Jules Winfield

Does this forum enjoy musicals? I know I do! Seriously, musicals are tremendous fun and a good one can sometimes make you wish you could burst out in song in real life. Here are some of my faves.

Singin' in the Rain- great movie. If you don't like this movie, just stop watching musicals and go watch an Underworld movie again and shut up.

Little Shop of Horrors- funny, great songs, amazing puppetry and a great Steve Martin role.

West Side Story- have an affinity for it since playing some of the music in high cool marching band.

What's your favorites?

Jaymole

My favorite musical by far is Oliver!. Great acting, beautiful sets, memorable songs and the "Who will Buy?" musical sequence is one the greatest ever committed to film. Many people disparage it as it won the Oscar the same year as 2001, but even though 2001 is my favorite film of all time, I have no problem with Oliver! winning it that year.

Ash Ketchum

You can't go wrong with the musicals made at MGM by the Arthur Freed unit in the 1940s and '50s, the best being:
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
THE PIRATE
ON THE TOWN
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
THE BANDWAGON

I used to see these on the big screen frequently in the glory days of the revival theaters (1970s).

THE PIRATE (1948) deserves special mention not only for Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, but for the Nicholas Brothers, who perform a spectacular number with Kelly, one of the very few interracial numbers in classic Hollywood musicals. Unlike the other films they appeared in, the Nicholas Bros. are supporting characters in THE PIRATE and appear throughout the film. They're part of the fabric of it.

Speaking of race, I'd also highlight two all-black musicals, both with Lena Horne, made by major studios in 1943:
CABIN IN THE SKY (MGM)
STORMY WEATHER (Fox)

STORMY WEATHER is the better one because it has less of a cumbersome plot and more great performers including Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers and Katherine Dunham.

Other great MGM musicals include SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) and the underrated GIVE A GIRL A BREAK (1953), with Debbie Reynolds, Marge & Gower Champion, and Bob Fosse.

The Infidel

Old-time: The Music Man
Recent (not that there are many to choose from): Moulin Rouge

nando820

The Sound of Music is pretty great. I also really enjoy some of the very old Warner Bros Musicals like the Gold Diggers franchise and the Astaire and Rogers duos, they kinda gay but just the right amount

iggystar

I'm really an 80's kid at heart so I don't have many classics on my list, but some serious 80's cheese is included (don't judge).

The Sound of Music
Annie
The Wizard of Oz
The Wiz
Victor Victoria
Dreamgirls
Fame
Hairspray
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Grease
Grease 2 (yes.....Grease 2)
Xanadu (cassette soundtrack is sitting on my desk to my right)
Mamma Mia
Beauty and the Beast
The Lion King
Purple Rain
Chicago (LOVE, love, LOVE this movie and wholeheartedly support its Oscar win)

Mabuse

I love Singin' in the Rain and Bandwagon, but continually underated is It's Always Fair Weather. I like to think they form a sort of trilogy: Singin' is a send up of the movie business, Bandwagon sends up Broadway, and Fair Weather sends up television.

I love Busby Burkley, his numbers are litterally a lost art. So many modern filmmakers have done homages to his style and none have come remotely close. He simply can't be reproduced. Most people know him for 42nd Street yet I think that is his worst movie. Footlight Parade and Dames are his best. For late period Berkley check out The Gang's All Here from 1943. It goes absolutely insane.

Mabuse

Funny thing is that most of the people involved in the Astaire/Rodgers films were straight, including Astaire himself. Maybe not Edward Everett Horton

davidh777

I would have said Eric Blore

EDIT: Hmm, I googled "Eric Blore" to get a pic for this post and the second auto-fill was "Eric Blore gay actor". Second hit was this obit:

http://barry-m-grey.suite101.com/cha...utlers-a322574

[Blore left, Horton right]

E Unit

The Sound of Music
My Fair Lady

inri222

Sondheim

Well, there's the obvious titles like The Band Wagon, Meet Me in St. Louis,, and Singin' in the Rain - all of which are among my all-time favorites. From the same period, I recently discovered and fell in love with My Sister Eileen.

Count me in as one who thinks Oliver! is underrated (at least nowadays.)

I also really enjoy a lot of the 1930s musicals. Along with the Astaire & Rogers films and Busby Berkeley films (particularly Gold Diggers of 1933), I love Love Me Tonight and the Lubitsch musicals (though I generally like the latter more for their humor and wit than for their musical numbers.)

