I suppose my love of musicals comes quite simply from my love of the Theatre, which to me remains the greatest art a man can enjoy. Over the years Musicals have gained a special place in my heart, and the ones below evoke happy memories for me more and more each time I watch them, the best place for a musical is on the stage, but a film is a glorious medium, and can be enjoyed forever....
5. Grease!
Is there really anywhere else to start? This film is a wonderful homage to the American 50's and doesn't miss a beat from Frankie Valli all the way through to a car taking off into the sky.
The entire picture is a homage to the heady days where the teenager was seemingly invented overnight. John Travolta plays Danny (basically an Elvis impression) and Olivia Newton John plays the lovely but innocent Sandy, the acting is good and the songs are toe tapping and memorable but the strength of Grease! lies in the way that the whole thing seems to live in a bubble of its own, there are surreal moments (Beauty School Drop Out, Greased Lightning) but you never challenge them, they just sit amongst the rest of it perfectly. It is only after the film is finished you realise that Stockard Channing was quite obviously in her 30's, and that the whole thing doesn't make any sense at all.
To touch on the one sour note, the popularity of this film in the UK seems to have embedded most of the songs into the national fabric. This in itself is not a bad thing, but it does leave me feeling a little tired, on hearing Summer Nights once my friend Andre remarked: "I've heard so many awful parodies of this, I could never enjoy even the original again, no matter how good it is".
A victim perhaps of her own success? She still edges into my top 5.
I might add that someone very special to me bought me a copy of the soundtrack and told me "You will keep this in your car, forever". It is still in there, and always will be.
Best Song Summer Nights
Best Performance Stockard Channing
Best Moment Frenchie meets her guardian angel
4. Singin in the Rain
The film with maybe the single most famous song-dance sequence in American cinema, this one was the love child of Gene Kelly and remains his greatest gift to us 60 years on.
It is America in the 1920's and Don Lockwood (Kelly) has lucked his way to being 1/2 of the greatest silent film partnership in the world with his co-star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). The main line up is rounded out by Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds as we explore the advent of the 'talkie' through music and song.
Amongst the glitz and glamour lie some of the greatest sequences in American cinema. Kelly's dash across the city to get away from tribes of fans, Donald O'Connor jumping around the walls, and of course Kelly hanging from a lamppost.
This is the only one in the Top 5 that started out as a film, thank you Gene Kelly, thank you very much.
Best Song You were meant for me
Best Performance Gene Kelly
Best Moment Film Title....
3. The Music Man
This is maybe the most overlooked Musical ever made. Robert Preston stars as Harold Hill, a con man lovably ripped off in The Simpsons right here:
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| Marge Vs the Monorail |
Hill casts his spell over a small town in Iowa and learns a lesson of his own along the way. 76 Trombones, Til There was You & Goodnight my Someone make this film a diamond studded with even more diamonds (not sure that makes sense :S). Hill lets the town into his heart and somewhere along the way they all learn the meaning of music.
The charm of this one is very similar to Grease!. Once you are in the world of River City, Iowa you never want to leave, I was sucked in by the colour and presentation from beginning to end. In a unique move the director of the stage show also directed the movie and you can see how that works so well throughout, the cuts and set pieces are pure Theatre!
Best Song Ya Got Trouble
Best Performance Robert Preston (honourable mention for Ron Howard, making his debut)
Best Moment Hill turns a Pool Table into something to be afraid of with 5 minutes of song
2. Little Shop of Horrors
It begins with a man finding a strange plant, and before the end the fate of the world is at stake, it could only be Little Shop....
Rick Moranis is Seymour; an orphan who lives on the poor side of New York with a crush on the classic tart with a heart Audrey (Ellen Greene). They work for Mr Mushnik in his flower shop and a bizarre set of circumstances unfold as Seymour starts to feed an unusual plant his own blood. Little Shop is bloody, nasty and fun from beginning to end but my own love for this picture comes through the performance of Moranis. I absolutely love the quiet nerdiness and naivety of Seymour, why does it feel so familiar to me I wonder?
Note also an excellent cameo from Bill Murray, who was one of the biggest stars in the world at the time.
Best Song Somewhere that's Green
Best Performance Ellen Greene does the best job, but Rick Moranis is my favourite
Best Moment Suddenly Seymour
1. My Fair Lady
This will come as no surprise to Ron who had to put up with listening to the soundtrack of this one in my Vauxhall Corsa for almost a year. The story is one of the most famous and is a straight adaptation of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.
Prof Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) bets he can make the common Flower Girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) into a lady and pass her off as one at the Embassy Ball. Harrison couldn't sing so he speaks most of his song lyrics on pitch to great success, singing wouldn't have suited the character of Higgins at all.
For her part Hepburn produces one of the greatest performances of her career (she is dubbed though, which probably cost her an Oscar) and a young Jeremy Brett does a lovely job playing a hopeless romantic called Freddy.
I saw this around about Christmas 2008 I think, I was hooked straight away, the beauty of the whole thing beginning to end is staggering and Eliza remains my dream girl.
Best Song I Could have danced all night
Best Performance Rex Harrison
Best Moment Eliza lets her tongue slip at Ascot.
So those are Scarlet's top 5, notice how there is nothing modern on there? My bet is that The Book Of Mormon will one day crack my list, until then.....
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