Ten Movies on an Island: Musicals

As promised, here is my first list of my top ten in each movie genre: musicals, westerns, dramas, comedies (screwball/romantic & regular comedies), comedy-drama, horror/ghost/sci-fi, suspense/mystery, biographical, and Disney.

This list will focus on musicals. First of all, what is a musical? According to the definition on Wikipedia, a musical is:

... a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing.

Throughout Hollywood History, the musical has evolved. A musical from the 1930s is not going to be the same as a musical from the 1950s. Over the decades, there have been Operetta's, Horse Operas (that's a Western that's also a musical), the Busby Berkley musicals, biopics about musicians and showmen, Historical costume epics, fantasies, musicals adapted from Broadway productions, rock & roll musicals, beach party musicals... the list goes on.

Now I'm not a huge musicals person (surprising since I love music, sing, and play both the piano and the ukulele).  But I've never been a huge fan of the musicals that typically come to mind when someone says the word "musicals,"  so you will not be finding such classics as Singing in the Rain and Oklahoma! on here.

In picking my films, I did decide on a certain criteria, aside from merely liking it. It had to be a movie that I enjoyed the songs as much as the storyline (aka I actually know most if not all of the songs by heart) and if I looked for it at the library I would find it in the musicals section. So with those two things in mind, here is my list:

1. The Great Ziegfeld (1936) - William Powell

2. The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Judy Garland

3. Ziegfeld Girl (1941) - Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr

4. Girl Crazy (1943) - Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney

5. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Charles Coburn

6. White Christmas (1954) - Bing Crosby & Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye & Vera-Ellen

7. Daddy Long Legs (1955) - Fred Astaire & Leslie Caron

8. My Fair Lady (1964) - Audrey Hepburn & Rex Harrison

9. The Sound of Music (1965) - Julie Andrews & Christopher Plummer

10. Funny Girl (1968) - Barbra Streisand & Omar Shariff

Here is the list I consulted when choosing my Top Ten Musicals. What are your favorites?

Tomorrow, my top ten Westerns!

The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing.. Especially if You're Vera-Ellen!

My all time favorite dance out of every movie that has been made - including the countless ones I haven't even seen yet - is and always will be The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing from the classic holiday film White Christmas (1954).

 



White Christmas is a holiday favorite in my house. My family has watched it every year at Christmas time for as long as I can remember. Vera-Ellen instantly became my idol and I wished I could look like her, dance like her, and sing like her (I discovered that unfortunately it's not Vera-Ellen doing the singing... sigh). For several years Judy was my favorite name (I was also a big Judy Garland fan).

 

I'm going to presume that everyone has seen this not-to-be-missed film and get right to the point: Vera-Ellen's dancing. Let's take each routine individually:

 

Her first "dance," Sisters, Sisters, also where Phil and Bob first lay eyes on the Hanes Sisters (who incidentally have brown and DEEP blue eyes), isn't much of a dance. However, it's a great song and she and Betty (Rosemary Clooney) have awesome dresses (one day I WILL have a replica made):

 

 

The next dance is  The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing, also known as the song where Phil and Judy get "carried away." It has a lot of great things going for it. Amazing dress - check! Partner with two left feet and matching gray shoes - check! Amazing song - check! Great dancing area - check!  

 

I was always trying to twirl and get my skirt to land this way. It never worked :(

 

Pole dancing. The CLASSY way.

 

I love the part on top of the boat!!!

 

What is this, The best two out of three?

 

I could go crazy and basically put up the whole dance in gifs but

hopefully you'll just watch the video. On repeat.

 

After that, the foursome are off to Vermont (it must be wonderful this time of year, all that underwear) where they put on a huge show to bring business to the inn (owned by the fella's former general). The first number we see is Mandy. It's a truly colossal number with an unforgettable entrance, background girls wearing strips of red sequins held together with fabric you can't see (courtesy of Edith Head), men in green suits and red gloves, and Judy in a fabulous outfit with a detachable skirt.

 

(Sorry the video zooms in and out a little weird a couple times. It was the only one on YouTube)

 

It is in this number you really see Vera-Ellen's talent. Just watching some of those moves makes me wince and think, how is that possible? My favorite parts: "Mandy, what a gal!" and Judy's wink to the camera ;) Not to mention Phil doing this:

 

Haha I never noticed Bing :)

 

In Choreography, we get to see Judy do some amazing tapping while dressed in hot pink. Growing up we watch the old recorded VHS (complete with old commercials!) on the square TV and it was just blurry enough that when Judy's feet come down and she starts tapping, we couldn't see her foot moving - that's how small and controlled her tap was! So when we FINALLY got it on DVD we could at last see it! Also, it was this song that made us dislike Judy's dancing partner. How dare he try to steal her from Phil!!

 

Judy's entrance is at 1:38.

 

Out of all the performances, Abraham is the only one that isn't shown in it's final form. Mandy and Choreography are full dress rehearsals and the other two numbers we see, Gee, I Wish I was Back in the Army, and White Christmas, are shown in the actual show. I wonder how it would have looked and if the filmmakers thought about showing it as a "finished" version. Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way. Judy's yellow dress and heels as well as her bouncy hair match perfectly the energetic rhythm of the song.

