- I find the really old movie musicals difficult to get into. So many songs really are thrown in anywhere and staged similarly. Anything from the late-40s onward I can deal with.
I hated myself for it but I kind of love the latest Once Upon a Mattress with Jane Krakowski and Zooey Deschanel.
- Solid Potato Salad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dd1J3NLNWAPU
- Love Me Tonight owns this thread
Love Me Tonight is generally regarded as a great film, but it is little known by the general public. It really is amazing.
- "Smashing Time"--Lynne Redgrave & Rita Tushingham take swinging London by--well, drizzle, but the songs are jaw droppingly bad & the screaming color scheme make it a blast to sit through
- Dear God, R2, there must have been a lot of sticky popcorn at the end of that number!! That's practically pornography.
Teen boy with embarrassing wet spot in front of trousers
- My favorite lesser movie musical number...
https%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCx6yKtIxMMc
- OK, let's get that on the right line...
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DCx6yKtIxMMc
- The Phantom of the Paradise
Beef
- r2 for the win!
- Im not a Gene Kelly fan, but this is a fun lesser-known number of his.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DD1InfoCfipM
- No musical with Judy Garland in it can be considered obscure. Not at DL.
- The Pirate Mvoie, with Kristiy McNichol and Christopher Atkins. A guilty pleasure.
Anonymous
- Colleen with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler
I'm surprised so few know this wacky film
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D0qRxdIFszAk
- RED, HOT AND BLUE! with Betty Hutton is my favorite obscure musical. Betty is the only person given any songs in this silly show-biz caper about an aggressively aspiring musical comedy star ("I don't wanna be Bernhardt, I wanna be ME with money!") and her "serious" dramatic director boyfriend, improbably played by Victor Mature.
In this wake 'em number Betty disturbs the peace of her roommates, including "Baby June" Havoc, who in one of several desperate attempts to upstage Hutton, is seen smoking in bed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DlBaylVGYn_g
- BILLIE, with Patty Duke as a tomboy track star. It only has a few songs in it, but it still qualifies as a musical.
- Why, the 1950s movie musical adaptation of THE WOMEN certainly fits the bill... and how!
THE OPPOSITE SEX!
"When"!
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DdqURdediIq0
June%20Allyson%27s%20Bad%20Knee
- Seven Brides For Seven Brothers was one of my favorite movies growing up. I watched it again recently and now I notice that 4 of the brothers are clearly gay, and the other 2 are at least bicurious. Only the oldest brother appears to be straight. Those poor brides...
- If you aren't, you should be familiar with the Canadian musical ZERO PATIENCE, about the beginnings of the AIDS crisis.
Here's a silly number NSFW called "When You Pop A Boner in the Shower"...
http://youtu.be/9RQI5B3AK4o
- The Opposite Sex is terrible! Leslie Nielsen and Dick Shawn. It could have been great- Dolores Gray, Joan Collins, Ann Miller!
- Rita Hayworth and Marc Platt (a Ballet de Russe de Monte Carlo dancer, and still alive!) in "People Have More Fun Anyone" from DOWN TO EARTH.
Anita Ellis sings for the peerless Rita.
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dnw3GGqjutiM
- Uh... DUH, R19!
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D1hfdl7s7gB0
June%27s%20Gray%20Bray
- Jane Wyman's number in "Let's Do It Again" that led me to start the thread. Yes, the "Zambezi Puberty Ritual Dance" she calls it just before this scene starts.
Seeing Wyman do this is set off a thrill-of-the-absurd giggles that is still underway. Let's just say Jane is not a natural talent one thinks of for such a scene. The movie ends with the male come-back-to-me song being sung, but it's Sinatra on the radio, because not even these crazies could fit Ray Milland into the task required.
It's a musical version of "The Awful Truth," so knowledgable DLers will get the context.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DtEs7wYeu28Y
OP
- I can't believe no one's mentioned The Apple, and no, it's not a Steve Jobs bio-musical
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apple_%281980_film%29
Mr.%20Boogalow
- Why the title song from "Pepe" of course! "That's MEEE!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D7hUA9bBKoCc
- Anything with Eddie Cantor.
- Absolutely love Jane Wyman and Bing Crosby in 1952's "Just For You". One of its songs "Zing a Little Zong for Me" was Oscar nominated that year. Bing's a broadway director/producer with a teenaged son who develops a crush on Wyman, the star of the show. Nice support from Ethel Barrymore and Natalie Wood, its a cute little underrated film.
