And the ultimate sin: They took Cole Porter’s brilliant, witty, risque lyrics and “fixed” them. <barf>
Paint your wagon was bad, but the source material wasn’t all that wonderful to begin with. Ruining 20-some Cole Porter songs is unforgiveable.
Fenris
Fantasia (1940)
Big Broadcast of 1935, 1936
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
High Society (1956)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
White Christmas
An American in Paris
A special favorite -“At Long Last Love” so very bad it is wonderful.
I also love Busby Berkeley musicals, Eve, although my own favorite is “42nd Street.” It’s fun to see the young and stunning Ginger Rogers practically steal the whole show. After seeing this film for the first time recently, Mr. Pug claims that Ralph Barton must have been caricaturing Ruby Keeler when he drew Dorothy for “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” He has a point there, though I don’t know if it’s true.
Wasn’t that a young Billy Barty playing the baby in the stage scenes of “Golddiggers of 1933”?
Second favorite: Oklahoma! This one I have to watch when Mr. Pug is out of the house, as it makes him want to hurl.
Can’t anyone keep a secret around here?
“Wizard of Oz” for, well, everything. Especially that color! Early color made GWTW look wierd, but it was perfect for Oz.
“My Fair Lady” for the costumes (okay, that white and black dress) and the book. Can’t beat Shaw, and they cut surprisingly little. But the ending… Speaking of bad singers, didja ever hear the assemblage of the best notes of Audrey Hepburn’s singing made while she was still trying to convince the director she should do her own singing?
“Music Man” for Preston and (sigh) Jones, with her rosebud lips. And that opening sequence. And the song about Iowa. Hell, the first twenty minutes. Maybe the first hour, but it drags in the middle. And Hermione Gingold; Oldest asked how to pronounce that name the other day (she’s a Harry Potter fan). “Like it’s spelled,” sez I. And an oxymoronicly non-obscene Buddy Hackett. And I live that closing scene several times a year, especially since Thing Two has taken up the clarinet.
Which one was “Lullabye of Broadway” in? I guess that’s “Golddiggers of '35.” Fabulous.
The “That’s Entertainment” movies, because you get to see the best parts of Esther Williams movies without having to put up with any of the exposition.
“Poor Judd is Daid” is the high point of the American Musical Theater. “He looks like he’s asleep, it’s a shame that he won’t keep, but it’s summer and we’re running out of ice.” Hey, Morbid Millie, that sounds like one you’d like. Except it’s in color and the wrong decade.
Robert Morse singing “I Believe in You” in “How to Succeed” is priceless. What’s he up to these days? Still alive?
[sub]this is bound to get a rise out of somebody[/sub] Hey, nobody has mentioned any Elvis movies! Could it be that they all SUCK?
What’s this about Glenn Close in a TV “South Pacific?” Um, I’m trying to be charitable here, but Mitzi Gaynor was too old to play that mooncalf, Nellie, when she was 28. Glenn Close is just embarassing.
Gee, Zumba, you seem to have gotten lucky! Most women wouldn’t bother pursuing a guy they met in a thread about movie musicals. Usually pointless.
I just saw the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast, and it kicked butt. I was literally crying at the end…they did an awesome job with the sets and costumes, and added some really good songs that were’t in the disney movie. BATB is my alltime favorite movie, so I was in heaven