Oklahoma!, Carousel, Show Boat or South Pacific?

They all suck.

Show Boat for the songs, stars, and scenery. South Pacific has some great scenes but the strange colors in the sky are too vivid and Mitzi Gaynor's voice is too thin.

The 1936 Showboat would have won your poll in a walk. I vote South Pacific only for the male eye candy. None of those films is especially good.

SB scenery

SP scenery

OK scene

Carousel scene

Those shows had their day in the sun for many years and produced some great songs, but as movies, they have past their prime and are dated and rather boring now.

"Carousel" has two of the best pieces of music to ever grace any musical, the "Soliloquy" and "Carousel Waltz", and for some reason it can make me cry. It's a story of doomed love, failed aspirations, and broken hearts, one that always gets to me.

Which is why I voted for it, even though "South Pacific" has better music overall. Hit after hit after hit.

Musicals are for idiots.

CAROUSEL. In the 1951 SHOWBOAT you have to content with Kathryn Grayson's trilling and all the cuts. The only good scene is when the show boat arrives at the beginning.

Agree that the 1936 SHOWBOAT is much better.

OKLAHOMA dates more than the others. SOUTH PACIFIC is undercast (I'm not a Gaynor fan, and John Kerr is a wooden Lt. Cable).

Honestly, THE KING AND I film holds up better than any of these, largely thanks to the two leads (Marni Nixon's vocal notwithstanding).

Agree about all the great songs in "South Pacific." Oscar Hammerstein wrote the lyrics and book for all four musicals, or am I wrong about the book for "Show Boat"?

Hammerstein co-authored the book to South Pacific with director Josh Logan who was a veteran of WWII. Hammerstein needed the assistance of someone who knew how to write credible dialogue for men in a military situation.

The 1951 Show Boat has a first class production design yet is not overblown like the other three.

South Pacific.

All those wonderful, hokey songs you can never get out of your head. I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Head, There is Nothing Like a Dame, Bali Hai, Some Enchanted Evening, even the ridiculous Happy Talk.

Marvelous!

R1 & R10 couldn't just move along, without commenting on a thread of no interest to them !!

Correction: Hair, not Head

I saw Mitzi Gaynor's Las Vegas show (on tour) about 30 years after "South Pacific." Her voice was fantastic - rich and more powerful. It would have been great if she could have re-dubbed her songs from the film.

G was wonderful in South Pacific. She was the best Emile I've ever seen.

The 1945 version of "State Fair" is far more entertaining than those four.

DL musical threads often have mention of the shirtless guys in "South Pacific" but I've never seen mention of the scene in "Carousel" where the guys rip off their shirts during "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" in the picture at R7.

We don't mention that scene, R21, because it is more silly than sexy.

I vote for Oklahoma! only because of the wildly off-beat performance of Gloria Grahame as Ado Annie. The movie is a wide-screen, stereophonic, technicolor bore, and only comes alive when Grahame is on, especially in her scenes with Eddie Albert.

South Pacific was ruined by weak casting (even Doris Day would've been better) and the use of colored tints in the cinematography. Good songs, but it hurts my eyes to watch it.

I loathe the other two choices.

I've just seen these on small screen from DVD. Would like to see them on a big movie house screen.

I'd have to pick Oklahoma or South Pacific, not because they're awesome movies but at least I've enjoyed sitting through stage productions of those musicals.

I've only seen one production of Carousel and it was probably very mediocre, but I couldn't for the life of me understand what people like about that show. What I took away is 'be sure to stay with the man who beats you.' WTF?

Likewise, I saw the national tour of Showboat in the 1990s (as I recall) and I was bored out of my fucking mind. In general, I have a really hard time getting into bodice-clutcher musicals set before the 1920s (Oklahoma being a rare exception because I grew to love it as a kid).

Funny that the stage versions of OKLAHOMA!, CAROUSEL, and SOUTH PACIFIC were highly regarded, while THE SOUND OF MUSIC was treated like the retarded stepchild.

But the film versions of the first three sucked ass, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC movie ended up becoming a phenomenon!

[quote]But the film versions of the first three sucked ass, and THE SOUND OF MUSIC movie ended up becoming a phenomenon!

Well, in all fairness, SOM was changed an awful lot when being made into a movie. Had they gone with what was on stage, it might not have done quite so well. "My Favorite Things" as a number for Peggy Wood and Julie Andrews--yeah, that would've made it immortal. To say nothing of "An Ordinary Couple."

The other three are more faithful to the material, but show the dangers of not altering things enough when changing to a new medium.

Show Boat (1936) directed by James Whale with Irene Dunne, Paul Robeson and the original Julie, Helen Morgan

Modern audio technology would be able to beef-up Mitzi Gaynor's voice to a richer tone.

I'll go with Show Boat with Howard Keel and Ava Gardner.

If Carousel had been filmed the way it was intended--with Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland in the leads--it would have been magnificent. As it is, it's dull.

Ugh, good grief, another show tune queen...

I shit in your cornflakes, R32.

The James Whale SHOWBOAT is an amazing thing to watch.

Show Boat - interesting story, great scenery, spectacular costumes, wonderful songs

The '36 Showboat. James Whale was a genius.

Speaking of the color remake of Show Boat, Kathryn Grayson always looked like she was smelling something bad.

Show Boat -- Howard Keel was fantastic. Ava Gardner's best role, ever.

None are great films, all are worth watching but could have been SO much better! So disappointing.

BTW, wasn't Hugh Jackman trying to get a remake of "Carousel" off the ground? Any news on that?

I think Jackman could do a good job with that.

South Pacific has the best songs.

Carousel is the most emotional and subversive.

Hugh Jackman has lost his voice.