Your Favorite Musical Film?

[CalMeacham]

Christ, what do you WANT from Disney

I KNOW Disney is supposed to be all sweetness-and-light, so I don’t altogether mind the de-sexing of his centaurs and centaurettes. It’s the fact that the harpies in the Bald Mountain sequence very clearly do have nipples. They’re green, and make a striking contrast to the rest of the breast, and even though it’s on-screen for an almosy subliminal second, you can’t miss it. Why not leave the harpies nipple-less as well, unless you really wanted to emphasize the sex-evil connection?

Mind you, I don’t think they had this consciously in mind. It could simply be a connection between the forbidden and evil that made the animators put the green nipples in (“I do not like green Nipples and Ham, I do not like them, Sam I am!”). It still bothers me that they did it. As far as I know, these are the only visible female nipples in a major US film dating from the 1940s.

[Eve]

“Eve, I don’t think you have to worry about NE/JMcD fans, seeing that they are all dead.”

—Oh, ho, young man, you obviously don’t hang out in the old-film-fan world! I attended Cinefest once to plug one of my books, and it was like an old-movie version of a Star Trek Convention! I will bet there’s a good dozen “MacEddy” Web sites even as we speak . . .

[gobear]

How about “Hair?” “Jesus Christ, Superstar?” “Godspell?” No, I didn’t think so. Not even entertainingly bad.

I’ll give you “Godspell” and JCS as bad movies, even though they have terrific music, but “Hair” is a great American musical, which is what Roger Ebert called it. Considering that the original play had zero plot and made no sense, I think that Nilos Forman pulled together a pretty darn good movie and the music is far superior to the tinny Broadway cast album. consider

the Vietnamese girl’s solo during “Walking in Space”

the homoerotic staging of “Black Boys/White Boys”

cameos by Nell Carter, Melba Moore, Ren Woods (the original
Dorothy in “The Wiz”), and Michael Jeter

Twyla Tharp’s choreography
Of course, that’s just my $.02.

[dropzone]

*Originally posted by goboy *
…and the music is far superior to the tinny Broadway cast album.

Hey! I LIKE that album! It’s not “tinny,” it’s “atmospheric.” Like it was recorded on a stage in an empty theater instead of in a recording studio. Treat Williams singing? BAH!

[amarinth]

Originally posted by RealityChuck *
**
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.*

I feel ashamed for saying this, but with the exception of Sound of Music, I don’t like R&H movie musicals. Some of them are ok live, but on screen… State Fair bores me. I don’t get Oklahoma. Carousel makes me want to throw something at the screen at several points in the movie. The King and I and South Pacific begin to get to me, and then I think “Well, at least it isn’t Carousel” and refrain from wanting to throw things, but still just dislike them.

I don’t know why.

[dropzone]

*Originally posted by amarinth *
…State Fair bores me

I can’t imagine WHY! “Our state fair is a great state fair…” Oh yeah, that’s why.

Jeanne Crain! Dick Haymes! Vivian Blaine! Dana Andrews! Dana Andrews? His name doesn’t rhyme with the others! Who the hell would put Dana Andrews in ANYTHING, much less a MUSICAL?!?!?

[gobear]

I agree, State Fair pretty much blows.

Has anyone seen one of my favorite movies,“The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T”? It’s a surreal musical from 1953 with book and lyrics by Dr. Seuss, starring Hans Conried, Tommy Rettig (of ‘Lassie’), Mary Healy, and Peter Lind Hayes.
It’s a totally live-action version of a Dr. Seuss world, except that everybody’s human and there are no Whos.

[bdgr]

*Originally posted by OrcaChow *
**The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

People get damned testy when you throw toast and squirt water during “The Sound of Music.”

**

At our theatre they threw frankenfurters for while there. The cast would be slipping around on the smear of meat on the floor. It was one of the least endearing rocky things.