- I agree with R15.
"Billie" has the beat!!
My first soundtrack- I played it to death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DtwVhnU9Xkdo
- From mod '60's musical "The Ghost Goes Gear", The Three Bells perform "No One Home." Girls in pink satin!
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DiG3Qcyu3lcU
- R23 Then it's about Gwynnie's offspring?
- R2, I couldn't believe my eyes!
- Starstruck - 1982 Australian New Wave musical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUW5jF3nVJY
- Sadly, I'd have to nominate most of Alice Faye's numbers in ner many musicals for Fox. She is all but forgotten today even though she was a bigger musical star than JUdy Garland in the 1940s.
The charming Slumming on Park Avenue from On the Avenue and the heartbreaking You'll Never Know from Hello, Frisco Hello should be required viewing.
- More from Starstruck: I Want to Live in a House!
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DtoKqHnumjog
- R32, just for ya
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dz_Ua55lfxHo
- Why, thank you r34!
You are a true gentleman.
r32
- well, R32, thank you for pointing this song out. I love the musical number!
R34
- R33, that is some interesting choreography at 1.38 - 1.42. Are they cradling invisible balls & singing "I want my own litter box!"?
- r34, if you care to look for it there's another great clip of Alice Faye singing This Year's Kisses on youtube. Very different from Slumming...
Sorry, I'm not good at linking.
r32
- Here's This Year's Kisses
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DKRtr1a74KEw
R34
- Love Love Love Alice Faye. Thank you for posting these!!!
- Once seen, never forgotten...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6HpsIW-u0Q
- Rare Carmen Miranda (in black and white) in the delightful "Chico Chico from Porto Rico" from DOLL FACE (1945).
"When he rhumba or bolero, he do better job than Ceasar Romero!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD1G8rEDoTU
- Thanks again, r34!
r32
- R41, was that filmed at MichFest?
- R41, that must have sent the Catholic clergy into spasms of righteous indignation!
If you ever wondered how the Legion of Decency and the Hayes Office gained the power to censor Hollywood once the talkies came in, look no further.
- r 41: One of the greatest musical numbers EVER. And just think..that number was originally in color!!
- Arlene Judge, musical superstar, knocks 'em dead with "If It Aint One Man, It's Another"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGz7W6ZI_WE
- One of my favorite Alice Faye numbers ever: "Romance and Rhumba."
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DcOxYY271txE
- One of my favorite MGM numbers ever--done extremely simply, with Arene Dahl in glorious Technicolor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DnZVgC3iSsUo
- "The Night is Young" with Ramon Novarro and Evelyn Laye is a forgotten masterpiece. Novarro was near the end of his career as the successor to Rudolph Velentino. He sings surprisingly well. Eveleyn Laye could have been a huge star in Hollywood musicals but she returned to the UK for a long and brilliant stage career instead.
Link goes to a poor copy of the movie's title number, a simple duet by its stars. The clip scarcely does justice to the movie which is sophisticated, funny and sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DulEFKu1H6jA
- Back in the 80s there was a movie called "It Came From Hollywood" featuring clips from obscure, schlocky mostly sci-fi and horror movies. But Gilda Radner hosted a segment on Hollywood Musicals that featured some doozies. Not all of the clips are from actual musicals but stick with it for the black-face Heaven number complete with tap-dancing and giant watermelon slices. Also, anyone know the movie with the dancing girl arousing a bunch of bananas?
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fnomobile%3D1%26v%3DiZCvE6LLQkU
- Damn, I didn't see r41's link before posting. That's actually an impressive production number, the lousy dancing notwithstanding. Would love to see the color version.
R51
- OP my favorite part of the film is just before the party when Jane is walking down the hallway all tarted up and someone asks her what she is doing here. Her reply in a deep whiskey voice is "I'm here to separate the men from the boys". I can't tell you how many times I have felt like that going into a party.
- Didn't Jane Wyman suddenly make sveral big movie musicals in the early 1950s? I think the Oscar-winning song In the Cool. Cool, Cool of the Evening was introduced by her (and maybe Bing Crosby?) in one of them.
Strange brief detour in her career if you ask me.
Nancy Davis
- Jane Wyman was second choice for JUST FOR YOU. Crosby wanted Judy Garland, but Paramount refused to hire her (she had just been canned by MGM) as she was considered nothing but trouble.
