Speaking of movie musicals here’s my list of what I think are the best movie musicals. This list only contains musicals that were written expressly for the screen. By and large I think that adaptations of stage musicals as movies are execrable. I’ll explain why some time but that’s a post for another time.
My all-time favorite movie musical is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I don’t think the pieces ever came together better. Good story line, acting, songs, fabulous integration of character, lyric, choreography, and plot, and probably the best ensemble production numbers ever put on film with possibly the greatest assembly of dancers ever to appear in the same movie including the man whom I believe to be the finest dancer ever to appear on film (and, yes, that includes Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly): Tommy Rall (Frank).
Here, in no particular order, are the others films I’d pick as the best movie musicals.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
This is many people’s pick as best movie musical. For me the original music in Seven Brides puts it ahead.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Yes, it’s a musical. Fantastic music and lyrics, visually stunning, sly screenplay, a cast that includes among the best that Broadway had to offer. It’s an evergreen for good reason.
The Band Wagon (1953)
Like Singin’ in the Rain this movie resurrected a gaggle of 1920s chestnuts. The “ballet” in which Astaire attempts to out-Kelly Kelly in a send-up of Mickey Spillane is priceless. Rare screen appearance by the incomparable Nanette Fabray.
Gigi (1958)
See my comments below.
White Christmas (1954)
Again, resurrects a bunch of chestnuts. Tight book—I pick this over Holiday Inn because of the superior book. Irving Berlin really knew how to put on a show. And the cast is just impossible to beat. The Bingisms, e.g. “weirdsmobile” said of Danny Kaye’s character (those weren’t written, folks, they were ad libbed), are just a delight. Early screen appearance by the preternaturally beautiful George Chakiris in the boy chorus of Rosy Clooney’s nightclub number. BTW, the Crosby-Kaye rendition of “Sisters” actually used in the movie was a hammed-up just for laughs outtake that was too good to leave out of the movie.
On the Town (1949)
Okay, I lied. This was written for the stage but IMO it’s unquestionably one of the best movie musicals.
Top Hat (1935)
I think that this picture is the best of the Astaire-Rogers collaborations. It may be Helen Broderick (mother of Broderick Crawford) and Edward Everett Horton’s character performances that seal the deal for me. The dress, worn by Ginger Rogers in the “Cheek to Cheek” number and designed by her (described as “a chicken being attacked by a coyote”), garnered her the nickname “Feathers”.
By and large I can’t stand Busby Berkeley musicals and that’s why you won’t find any of them in my list. I don’t like the objectification of women that’s a staple of his choreography and I find them just too weird. Not weird in a good way. Delirium tremens weird.
But that’s a start for a list. I may think of others.
I prefer Swing Time to Top Hat. The blackface scene hasn’t aged well, even though it was meant as a tribute to Bill Robinson, and for that reason among others it has faded over time. But the songs are far better in my opinion, and the dance scenes are just incredible.
My favorite Minnelli musical, and probably my favorite overall, is Meet Me In St. Louis. Singing In The Rain is hard to argue with though. I also like Cabaret a great deal, and the Wizard of Oz of course. I haven’t seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but will put it on my list.
I’ll also add that the greatest musical misfire was certainly Guys and Dolls, which remains the best stage musical I’ve ever seen, but was a mediocre film. Little Shop of Horrors is also in that category.
Don’t get me started on Guys and Dolls. The casting! How they could have cast Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson while casting Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit. Sinatra would have been a perfect Sky (imagine him singing “My Time of Day”) and there was an entire town full of Nathan Detroits. I strongly suspect that Sinatra thought the same thing.
The only thing that could have made Seven Brides for Seven Brothers better would have been location shooting. That had been planned but it was struck, foolishly IMO, from the budget.
I detest the movie Cabaret, at last in part because the stage show is so good. Another problem is that I don’t believe that the movie has a soul. Removing the subplot about the old lovers while adding a bisexual love interest may have been appealing to the director but I don’t think it improved on the original.
