# Your Favorite Musical Film? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2001, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005 "2001-03-14T21:12:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ellis555](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e36b37/32.png) [@ellis555](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ellis555)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/21 "2001-03-15T06:21:01Z")
“The Commitments” The “Road to…” series with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Mel Brooks’ song bits. Groucho’s serenades. -ellis ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/22 "2001-03-15T06:34:21Z")
The Wizard of Oz. Singing in the Rain. Music Man. How to Succeed in Business. (Big agreement on Robert Morse; he was great in the role.) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. (Can’t recall a single song in it but the dancing in pure enchantment.) Real groaners: Paint Your Wagon. (Clint Eastwood was horridly miscast; Lee Marvin’s gravelly, off-tune warbling was oddly appropriate, though. Sounded awful but sorta endearing.) Brigadoon. (Big Hollywoodish mishmash. Gene Kelly was way too “here and now” unreflective for the role. Biggest peeve: the godawful 50’s high-fashion costumes.) Unsinkable Molly Brown. (Somebody should have sedated Debbie Reynolds. Harve Presnell: great voice but no actor.) Hey, my parent liked musicals. Veb ---
**Author:** ![Redboss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@Redboss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redboss)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/23 "2001-03-15T06:43:57Z")
because everything you write is SO interesting. Yes the Busby stuff is wonderful, although I keep thinking “they actually **liked** Ruby Keeler, huh? Why?” And the Fred 'n Ginger movies are great (for three minutes at a time, when they dance)! But for watchability over and over again, may I suggest for your viewing pleasure - ``` **Bandwagon!** ``` It has… A theme of entertainment, dancing and theatre - how to handle a failed career, how to marry different styles in order to create something new, how to avoid pretentiousness, the value of honest work and humility. Fred and Cyd defining romance in one number (Dancing in the Dark) - tentative, yearning, then confident and finally serene mutual love - while in Central Park The quirky humour of Comden and Green - no cliche left untwisted. It has lots of that great MGM stuff - impossible onstage numbers with sets that go for acres (Girl Hunt), people dancing around on the furniture in ordinary rooms (I Love Louisa), novelty numbers (Triplets - as a kid I pondered that for hours - how DID they do it, I asked myself), sad numbers (By Myself - I often hum it in moments of great stress), mistakes (a grumpy old stage hand walks by in full view during Louisiana Hayride, Oscar Levant doesn’t even try to dance). And I like the songs and the jokes. Happy to act the whole thing out, every part, any time you want. Redboss in Oz ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/24 "2001-03-15T06:52:24Z")
“Yankee Doodle Dandy” “The Music Man” Anything Julie Andrews sang in “MY Fair Lady” “The Wizard of Oz.” and while not nearly as classy as most of those previously mentioned, I love “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” ---
**Author:** ![dave99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@dave99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dave99)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/25 "2001-03-15T06:56:53Z")
Let me be the first to cast a vote for “Blues Brothers”. ---
**Author:** ![OrcaChow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@OrcaChow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OrcaChow)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/26 "2001-03-15T08:24:17Z")
**The Rocky Horror Picture Show**. People get damned testy when you throw toast and squirt water during “The Sound of Music.” ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/27 "2001-03-15T11:48:56Z")
That’s because there’s no toast in the movie. :rolleyes: You’re _supposed_ to throw, into the crowd, in order: Raindrops (squirt guns) Roses Kittens Copper Kettles (!!!) Mittens Brown paper packages tied up with string Cream Colored Ponies (!!!) Apple Strudel Doorbells Sleighbells Schnitzel with noodles Wild Geese (clean-up is hell!) Girls in White Dresses with blue satin sashes (!!!)Snowflakes That’s all well and good (assuming you can dodge stuff like copper kettles and ponies that are thrown at you), but what the audience does during the “Lonely Goatherd” scene is, well, just wrong. The audience participation version of The Sound of Music Picture Show is emphatically _not_ for the faint of heart. 😃 Fenris ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/28 "2001-03-15T13:08:01Z")
What, I’m the first one to mention [Meet the Feebles](http://tbhl.theonering.net/films/meet_the_feebles.html)? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/29 "2001-03-15T13:08:11Z")