There are also some great foreign musicals. I adore The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Der Kongress Tanzt, and Rene Clair's Under the Roofs of Paris and Le Million. And though I probably shouldn't admit it, I've recently developed a fondness for classic 1950s Bollywood musicals - particularly Awaara and anything by Guru Dutt. They can be extremely melodramatic and corny, but they're also really, really entertaining and surprisingly emotional (at least to me.)

Navinabob

I love Into the Woods, Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Labyrinth, and The Muppet Movie.

Ash Ketchum

Within a roughly two-year period when I was a kid I saw the following musicals in theaters: WEST SIDE STORY, BEACH PARTY, HOOTENANNY HOOT, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY, MARY POPPINS, ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS and HELP!. The Beatles, Frankie and Annette, Johnny Cash, Julie Andrews, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, and "Little" Stevie Wonder, to name only the biggest icons represented in that lineup. All different kinds of music and different styles of filmmaking. And if I'd been so inclined, I could have seen at least two or three Elvis movies in that period. (In retrospect, I wish I'd seen VIVA LAS VEGAS when it came out.) Now, I wasn't a casual moviegoer by any means, even at that age, but even casual moviegoers would have been exposed to a wide range of music in their movies once upon a time.

Mondo Kane

Got a wide variety of favs:

Tommy
Mary Poppins
Jesus Christ Superstar
Forbidden Zone
Grease (You're not alone on Part 2, Iggy)
Easter Parade
Cinderella (1977)
Little Shop of Horrors (Hated it at first. Absolutely love it now)
The Happiness of the Katakuris
Singin' in the Rain
The Wicker Man (Seriously)
Reefer Madness-The Musical
Cabin in the Sky
Moulin Rouge (Baz)
Jack & The Beanstalk (Abott&Costello)
Live Freaky, Die Freaky
Call Me Madam (Underrated, imo)
Hedwig/Angry Inch
The Pirate
Cannibal! The Musical
The Gay Divorcee
Phantom of The Paradise

Having seen nearly all of Elvis's movies within the past few years, I'm actually surprised at how little of his recognizable songs appear in his films. Only ones I ran into:

Love Me Tender-Title track
King Creole-"Trouble"
Jailhouse Rock-Title Track
Girls! Girls! Girls!-"Return to Sender"
Blue Hawaii-"Can't help falling in love", Title Track
Viva Las Vegas-Title Track

And for the record, Roustabout is my favorite of his

iggystar

LOL! I've had people be one hair short of violent about my love for Grease 2. I mean, we all agree it's bad, pure camp but I have a soft spot for its horrible lyrics and Michelle Pfeiffer singing, "Cool Rider".

Numanoid

Jules Winfield

Lots of great movies. I've never seen an Elvis movie. Will have to soon. Cabin in the Sky, Phantom of the Paradise, and Hedwig are also ones I forgot to mention. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is another one that is great.

joe_b

I watched Gypsy with Rosalind Russell for the first time recently. I know it got lukewarm reviews when it was released, but I felt it was an excellent adaptation of one of the classic Broadway musicals.

I'm shocked no one has mentioned The Rocky Horror Picture Show yet. I'm also a fan of O'Brien's follow-up, Shock Treatment -- extremely underrated movie.

Oh, and Burton's Sweeney Todd was about the best thing he's directed in years.

Solid Snake

I was about to say the same thing about RHPS. Love that bitch.

joe_b

HELL YES!!!

Crocker Jarmen

Huge Rocky Horror fan when I was growing up. I remember being shocked when I read in the Leonard Maltin movie guide that there was a sequel called Shock Treatment. I found a copy at the video store and found that I liked it a lot. It didn't have the same edge as Rocky Horror and the satirical stuff was lost on me, I thought parts of it were just plain moronic, but I liked a lot of the music and watched it multiple times.

Last year I spent some time on YouTube watching clips and was even better than I remembered. I kind of wished I had picked up that DVD combo of the two, as I'd really like to see ST again.

Solid Snake

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Kurt D

Once was real good.

Always liked Hello Dolly, too.
Damn Yankees and The Fantasticks - more for the songs than the actual quality of the movies.

Strevlac

I like a lot of musicals but for me there is Singin' In The Rain, then there's everything else.