[voguevixen]

Wow, lemme see if I can cover everything here:

Elvis movies that were good:

Jail House Rock and King Creole. Sadly that doesn’t say much for someone who made about a zillion movies. The unwatchable: Live a Little, Love a Little. I DARE you to watch the whole thing.

Love, love, love Oklahoma! (what’s not to get?) especially love “I’m just a gal who cain’t say no!” and the “Farmer and the Cowman” number.

Hate, hate, hate Carousel for all the reasons already listed, and the fact that it is comprised of 99% exposition, with the last minute and a half making up the climax, denoument and conclusion.

State Fair also sucks. BOTH VERSIONS!!!

Of the others already mentioned, I have to agree with:

Hair
O, Brother
South Park (I would KILL to see Cannibal!)
1776 (“For God’s sake, John, sit down!”)
Singing in the Rain
Music Man
Aladdin
White Christmas

One no one else is probably willing to mention: Newsies which is shockingly good (aside from Ann Margret’s bizarre solo as a dancehall madam or something. Yuk!) I haven’t seen that in ages and wonder how hard it would be to track down a video…eBay here I come!

And DAMN YOU PLD! I LOVE Sgt. Pepper! That is bubblegum cheese at it’s finest. As for Tommy, the movie is ok (sorta creepy, and what’s with the baked beans?!?!) but the Broadway revival was fantastic! (Are we allowed to count live productions or just movies?)

A Gene Kelly movie from the waist up?!?! As a great fan of Kelly’s ass, I have to say “WTF?!?!”

[Show_Biz]

My Favorite now is Camelot
It used to be Singing In The Rain until A Clockwork Orange ruined that song for me by putting it into a violent scene.

[jsc1953]

Gene Kelly from the waist up–must’ve been on one of Busby’s depressive (as opposed to manic) days.

I love Busby Berkeley movies, but just for the production numbers; I find the preliminaries difficult to sit through. But Lordy, was that man a demented genius or what?

Surprised nobody’s mentioned Fiddler on the Roof. I never get around to the second tape–it’s too depressing; but the Lacheim (sp?) number is dazzling.

Astaire & Rogers; always good.
Singin’ in the Rain–but what’s up with “Broadway Melody”? It has nothing to do with the rest of the picture!! It even has Cyd Charisse in it, and she’s nowhere else in the movie!! What the heck?

Music Man. I once started transcribing the opening number…“cash for the merchandise. cash for the dry goods. cash for the buttons and the noggins and the frngngns…” director was a hack, though, with those corny spotlight-fadeouts.

Cabaret, for Bob Fosse and the Kit Kat Klub dancers. That one shot in “Wilkommen”–the camera pulls back down the chorus line, as they all turn their heads toward the camera…damn, that is so cool. And “mein liebe herr”, where they’re all draped over the chairs, is so…silly? cool? but it’s hard to not watch Liza, in that little black thing, with the boots…mmmmm…

[Redboss]

Hmmphh!

You all got it wrong.

Can’t Stop The Music is one of the MOST SATISFYING musical films ever made. Very few other films give you quite so many opportunities for making sarcastic remarks to the person sitting next to you (apart from Plan Nine from Outer Space, and that’s not a musical). And it has the uh, unusual Nancy Walker. Think of it as a participatory cinematic experience.

Since Fenris sang the first two stanzas of “June is Bustin’ Out…” (nice baritone, Fenris!) I have an increased respect for him, albeit a lessened respect for Oscar Hammerstein.

I also got a lot out of Dropzone’s and goboy’s posts - it’s satisfying when people can tell you so cogently why a movie is a favourite for them. I too am loving this thread.

Just remember, when it comes to voting…

• for your consideration - Bandwagon!

[dropzone]

Voguevixen, it refers back to the Who album, “The Who Sell Out,” with Roger Daltrey on the cover, sitting in a tub of baked beans. “What’s for tea, daughter?” “Heinz baked beans!” Sorta an in joke for Who fans.