 

 

 

If you've seen Holiday Inn (1942) - on DVD - then you will recognize the tune, although this is a sped up version without lyrics. In Holiday Inn it was a blackface routine and the lyrics are all about Abraham freeing the slaves. Understandably, it is cut out when shown on television nowadays. It's been a good many years since I've seen it (I wasn't much on Astaire in that film) and I've seen it only once so I didn't even remember it. I just remember thinking I liked the White Christmas version MUCH better.

 

When White Christmas showed in select theaters a couple Christmas's ago, my whole family went. It was amazing how much detail we could see!

 

      

 

   

 

 

 

This post is part of the Gotta Dance! Blogathon, a celebration of dance in film hosted by Classic Reel Girl for National Tap Dance Day. Be sure to read all of the other toe-tapping posts!!

 

Ten Movies on an Island: 1950s Edition

If you thought the 30s and 40s were a time of change in Hollywood, the 1950s was off the charts. With the accessibility of Television, many people were not going out to the movies, but instead, staying home and watching family sitcoms and game shows. When the Supreme Court outlawed block booking (selling groups of five or more films combining A pictures with cheaper B pictures) in 1948, the system began to crumble. Television hastened that end.

In order to lure movie-goers back to the theaters, studios decided it was time to make movies bigger and better. This was the decade of the Epic, the Technicolor Musical, 3-D, CinemaScope, Cinerama, VistaVision. With it came the loosening of the Hays Code, allowing topics back into movies that hadn't been allowed on the screen for two decades. Up popped the Rebel and a host of teen idols.

This list not only has three of my original Five Movies on an Island List, but it is also where my "romantic/girlish pleasure" side comes out. I mean, realistically, how many "Top Ten" lists have Gidget (1959) on them? Not to mention that four of the films have John Wayne in them!

1950s:

1. Rio Grande (1950) - John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara

2. The Quiet Man (1952) - John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara

3. Roman Holiday (1953) - Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert

4. White Christmas (1954) - Bing Crosby & Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye & Vera-Ellen

5. Mister Roberts (1955) - Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, William Powell, James Cagney

6. We're No Angels (1955) - Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray

7. The Searchers (1956) - John Wayne

8. Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) - Debbie Reynolds & Leslie Neilson

9. Gidget (1959) - Sandra Dee & James Darren, Cliff Robertson

10. Rio Bravo (1959) - John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan

Honorable Mentions: Sunset Boulevard (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951), Son of Paleface (1952), The Robe (1953), Sabrina (1954), Until They Sail (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958), Pillow Talk (1959), Who Was That Lady? (1959).

Tomorrow, my Top Ten films of the 1960s!

Movie House Love

Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn in Holiday (1938).

Do you often catch yourself drooling over the houses in classic films? Do you take screenshots of rooms when watching a movie because you can't help yourself. Do you find yourself liking a film more for the house than for the plot? Then Hooked on Houses is a site you need to check out!

I discovered Hooked on Houses early on in my blogging experience (which has only been a few years) and it is one that I have gone to time and time again. Julia's site, which has updates on movie houses up for sale (movie star homes and houses that were used in films), has a page dedicated especially to movie homes. Each house featured has screenshots galore as well as interesting tidbits, like what other films it was used for or what it looks like now (if it's an actual house and not a set). Here are just some of the films she has covered (new ones added all the time):

Bringing Up Baby

Christmas in Connecticut

Leave Her to Heaven

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Mrs. Miniver

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Meet Me in St. Louis

Pollyanna

Holiday Inn

White Christmas

It's a Wonderful Life

Mr. Blanding's Builds His Dream House

 

And more!!!

 

I hope you will check out her site soon! You will be glad you did :)

Directors of Christmas Movies

                  

We watch them every year but aside from Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (and probably Michael Curtiz's White Chirstmas and Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner), you may not notice or recognize the director of your favorite Christmas films. In this post I am going to tell you who directed each of the most famous Christmas films and what other major films they directed. *This is not a complete list of Christmas films, just some of the better known or my personal favorites.

As I already mentioned, Capra and Curtiz need no introduction, but did you know the director of Christmas in Connecticut (1945) was Peter Godfrey? I certainly didn't recognize his name. I looked him up and discovered he was London born and directed two other great Stanwyck films (which I will be looking at for the Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon later this month) The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)and Cry Wolf (1947).

 

George Seaton directed the much loved Miracle on 34th Street (1947) but did you know he also directed The Country Girl (1954)? He also directed 36 Hours (1964), a James Garner film I discovered this year.

The director of The Bishop's Wife (1947) was Henry Koster, born in Berlin. He directed many well-known films, including The Inspector General (1949), Harvey (1950), and The Robe (1953), to name a few.

Holiday Affair (1949) is one of the lesser known holiday films starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh. It was directed by Don Hartman. He only directed five films total, but was the writer of many popular films, including quite a few for Bob Hope.

Remember the Night (1940), another Stanwyck film, was written by Preston Sturges but directed by Mitchell Leisen. His 50 credits include a couple Lombard films, Midnight (1939), and many other romantic comedies.

Bachelor Mother (1939) was directed by Garson Kanin, who directed My Favorite Wife (1940) and who wrote the Tracy/Hepburn films Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952).

Lastly, Holiday Inn (1942), which introduced perhaps the most popular Christmas song of all time, "White Christmas," was directed by Mark Sandrich, who has 76 credits beginning in 1926 and ending in 1946 (his death). His name will be familiar to all who love the Astaire/Rogers films.