The story begins in St. Louis in the summer of 1903, and moves through the seasons before culminating in the World’s Fair in spring 1904.
The songs are nice rather than sensational. I was expecting something a little generic but Judy Garland is always treat to watch, and overall it’s surprisingly enjoyable.
The main point of interest is Marilyn Monroe, who is always engaging, and it’s telling how much the film has retrospectively been sold on her involvement. The back of the DVD box, for instance, describes it as a Monroe film, when she’s not the star of it at all.
The main focus is on the singing family, the Donahues, played by Ethel Merman, Donald O’Connor, Dan Dailey, Johnnie Ray and Mitzi Gaynor. They’re loud and bold, in an unsubtle and unappealing way, and they lack charisma. Indeed, they struggle to hold your attention at all.
Likewise, the songs by Irving Berlin aren’t especially memorable, with the exception of the famous title song (which you have to wait right until the end to hear).
It’s not a terrible film by any means, and it probably achieves what it sets out to, but from the vantage point of 2023 there’s very little in it that stands up.
Woeful musical that has dated very badly.
Grace Kelly plays Tracy, a wealthy divorcee who is about to remarry a new sweetheart. Bing Crosby plays her ex. When a journalist (Frank Sinatra) comes to her home, she is torn between the three men.
It’s extremely wooden. The songs aren’t very memorable and there aren’t even very many of them. They seem like last-minute hackwork. Likewise, the script appears to have been written on the day they shot it.
Louis Armstrong plays himself as a band leader and – despite the half-baked material – his singing, along with Crosby’s and Sinatra’s, is probably the best thing about the film. Otherwise, it completely lacks artistry.
It’s erratic and uneven. Early on, there’s the suggestion that it could become a farce or a comedy of manners when a father and uncle have to switch places. But this thread is quickly abandoned and no comedy ensues. Likewise, Tracy’s young sister is active for the first third and then drops out of the film, perhaps because the writers didn’t know what to do with her. It’s not funny or romantic and it doesn’t even really work as a musical. What a mess.
The singer’s success is based on the patronage of Martin Snyder, who simultaneously nurtures and hinders her. Unfortunately, Cagney seems ridiculous in most of his scenes. It’s unclear how you’re meant to feel about him, but he comes across as so ludicrous that he’s neither the scary gangster initially hinted at, nor the likeably vulnerable character a more charitable viewer might perceive. Cameron Mitchell is weedy and unimpressive as the pianist/arranger Johnny Alderman – a bland character whose appeal to Etting is never explored. Doris Day is much better, and her singing is at least enjoyable.
It’s a “proper” musical in the sense that the songs are performed by a singer within the storyline rather than merely bolted on. But with such thin characterisation and an usually unsatisfying ending, you do wonder if any of the actors come out of this very well.
A conceited professor of phonetics (Rex Harrison) tasks himself with taking a working-class girl named Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) and educating her sufficiently so that she can pose as a member of high society.
Hepburn and Harrison have plenty of charisma and charm, but pretty much everything else falls flat. Elisa’s dustman father (Stanley Holloway) is an embarrassing disaster. The “chorus” scenes don’t really work, either, and the rather abusive treatment of Elisa is played for laughs in a way that you can’t imagine happening in a modern film. In narrative terms, the two transformative moments – Elisa learning to enunciate and the pair realising they are in love – are both completely thrown away, buried in pointless filler set pieces and side plots that drag out the running time.
I liked Harrison’s talk-sing delivery of his song lyrics. The style almost approaches rap. But beyond a couple of memorable songs, all you’re left with is two talented actors struggling to rise above a drab and tiresome mess.
It’s possibly the weirdest film I’ve ever seen.
The flimsy “plot” is simple: a girl called Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is getting married and wants to invite her father. But she’s unsure which of three possible contenders he is. So she invites them all to the Greek island hotel owned by her mother in order to find out.
Meryl Streep is surprisingly good in the main role, and sings pretty well. Pierce Brosnan comes across oddly and sings badly. Colin Firth is likeable but given little to go on in terms of the script.
Most notable are the visuals. The lighting doesn’t look real and I don’t think it’s even meant to. It creates a kind of multi-coloured hyper-reality of its own. Some of the casting is peculiar, too. Julie Walters seems an odd choice for one of Streep’s best friends, and her “fun-loving” character is coarse and difficult to endure. Even worse is Sky (Dominic Cooper), Sophie’s unappealing fiancé.
I spent most of the film in shock, unsure what I was meant to be thinking or feeling. The Abba songs are great, of course, but did they need to be used to soundtrack a fairly banal romantic comedy?