- Best shower stalls ever: "Clean as A Whistle" from MGM's "MEET THE BARON", choreographed by Seymour Felix, the genius behind "Turn on The Heat".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFHH11e328
- Eddie Cantor from Roman Scandals. Offensive on so many levels but still well mounted musical bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D285-qOZjt2g
- YouTube seems to have removed the clip of "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" from Road House, as performed by Violet Lorraine.
- R57, perhaps I was being hyperbolic when I said *anything* with Eddie Cantor. This one is much better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DANRPmTZRqkg
R25
- Who can forget "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort'" the last movie Gene Kelly danced in. Wonderful Michel LeGrand score. And I agree with "Love Me Tonight."
- In a similar vein to R51, here's Kate Smith's cringe-worthy "Pickaninny Heaven" from [italic]Hello, Everybody![/italic] (1933), the vehicle that was intended to make her a movie star.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DMq0HH9d_lHk
- R57 Wasn't Lucille Ball one of the "Goldwyn Girls" in that movie?
- R62, yes. Try to find her. I still can't.
R57
- It's from SUNNY SIDE UP, R51.
- Gloria DeHaven - Who's Sorry Now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DbZ_1IfyXmZo
- Oh, if only one were able to put thought balloons over the kids' heads as they listen to Kate Smith in r61's clip!
- And "Footlight Parade" is a masterpiece!
- I know I'll get shredded for this, but I like Camp. A somewhat surprising 68% audience like on Rotten Tomatoes, and there are some fun songs. Much of the acting is forgettable, but there's some decent eye candy between Daniel Letterle & Vince Rimoldi.
- Rita Hayworth performing "You Excite Me" from Tonight and Every Night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D2B6Mslm1ej8
- R68, I love "Camp" too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DJ3sQ0SpNQ7M
- TONIGHT AND EVERY NIGHT has some terrific elements: lovely Styne-Cahn songs and great Jack Cole choreography and a better than average story. Rita is divine, Janet Blair is tolerable and I like Marc Platt pretending to be heterosexual. But the film is hampered badly by charmless leading man Lee Bowman.
- [quote]Who can forget "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort'" the last movie Gene Kelly danced in.
He danced a little bit in "Xanadu."
- I love that movie, r50. There's a riot in Havana!
- WEHT Daniel Letterle?
- Hitler and Mussolini never stood a chance when our side had Ann Miller tapping her way through the patriotic and fiery Finale of REVEILLE WITH BEVERLY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DQBsEYcuwm0I
V%20for%20Victory
- THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP!
- My favorite part of "Camp" is the "All About Eve"-esque subplot with (now Oscar nominee) Anna Kendrick - climaxing with the perfectly chosen song, "The Ladies Who Lunch"...
http://youtu.be/W8y9pNqjtb0
- Now, THAT'S Entertainment: Glenn Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, Six Hits and A Miss, Eddie Durant and his Rhumba Band, Joan Merrill, and a furiously tapping Ann Miller wearing the ugliest dress in film history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z3zUfmmhfM
Time out for CONGA! Gotta have some CONGA!
- Pennies from Heaven
- r77, that's a really funny scene & a great song. Also love Turkey Lurkey Time, Century Plant, and The Want of a Nail. Letterle also does a nice rendition of Wild Horses for his "audition." One of the main themes, for gay, artistic youth to simply be themselves, is wonderful. Should be required viewing during the coming out process for all gay youth.
- R78, surprising cameo in your clip of the Three Stooges!
Time%20out%20for%20Stooges%21
- R79, Pennies from Heaven was the most rotten, pretentious piece of shit ever put on the screen. Only you, I , and that silly cunt who wrote for the New Yorker went to see it. Never mind that it was made from a New Yorker story - that's why she praised it.
- Ann Miller, Lucille Ball and Katharine Hepburn must have been thrilled to leave dreary RKO and join the A-listers at Metro.
Eve Arden
- R83 add Fred Astaire.
- R78, I thought you were exaggerating until I clicked on that link. That might be the ugliest costume I have ever seen. It makes Ann look like a cross between a cheap party favor and a turkey.
- Mama Cass-
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Di7rAaYFFeZk
- From The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DNbJVYtFwcHA
- Perfectly described, r85! You made me laugh out loud with that.
r78
- .
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DQ4drJR9Ueb0
