Here's a list of my favourite
musical film:
BEACHES
(1988)Directed: Garry Marshall.Starred :Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey.
They met on the beach when they were young, brassy C.C.Bloom (Bette Midler) and classy Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey). Through good times and bad time,
through broken marriages and budding careers, they still had each other. And together they would face their greatest challenge...as only best friends could.
Hershey is splendid, and Midler will astound you all over again with her comedic and musical talents in this critically acclaimed box office smash.
Beaches glows with warmth, humour and tenderness.....This is one friendship you'll enjoy every minute of..Available on CD and Video.
"CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG"
(1988)Directed: Ken Hughes.Starred :Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes and Benny Hill.
Caractacus Potts ( Van Dyke ) is a more than unusually eccentric inventor whose crowning achievement , following a series of spectacular disasters, is a flying car.
It is this magical method of transport that takes Potts, his two children and their friend Truly Scrumptious on a daring mission to overthrow the government of a country which hates children.
Combining a sparkling score by the Sherman brotherw ( Mary Poppin), inventive gadgetry, wondrous sets and delightful performances from a star-studded cast.Available on Video.
TOM SAWYER
(1973)Directed: Don Taylor.Starred :Johnny Whitaker, Celeste Holm Jeff East and Jodie Foster.
Well done musical remake of Mark Twain's classic, set in the 1830's Missouri wilds along the Mississippi river, near the town of Hannibal.
It concerns the exploits of young Tom ,his friend - outcast Huck Finn and his girl friend Becky Thatcher ( a very young Jodie Foster ). This is a first rate children's movie that will appeal to many adults.
The picture garnered Oscar nominations for Set Decoration, Costume Design and Score. Music and screenplay were written by the same people who did MARY POPPINS, Richard and Robert Sherman.Available on Video.
FUNNY GIRL
(1968)Directed: William Wyler.Starred :Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif.
Barbra Streisand recreates her successful role in the hit Broadway musical. This is the unhappy semi-biography of Fanny Brice, the singer-comedienne who rose from obscurity to the heights of stardom in the Ziegfield Follies. While her stage careers
was a success, her private life was a shambles
Heart warming performance by Streisand. Fantasic music includes : "People", "Don't Rain On My Parade", "My Man" and many more.
This film is follow by a sequel " FUNNY LADY".Available on CD and Video.
FUNNY LADY
(1968)Directed: Herbert Ross.Starred :Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Roddy McDowall and Omar Sharif.
Successful, if less endearing, sequel to the megahit FUNNY GIRL. This one was nominated for five Oscars. Lavish production,
top-notch talent and great music keep this sequel afloat, in spite of a cliche-ridden script. The story is a continuation of the trouble off-stage life of famous comedienne Fanny Brice.
After leaving Nicky Arnstein ( Sharif ), she meets and married Billy Rose ( Caan ), but with little success. In spite of some short-coming, it is still well worth a watch.
Available on CD and Video.
LOST HORIZON
(1972)Directed: Charles Jarrott. Starred :Peter Linch, Liv Ullmann, Michael York and Olivia Hussey.
This is a remake of a classic film of the same title, but this time done in the form of musical.It's a story of 5 people who have crash landed in the mountain in Tibet. They miraculously stumble into an enchanted hidden village called Shangri-la. There, peace rules and no one ages or suffers. Featuring the music of Burt Bacharach.Available on CD and Video.
THE WIZARD OF OZ
(1939)Directed: Victor Fleming. Starred : Judy Garland, Jack Bolger and Bert Lahr.
This MGM's classic children's film that is presented each year on television to a whole new audience, plus an old one that keeps coming back to re-live it. This is a wonderful fantasy in which a young girl visits a wondrous and mysterious fantasy land, and there discovers that things aren't always better somewhere else. The new released video version has a special extra 17 minutes of film footage which were edited out of the original.Available on CD and video.
GYPSY
(1993)Directed: Emile Ardolino. Starred : Bette Milder, Peter Riegert and Cynthia Gibb.
This is another remake of the 1962 musical of the same title. The original one starred Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell. This remake was meant only for T.V.Musically entertaining biography of the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Gypsy (Gibb) is the daughter of a demanding stage mother (wonderfully played by Milder) who forced her and her sister into a mediocre career discovered she had a talent of her own - for stripping. The story line follows her life but the primary emphasis is on her turbulent relationship with her mother and some really great songs. Songs include : " Everything's coming Up Roses", "Small World", and "Let me Entertain You".Available on CD and video.
SWEET CHARITY
(1968) Directed: Bob Fosse. Starred : Shirley MaClaine, Ricardo Montalban and Sammy Davis,Jr.
This smash Broadway hit was transferred with some success to the screen. Shirley MaClaine stars as a prostitute and dance hall hostess who dreams of love and marriage. When she is dumped by her latest boyfriend,she has a brief fling with a movie star and then takes up an innocent young accountant. He thinks he can accept her past, but is more challenged by it than he expected. Wonderful dance routines and fantastic music that has many songs which are now standards : "Hey Big Spender", and "If They Could See Me Now".Available on Video.
MY FAIR LADY
(1964)Directed: George Cukor . Starred : Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison.
Outstanding winner of eight Oscars - including Best Picture! Shaw's enduring play (and film) PYGMALION is masterfully transformed into a magical musical by Lerner and Lowe. It is an exuberant story of the effort by a snooty Englishmen (Harrison) to tranform, on a bet, a guttersnipe flower peddler (Hepburn) into being able to pass for a respectable lady. In the process, he falls in love with her and she changes him forever. Just a few of the winning and memorable songs includes "The Rain in Spain", On the Street Where You Live", "Get Me to the Church On Time" and "I Could Have Danced All Night" Available on CD and video.