I have, well, issues with Meet Me in St. Louis. Margaret O’Brien, for one thing. Judy Garland is luminous, of course, but it’s barely a musical at all. More of a showcase for a handful of great Garland performances.
Swing Time is delightful, of course. The wonderful Jerome Kern score, for one thing. It’s hard to choose among the Astaire-Rogers vehicles (except for Flying Down to Rio, which I detest). Otherwise, any of them could easily be put in a “best” list.
I might add that if I started listing bad adaptations of stage musicals it would be hard to know where to stop. IMO the execrable movie version of Camelot takes the cake. By comparison Guys and Dolls is a pitch-perfect adaptation.
Indeed, I can only think of a couple of really excellent movie adaptations of stage musicals: The Music Man and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. We should be grateful that the movie captured the fabulous performances of Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee.
One of these days I should write a post on what happened to movie musicals. Most people don’t recognize it but there were more hit movie musicals made in the 1960s than in any other decade. I have no doubt that they made more money then than any other comparable period.
Crass slob checking in……
I watched for the first time in years the Van Halen New Haven “Without a Net” video ths weekend.
Heh. Probably won’t make anyone’s top tens here. But Eddie sure can stroke that axe.
What, no love for Robert Preston’s other best film, Victor/Victoria?
After posting this I thought of Victor/Victoria. It’s good and it nearly qualifies if only for Robert Preston’s closing number. I don’t think it’s great or among the best, though.
The ’60’s? Julie Andrews and Streisand.
“I haven’t seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but will put it on my list.”
You’re in for a treat. The barn-raising number is without peer.
“Indeed, I can only think of a couple of really excellent movie adaptations of stage musicals”
How did Chicago fare? (I’ve never seen the stage version.) Now that I think about Fosse, did you like All That Jazz? Let’s overlook Roy Scheider’s “dancing”. How about the rest? Would that be the last musical written expressly for film, btw?
I think that Chicago is a tepid adaptation. I’m not nuts about All That Jazz and I’m not sure I would characterize it as a musical.
Besides Victor/Victoria is much more a musical, was written for the screen, and was made three years after All That Jazz.
The ’60’s? Julie Andrews and Streisand.
Not just those. Two adequate adaptations of Broadway musicals (My Fair Lady and Bye Bye Birdie) and all of those Elvis and beach pictures are musicals.
I just remembered Nine as candidate for last musical, etc. I liked it (wonder what Fellini would have thought?). Kate Hudson was a surprise.
How did Chicago fare?
Not bad in parts, but in many of the dance sequences they cut the dancers’ feet out of the frame!
Which is disastrous in a dance picture.
Re: last Hollywood musical. I’m not sure how you’d classify a jukebox musical like Moulin Rouge!.
Attribute my forgetting Ann-Margret in Bye, Bye, Birdie to being a woman. I doubt many men would.
Or whether you include Beauty and the Beast (as does the American Film Institute), which would also probably open the door to other Disney animated classics like the Princess and the Frog (2009).
I like animated musicals if they involve Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse, otherwise, not so much.
Here’s what I was referring to: Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse-Anchors Aweigh
I’ve got a bucketful of anecdotes about the making of Bye Bye Birdie I may pass along some time, gleaned in part from Dick Van Dyke’s autobiography. Paul Lind gave Ann-Margret quite the toast at a rap party for the movie. Janet Leigh was furious over the opening and closing sequences, both of which were added in post-production.
I know you don’t like Berkeley, and I can appreciate your reasons, but this has got to be one of the best group tap numbers ever filmed (ending grotesquerie acknowledged). I’d not be surprised if there are more tap dancers in that number than in all the US today (sad to say): from Gold Diggers of 1935. I swear the guy in the duet looks like Peter Sellars. (And really, the women are beautiful.)
I’m pretty certain my cousin was in that number. I know for sure he was in some of the earlier sequences. With the exception of the male trio (who are good) the chorus doesn’t have the precision of really good tap. It looks better at a distance.
My mom, her parents, her mom’s uncle and cousin, and her aunt (who used to babysit for me) were all in vaudeville. I could timestep as soon as I could walk.