Shirley MacLaine plays Charity, a dancer who dreams of falling in love. She’s unlucky with a thief and a film star, but then she gets trapped in a lift with the nervous Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin), who she eventually comes to believe really loves her.
It’s extremely unusual. It's big on colour, with the bright pinks and purples of the Batman TV series. There's a bizarre, bolted-on psychedelic interlude featuring Sammy Davis Jr. And there's an intriguing use of stills amid the action.
I was disappointed with the ending, and it was interesting to find an alternative – and superior – conclusion as one of the DVD extras.
Doris Day is compelling and easy to like as the boisterous heroine in this brassy and colourful musical. Howard Keel is less appealing as Bill Hickok – a low, booming voice but not a great deal of charisma. Allyn Ann McLerie is charming as Katie Brown, the would-be singer and actress whose visit to Deadwood changes their lives.
It’s lively and energetic. What makes it fascinating is the approach to gender politics. Calamity has to make herself “acceptable” to men by wearing a pretty dress and getting away from “female thinking”. It’s possibly the most sexist film I’ve ever seen.
Mark Lester plays Oliver Twist, an orphan expelled from a workhouse who falls in with a London group of pickpocket urchins working for the complicated, enigmatic Fagin (Ron Moody). But Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) threatens the safety of their little society with increasingly violent criminal behaviour.
Lester is an odd choice for the main part. He has a girlish voice and little star quality, but somehow he works because of the way the events of the story revolve around him. Far more impressive is Jack Wild as the charismatic Artful Dodger. And Shani Wallis is perfect as the conflicted Nancy, caught between loving Sikes despite everything and wanting to do what's right for Oliver.
The real star of the film is the music. The songs, by Lionel Bart, are distinctive and memorable, and I was amazed how many of them I already knew simply because of their place in popular culture.
It's also good to see Leonard Rossiter as Mr. Sowerberry, even though he has minimal on-screen time.
A widowed matchmaker seeks a husband in (and around) New York in 1895, employing a number of outlandish schemes to secure his affections.
On the down side, with the exception of the annoying title song, none of the music is memorable and the plot is thin indeed. Also, Matthau is so unappealingly grumpy as the millionaire Horace Vandergelder that you can’t imagine why Dolly (or anyone else) would ever want to marry him – however rich he was. Some of the big, lavish set pieces drag on, despite being “technically” impressive.
On the plus side, it improves a little after a slow start. Barbra oozes star quality, as always, and is very funny in her own way. Michael Crawford is exceedingly watchable, too. He demonstrates his “Frank Spencer” physical comedy, but with a silly American accent. Marianne McAndrew is likeable as his love interest, Irene Molloy, and you wonder why she didn’t have a more successful career.
The songs are strong and it’s visually remarkable. Plus, Hugh Jackman is likeable in the central role – even if his character is given an almost Jesus-like level of idealisation. Michelle Williams is less impressive as his wife, mainly because she isn’t fleshed out as a character. You could argue that it’s emotionally shallow, but penetrating psychological drama is not what this film is about. Instead, it’s a big, loud, fast-moving in-your-face spectacle.
It’s a fascinating film because of the way it presents Neil Diamond. Is he credible as a rock star? Not really, but he does have undeniable on-stage charisma. It's not a musical in the Singing in the Rain sense, but it does feature lots of him singing on stage.
My DVD is incredibly grainy and low-res. Probably the film has been remastered since, but the version I have is almost unwatchable.
An American artist falls in love with a woman who is already involved with a man he knows. Meanwhile, a wealthy heiress promotes his art and wants affection in return.
In fact, the plot is almost irrelevant. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, this is really designed as a showcase of extravagant dance set pieces, in which Gene Kelly demonstrates his full range of abilities. The magical/dream sequences take you out of the narrative, but are spectacular in their own right. Most notably, there is a 17-minute impressionistic dance sequence at the very climax of the film, where you might expect there to be some acting.
Aside from Kelly, the leads are played by Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary and Nina Foch. There’s very little that’s “French” about it.
An amiable if inconsequential affair.
It’s an extremely well-told story, with the characters breaking the fourth wall to narrate their history as it’s happening. John Lloyd Young, who was also in the popular stage show, manages to sing with Valli’s distinctive falsetto – a voice that’s both iconic and a little ridiculous. Vincent Piazza plays tough-guy bandmate Tommy DeVito, while Christopher Walken is their gangster friend Gyp DeCarlo – a somewhat romanticised portrait in that you never get to see him do anything nasty (this isn’t a Scorsese film, even if it occasionally reminds you of one).