HELLO, DOLLY
(1969)Directed: Gene Kelly. Starred : Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Louis Armstrong and Michael Crawford.
This is a very lavish screen production of Broadway's smash hit about a turn-of-the-century matchmaker (played by Streisand) who hopes to snag one of her clients for herself. Extravagant film prodution and excellent musical production cannot entirely make up for the fact that Barbra was much too young for that role. Even so, listen to the fantastic music : "Before the Parade Passes By" and of course "Hello Dolly" with Streisand induet with Louise Armstrong. Based on the play and later movie The Matchmaker.Available on CD and video.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
(1965) Directed: Robert Wise. Starred : Julie Andrew and Christopher Plummer.
Immensely popular film adapted from an immensely popular Broadway musical and taken from the pages of real life. Winner of Best Picture and four other Oscars. Andrew is Marie, a spunky girl who doesn't fit in at the convent, so she is sent to be the governess for the family of widower Baron Von Trapp (Plummer). She falls in love with him and the family, and they are married. But it is 1938, the Nazis are menacing Austria and have targeted their whole family.
So the entire family is forced into making a daring escape over the mountains. Warm and wonderful with memorable songs. Sweet and timeless.Available on CD and video.
OLIVER!
(1968) Directed: Carol Reed. Starred : Mark Lester ,Jack Wild , Ron Moody and Oliver Reed.
An absolutely outstanding musical and winner of the Best Picture Oscar and six other. Great entertainment. Dickens was never this much fun. All the story's touching elements are here, but the tragedy of an eight-years-old orphan's utter aloneness and helpless, living in the streets during desperate times, is much less traumatic when it is set to music and dance. Plus, the colorful characters were wonderfully captured by a terrific cast. There are lavish production numbers and sets. The truly wonderful and memorable songs include : "Consider Yourself", "As Long As He Needs Me and " Who Will Buy".. Available on CD and video.THE KING AND I
(1956)Directed :Walter Lang. Starred : Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner.
This is a sumptuous feast for the eyes and ears. Superb production values showcase a winning story. A spirited English widow (Kerr) is hired by the pompous King of Siam (Yul Brynner) in the 1860s to be governess for his many children. The clash of both cultures and personalities make for some interesting situations, but conflict gradually gives way to respect and to an unspoken and forbidden love. Wonderful music includes their duet "Shall We Dance". Winner of five Oscars and nominee for Best Picture.Available on CD and video.
THE BOY FRIEND
(1971 Directed : Ken Russell. Starred : Twiggy, Christopher Gable and Glenda Jackson.
When the leading lady (Jackon) breaks her ankle, she is quickly replaced by the assistant stage manager (Twiggy). This is an interesting musical that works actually in two different ways. First, as a 1920s musical production of "The Boy Friend", which is being put on at a tacky matinee; and also as a vehicle for the much more elaborate Busby Berkeley production numbers which occur within daydreams of the matinee's participants. It will be most entertaining to fan of the '30s musicals genre. Fourteen songs in all. Glenda Jackson has a cameo as the lead hoofer.Available on CD and video.
STAR !
(1968)Directed : Robert Wise. Starred : Julie Andrew
Star! has been called "the ultimate Julie Andrew musical" and deservedly so. The film recalls the golden era of musical threatre, from 1912 to 1940. Julie stars as British stage legend Gertrude Lawrence. Star! tells a story of a life on the stage.Available on CD and Video. Special wide-screen edition with addition original trailer and never before seen material on Laser disc.
CABARET
(1972) Directed :Bob Fosse. Starred : Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey.
A brilliant piece of work which won eight Oscars and is undoubtedly one of the best movie musicals ever. It is the story of Germany in 1931 and a young American girl caught up in its bawdy decadence. Hitler's Nazis had not yet captured full power and life was carefree,decadent and even sleazy; but doom is looming. Liza is a naive cabaret showgirl caught up in the carefree mood of the time and torn between two lovers. Wonderful songs steal the show; most notable ae : "Cabaret"; "May Be This Time"; " Money Makes The World Go Round " with Grey and Minnelli and the chorus line doing "Mein Herr".Available on CD and Video.
"THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE"
(1967) Directed :George Roy Hill. Starred: Julie Andrews. Mary Tyer Moore and Carol Channing.
Cute musical fluff that received 7 Oscar nominations and won Best Original Score Julie Andrews arrives in the big city and quickly transforms herself into a 1920s modern woman-a flapper. She is also determined to realize her life's ambition : to become a stenographer and marry her boss. But, she becomes so caught up in her fantasy that she doesn't see that she really doesn't want her boss because she really is in love with someone else. All the while, her equally innocent newfound friend (Moore) has become the object of a white slaver's interest. Light-hearted light-weight campy farce. Available on CD and video.
SONG OF NORWAY
(1970) Directed : Andrew L. Stone. Starred: Florence Henderson and Toralv Maurstad
Norway, 1860 : the young composer Edward Grieg is trying to find the money to continue his studies in Rome and the beautiful Therese wants to help. She persuades her father to arrange a concert for Grieg but only if she breaks contact with the composer and encourages her father's choices of suitor. Puzzled by her disappearance, Grieg moves to Denmark and eventually marries the lovely Nina (Florence Henderson) After her father death, Therese once more enters Grieg's life aand finally follows him to Rome, where he is writing the music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt. His success is marred only by the relation that he has selfishly left those who love him in poverty and ill-health. Finally, he bids Therese farewell and returns to his wife and country.Available on Video.