Michael Nesmith’s _Elephant Parts_ _Xanadu_ _Pennies From Heaven_ _Shock Treatment_ _Planet of the Apes-The Musical!_(Rock me, Dr. Zaius!) _All You Need Is Cash_ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/30 "2001-03-15T14:11:58Z")
Hey, **fenris** , I hear they are doing that over in England, and “Sound of Music” is the new “Rocky Horror,” in a geriatric interpretation: singalongs with bouncing balls to follow and folks in costume and all. Matinees instead of midnight showings, of course; the old dears need their sleep. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/31 "2001-03-15T14:13:49Z")
Gang way, make room, show tune queen comin’ through! **West Side Story** is, IMHO, the quintessential movie musical. It has a stellar cast, including a luscious Rita Moreno and the incandescent Tucker Smith playing Ice; Jerome Robbins’s scorching choreography; and that Leonard Bernstein score: “Tonight”, “America”, “Something’s Coming”, “One Hand, One Heart”. **Gypsy** has some terrific Sondheim tunes, including “Some People” and “Let Me Entertain You”, plus Rosalind Russell clawing her way to the top no matter what her kids have to suffer. As much as I like Better Midler in the TV remake, Roz Russell will always be Mama Rose to me. **Cabaret** ’s Kander/Ebb score is both a wonderful testament to “divine decadence” of Weimar Germany; and a truly creepy examination of the corruption that led to the rise of the Nazis. No scene in any movie has made me shudder more than when that beautiful blonde boy in the Hitlerjugend uniform leads the biergarten crowd in “Tomorrow Belongs To Me.” Who doesn’t love the young Ann-Margret in **Bye, Bye, Birdie**? It’s not a great movie, but she is great in it. She just brings a real kittenish sex appeal to the title song, “How Lovely To Be A Woman”, and “Got A Lot of Livin’ To Do.” You gotta like Dick Van Dyke, Maureen Stapleton, and Janet Leigh, but you can’t beat the comic panache Paul Lynde brings to songs like “Kids” and “Hymn For A Sunday Evening.” **The King And I** is another killer musical. The Thai version of _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_, “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” alone is worth the price of admission. I just wish Rita Moreno had had more to do as Tuptim, the Burmese concubine. Yul Brynner created the role of King Rama V (Mongkut) on Broadway and made it his forever on screen. An interesting note: the silks used in the movie’s constumes came from Jim Thompson’s silk factories in Bangkok. Worst movie musical: **Tommy**. Who the hell thought casting actors who couldn’t sing, like Oliver Reed and Jack Nicholson, was a good idea? Plus the songs which are rock and roll standards on the album were played with way too much synthesizer filler on screen, so the visceral power of the Who’s music was just diluted into campy 70’s kitsch. I have to second “Pennies From Heaven”, both the Dennis Potter BBC versions as well as the 1981 Steve Martin film. Great stuff. “Zero Patience”, a Canadian AIDS musical satire, is well worth your time. ---
**Author:** ![Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/779978/32.png) [@Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zumba_The_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/32 "2001-03-15T14:27:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\*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 always like a challenge. Now I just have to figure out how to get him to notice me. Maybe if I promise to wear a white dress with a blue satin sash and attend a showing of **The Sound of Music** with him. (This is going to require more thought) ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/33 "2001-03-15T14:27:39Z")
In no particular order: The Blues Brothers Grease (It’s the word that you heard) Rocky Horror Picture Show Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Xanadu (Probably wouldn’t like it as much as I did when I saw it as a kid, but for now it’s up here) The Sound Of Music Labyrynth The Last Unicorn South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny singing opera. 🙂 A Nightmare Before Christmas It doesn’t count as a musical, but when I think of Flash Gordon, I think of Queen’s soundtrack first and formost. Disney has so many cartoons that I really enjoy: The Lion King Beauty And The Beast The Little Mermaid Aladdin Tarzan Fantasia The Lady And The Tramp Mulan And a bunch of others. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/34 "2001-03-15T14:41:53Z")
Wow—this thread really took off overnight! I have to agree with “Wizard of Oz,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Cabaret” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”—knew I’d forget a few. Drop—Lullabye of B’way was indeed from “Gold Diggers of 1935,” but it’s the only high point of an otherwise unwatchable film. Pug—That was indeed Billy Barty, he was in a lot of the Busby Berkeley movies as a tot. And tell hubby that Ralph Barton illustrated the Anita Loos books in 1925 or '26, when Ruby Keeler was still an unknown chorine and gun moll in the NY speaks, so it’s pretty unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/35 "2001-03-15T14:47:21Z")