Show_Biz, you didn’t enjoy the juxtaposition of a beloved and carefree song with ultraviolence? A most excellent soundtrack album; from “The Thieving magpie” to “I’m Gonna Marry a Lighthouse Keeper” to Wendy Carlos.

jsc1953 said, “director was a hack, though, with those corny spotlight-fadeouts.” Yes, they got pretty stagey with that one. Surprising, considering the use of cinematic space, within the confines of an obvious soundstage, adding to the dreamlike, “memory of a boyhood in Iowa” feel, through the rest of the movie.

Redboss, cogent? ME? That would be a first. Quoting myself, “because they SUCK!” That’s terse, even accurate, but hardly cogent.

[OxyMoron]

I am not, nor have I ever been a Show Tune Queen, which perhaps explains my choices:

Hairspray (not really a musical, but music-saturated)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (yes, it’s in French, which means it automatically carries that Whiff of Pretension; it’s entirely sung, including the most mundane dialogue bits; and it’s in selfconsciously supersaturated color.) (Oh, and it also stars a young Catherine Deneuve, was there ever anyone more beautiful?)
Yellow Submarine (see the restored version! It’s stunning!)

Oh, and I’ll agree with
Hair (Forman’s ability to impose a plot on this blob deserves a medal)
Cabaret
West Side Story

Worst musical? Well, I’ll give it the title my mother bestowed on it:

The Sound of Mucus

Dreadful, sentimental, mawkish, oozing, sacharine pap. Reminds you of why the Germans invented the word “kitsch.” (Yes, I know it’s Austria - a wholly-owned subsidiary.) It is to the musical what Hummel ware is to porcelain. (Make that Precious Moments.)

[voguevixen]

*Originally posted by dropzone *
**Voguevixen, it refers back to the Who album, “The Who Sell Out,” with Roger Daltrey on the cover, sitting in a tub of baked beans. “What’s for tea, daughter?” “Heinz baked beans!” Sorta an in joke for Who fans.

**

Dammit, DZ! Today was my day off and I was trying not to learn anything! (I kid you, for I am a kidder.)

[Airbeck]

This is Spinal Tap

[plnnr]

Another fan of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. God, how I hated my piano lessons.

[Fenris]

*Originally posted by plnnr *
**Another fan of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. God, how I hated my piano lessons. **

I saw this as a very young child at a children’s film festival my folks took me too. I couldn’t remember the title or much about it, just vague recollections of a evil piano teacher with an infinite keyboard stealing kids souls by making them do finger-excersises. I got some very odd looks when I described the movie. Remember that there was no easy access to the internet to look it up on and no-one had come out with a video guide yet. I was finally vindicated when HBO or Cinemsx “rediscovered” it in the early '80s.

Surreal movie. Brilliant sets, Hans Conried rocks (Ah, Hans Conried, is there any part you can’t play?) But bad, BAD music.

Fenris

[Ukulele_Ike]

*Originally posted by xtnjohnson *
Hair (Forman’s ability to impose a plot on this blob deserves a medal)

Yeah, but was the plot any GOOD? I remember trekking down to NYC to see this in the big ol’ Ziegfeld Theater when it opened back in 1979, and thinking that the Oklahoma Boy Meets Rich Westchester Girl plot was going to date the movie even more than the amorphous off-Broadway original no-plot.

Somebody gave me a copy of the video a few years ago…I’ll have to watch it to see. Anyway, the songs are so good it’s worth FFing through the non-singing parts (apologies to everyone who’s been dumping on “Good Morning Starshine” in the “Bad Song” threads).

We’re halfway through Page Two and no one has yet mentioned A HARD DAY’S NIGHT?

[dropzone]

*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike *
**We’re halfway through Page Two and no one has yet mentioned A HARD DAY’S NIGHT? **

BUT IT’S NOT A MUSICAL!