The Musicals List REDUX

[Lowry_Sam]

Heads up to anyone in SF Bay area this month, Stanford Theatre is featuring Fox musicals this month:

September 11-13
Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) 7:30 (plus 3:45 Sat/Sun)
Tin Pan Alley (1940) 5:45, 9:30

September 18-20
Moon Over Miami (1941) 7:30 (plus 4:05 Sat/Sun)
Down Argentine Way (1940) 5:50, 9:15

September 25-27
Sun Valley Serenade (1941) 7:30 (plus 4:00 Sat/Sun)
Orchestra Wives (1942) 5:40, 9:10

[domino harvey]

Orchestra Wives is the best of those I’ve seen from that lot. With a few exceptions Fox is not a great studio for musicals. I just slogged through my remaining titles from the Carmen Miranda box set and while it’s amusing to see how she was seen by the studio track across the films (from featured novelty act to literal second banana comic relief counting down to her contract not getting renewed), these aren’t very good (and I don’t need to see three Perry Como movies in a row ever). Doll Face fared best for basically riffing on Gypsy, I guess, but Miranda barely factors into it and most of the movies in the box devoted to her

[domino harvey]

Revisited Good News recently and for the first time watched the deleted musical number, "An Easier Way," included on the DVD, and wow, this is up there as one of the great travesties of cut songs in the history of the genre (The one-shot "Is It a Crime?" always comes to mind for me as the quintessential unjustly scrapped number, especially since it's better than anything else found in Bells Are Ringing). Had it stayed in, it would easily be the second best number in the film (nothing could possibly top "Pass the Peace Pipe"). It would have also tipped the scales back into June Allyson's favor, as her other solo songs are pretty forgettable. I couldn't find it on YouTube, so sorry, you'll have to dig out your discs to watch it, but wanted to put it on y'all's radar in case like me you didn't realize it was lurking there

Someone did God’s work - I reiterate, what was MGM thinking?!

[Beloved Aunt]

I love that song and I haven't even seen the movie. & I agree, I would like to know why the hell it was cut!! (I hope it wasn't because it is a mildly sexual song, maybe related to June Allyson's or someone's preferences re: her public image, but I can't think of any other reason.)

It would have also tipped the scales back into June Allyson's favor, as her other solo songs are pretty forgettable.

Are the other, non-Peace Pipe songs in the film that aren't June Allyson solos at least better than average?

[domino harvey]

It’s one of the best musicals, so yes! Varsity Drag (which basically got copied every time someone made a college musical the same way An American in Paris inspired all those closing ballets), French Lesson, Be a Ladies Man, Lucky in Love off the top of my head

[soundchaser]

Against my expectations, I've found another 50s MGM film to sit in the lower ranks of my list - the surprisingly quick-witted and bizarrely horny Two Weeks with Love. I'm not sure it has all that much to say about being a woman, or being a child on the cusp of adulthood; but it's certainly trying its best to discuss both. Jane Powell is fine as the eldest daughter, but it's a young Debbie Reynolds playing proto-Kimmy-Gibbler who steals every scene she's in. She definitely gets the best numbers here in "Aba Daba Honeymoon" and "Row, Row, Row" - her chemistry with Carleton Carpenter is infectious. No wonder MGM sent the two of them on a tour to promote the thing. (Not the only Carpenter to come up in the discussion my partner and I had after; we both agreed Powell's look here bears a striking resemblance to a recent pop star Sabrina.)

[Matt]

Another convert! I had this at #14 on my original list, in between two other Jane Powell musicals (Hit the Deck and Royal Wedding). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was #2, and I'll probably find room for Small Town Girl in this new list, so I'll end up with 10% of my list being Powell (yet still far less than Judy Garland).

Gangly Carleton Carpenter is always a welcome sight in a film, even though there's so little of him—he was in 10 films over 5 years and then not much after. He's got the great "a couple of Cokes" scene with Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride, and his other classic musical number with Reynolds—"I Wanna Be Loved by You" in Three Little Words—though Reynolds is dubbed there.