It rightly puts the music to the fore, and you are left singing classics such as “Sherry”, “Walk Like a Man” and “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!)”. The final dancing-in-the-street sequence appears to emulate the curtain-call section of the musical, and is a blast of good-natured cheer.
Poland. 1904. Barbra wants to study Talmud but it’s forbidden for women. So she poses as a young man and joins a religious school to study in disguise. She befriends a fellow student called Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), who she connects with both academically and emotionally. She falls in love with him, even though he believes she’s a boy. Plus, he’s engaged to marry a woman (Amy Irving).
Unsurprisingly, the situation soon gets messy. There are comic elements, which escalate as the love triangle becomes increasingly complex. The ending disappoints because it seems to be a cop out. Why does Yentl have to choose between love and her studies? If she’s as forward-thinking, intelligent and passionately in love as the film suggests, can’t she find a way to have both? Also, although the film hints at Avigdor’s confused feelings as he becomes increasingly fond of his “male” study companion, it dodges having to deal with the homosexual sub-text. Likewise, when Avigdor’s fiance ends up falling in love with and actually marrying Yentl the film has to juggle lesbianism as well, but coyly backs away from the topic.
The most unusual aspect is the music. Unlike in a standard musical, most of the songs are simply overlaid on top of the action. Only rarely do you see them actually being sung, and even then it’s only Streisand who performs. Maybe it was deliberate, to keep the focus on Barbra, but preventing anyone else from singing serves to compound the fact that none of the other characters can express their inner feelings. As for the music itself, the soundtrack lacks a true “belter” or classic. Not one of the songs stays in your head afterwards.
The songs are strong and memorable. Plus, they work with and within the narrative. They aren’t merely irrelevant add-ons, as is often the case in lesser musicals.
Topol’s warm, well-rounded character is extremely watchable. It's difficult to imagine anyone else filling the part so well or being so funny. He’s rolling his eyes and fourth-walling it constantly. And the device of him talking to God offers a useful way for him to directly address the audience and bring us into his inner world.
Even when the film embraces dream sequences, it works.
There’s plenty of comedy and the script is sharp. The interplay between Streisand and Caan is especially watchable, even if you can never quite believe in their romance. Then again, that may be the point: these characters are rivals rather than soulmates.
The film slightly loses its way in the second half, becoming more of a conventional musical. The point at which Barbra sings from a small biplane is just ludicrous. Likewise, her attempt to sabotage a theatrical rehearsal in a swimming pool by clowning around in the water doesn’t really work as a scene or ring true with the story we’ve started to believe. Another oddity is Roddy McDowall cast as her gay friend Bobby. He hangs around and doesn’t say much in a way that suggests the film doesn’t need him at all.
But at her best, Streisand is hugely charismatic and when she gets a chance to really act – as she does in a few scenes – the results are impressive.
There are several odd things about it. Certain scenes have been lost and are represented on the DVD simply by on-set stills backed by the original audio. It’s very difficult to absorb these parts as part of the narrative.
Also, Judy Garland’s fame as a singer means that the film-makers took every opportunity to cram in more of her singing. The extended “film within a film” interlude doesn’t really work, but it could have done if they’d simply cut back to Norman and Esther’s reactions as they watched the show from the theatre.
Too little happens in the first hour: her talent and his drinking are established in the very first scene, then there’s a lot of filler before that story is picked up again. It’s oddly unbelievable as a romance, and there's very little chemistry between the pair.
On the plus side, the two leads are superb. Mason has just the right mixture of charismatic appeal and troubled “dark side”. You can see and feel his pain as his character declines. And it’s extremely colourful and vivid, with a particular emphasis on red and pink shades. But I was surprised to find that overall it was far less compelling than the Gaga/Cooper remake.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are just perfect as the young, ambitious Los Angeles dreamers who fall in love. He’s a jazz pianist who wants to open his own club. She’s an actress who writes a one-woman play and hopes to be a film star.
The singing, dancing and choreography are a joy. I love the long shots that seem not to have any edits. The colours are bright and vivid. And the on/off relationship plot is strong.
It’s not perfect. Arguably the “magic realism” goes too far on a couple of occasions and takes you too far out of the story, such as when they seem to start flying at the Griffith Observatory. And the two songs packed into the first 10 minutes set it up to be more of a musical than it ends up being, which makes it a little uneven.
It’s certainly more emotional than a standard musical. It’s hugely romantic and ultimately a little sad, while also somehow being uplifting. It was incredibly fresh when it came out and it still feels just as fresh five years on.