Best: “Singin’ In the Rain” – The perfect movie musical – great songs, great story. Nothing has ever come close. “The Music Man” – a great film adaptation, mainly because they did it right – sticking closely to the Broadway script. “42nd Street” – Have to include Harry Warren and Busby Berkeley. More great songs, and a truly great ironic ending. “You’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star” – the most famous line – is consistently misquoted and misunderstood (the stress is on “got to” – or else!). “Little Shop of Horrors” – the best modern movie musical (not counting animated films). “Footlight Parade” – not many songs, but they are all great ones (Harry Warren again, plus Sammy Fain). The musical numbers are Busby Berkeley at his best (though his masterpiece is probably “Lullabye of Broadway” from “Golddigers of 1935”). “Cabaret” – Nice adaptation (though quite different from the stage version – the part of Sally was beefed up for the movie to showcase Liza Minelli). Bob Fosse was one of the great film choreographers. “Kiss Me Kate” – Good version of a first-class show. Fosse involved here, too. “The King and I” Worst: “Carousel” – Appallingly dated (with the clear message that spousal abuse is a sign of love). Songs range from the OK (“You’ll Never Walk Alone”) to the forgettable (“June is Busting Out All Over” – no one can remember that one past the first line) to the appallingly maudlin and cliched “Soliloquey” (which says that stealing is another sign of love). R&H wrote some great musicals (“The King and I” and “Oklahoma”), but this isn’t one of them. > [@](#): > > Gypsy has some terrific Sondheim tunes Sondheim didn’t write the tunes; Jule Styne did. Sondheim wrote the lyrics. (And Songheim rarely wrote “terrific” tunes: Irving Berlin wrote more great songs for a single show – “Annie Get Your Gun” – than Sondheim did in his entire career. He is a first-class lyricist and third-rate songwriter – but that’s for another thread). ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/36 "2001-03-15T14:55:06Z")
And, **Kiss Me, Kate** **The Harvey Girls** **A Star Is Born** , both the Garland and Streisand versions **Pink Floyd’s The Wall** **The Rose** **White Christmas** with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye Mea culpa for not mentioning Jule Styne. However, if you’re going to start dissing Stephen Sondheim’s songwriting ability, them’s fightin’ words, mister! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/37 "2001-03-15T15:03:35Z")
I’ll second Meet the Feebles but I must warn you that if you watch this film you are going to hell. Also West Side Story South Park BLU Beauty and the Beast Top Hat All That Jazz Blues Brothers O’Brother, Where Art Thou Rocky Horror ---
**Author:** ![BunnyGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BunnyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyGirl)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/38 "2001-03-15T15:37:37Z")
**Singin’ In The Rain** **White Christmas** I don’t watch too many of them 'cause they drive hubby crazy. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/39 "2001-03-15T15:54:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by goboy \* > **Worst movie musical: Tommy.** Hah! I’ll see your **Tommy** and raise you [Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band](http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmoviereport/sgt_pepper.html). This one hired real singers (mostly) and **still** sucked! I’ll bet Steve Martin, Aerosmith and Alice Cooper don’t list this puppy on their resumes anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2001, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005/40 "2001-03-15T15:59:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\*Worst: > “Carousel” – Songs range from the OK (“You’ll Never Walk Alone”) to the forgettable (“June is Busting Out All Over” – no one can remember that one past the first line) \*\* Because I can’t resist a challenge: \ June is bustin’ out all oo-ver All over the med-er (meadow) and th’ hill Flowers(?) bustin’ out on bushes An’ th’ rompin’ river pushes Ev’ry little wheel that wheels beside a mill June is bustin’ out all oo-ver The ocean is full of Jacks and Jills With her little tail a’swishin’ Every lady fish is wishin’ That a male would come ‘n’ grab 'er by the gills! Because it’s JUUUUNE. June, June, June. Just because it’s June, JUNE, _ **JUNNNNE!** _ \ I could continue, but I shall refrain. Perhaps that should be ammended to “No _sane_ person can remember that one past the first line.” I don’t know whether to be proud or ashamed. In the absence of anyone to tell me otherwise, I’m going with proud. 😃 Fenris [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-musical-film/58005.md?page=3)