Musical Documentaries - Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music

Warner Bros, 1970

Starring Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Richie Havens, and many, many others

Directed by Michael Wadleigh

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's jump back a few months to August 1969 and head cross-country to upstate New York for our next iconic concert. This one began simply as a couple of wealthy guys who were trying to build a recording studio and put on a concert to finance it. They expected maybe 50,000 people to show up at the farm field in Bethel, New York after selling almost $200,000 worth of tickets. After they weren't able to set up a fence in time, they changed it to a free event...and that brought over 450,000 rock fans and counterculture flower children on board. 

Warners took a chance filming what was seen by outsiders as disruptive or damaging, but the movie ended up being one of the biggest hits that year. Why was it so popular, as a festival and as a movie? Let's begin with the arrival of all those flower children over Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Long Time Gone" and Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country" and find out...

The Story: It's peace, love, and some of the best rock music ever as those 450,000 rock fans, flower children, and bemused residents and farmers in Bethel speak about what's going on with their generations. Despite the heavy rain storms, traffic jams, drug use, lack of food and sanitation, and just plain poor organization, almost everyone ends up having a groovy time.

The Song and Dance: I've had the first soundtrack album for years, and I still think the performances here are incredible. This is the inverse of Gimme Shelter, capturing a far happier and more peaceful counterculture just before it imploded. The only fights are with Mother Nature and the lack of food. People were probably too caught up in the awesome music to fight. Everyone from The Who to Jimi Hendrix to 50's rock revival group Sha-Na-Na put in some of their best live performances. Wadleigh and his crew managed to capture a moment, when flower children swam naked in clear ponds and the world was all right.

Favorite Number: The first actual performance isn't until 20 minutes in, but it's R&B legend Richie Havens with "Handsome Johnny," the totally improvised "Freedom." and the spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Canned Heat gives their first actual performance next, "A Change Is Gonna Come." A pregnant Joan Baez wows the crowd and impressed me with "Joe Hill" and "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." The Who roar into action next with two songs from their rock opera Tommy, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "See Me, Feel Me," along with the classic "Summertime Blues." In a bit of serendipity only Mother Nature could plan, "See Me" starts just as the sun comes up, rising like the words in the song.

Sha-Na-Na was an odd choice for this, but that doesn't stop them from tearing up the stage with "At the Hop." Joe Cocker manages to slide in his full-throttle soul version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" right before the rain starts. The audience gets in on the show next with their "Crowd Rain Chant" in an attempt to end the storms. 

Once the bad weather passes, the music resumes with Country Joe and the Fish's "Rock and Soul Music." Arlo Guthrie also covers the weather with "Coming Into Los Angeles." We get some literal epic rocking from Crosby, Stills, and Nash with their "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home." Jefferson Airplane also really rocks with their "Saturday Afternoon," "Won't You Try," and "Uncle Sam's Blues." 

John Sebastian wasn't originally supposed to play at all - he was at Woodstock for the show - but he got the kids in the audience dancing along as he sung about the "Younger Generation." He and Country Joe covered for missing artists, Country Joe with "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag." They even gave the audience a follow the bouncing ball segment for Country Joe's song. 

Janis Joplin only has one song on the Director's Cut, but her performance of "Work Me, Lord" remains raw and real. " Santana and his band do equally well with another epic rocker, "Soul Sacrifice." Sly and the Family Stone have a blast with "Dance to the Music" and "I Wanna Take You Higher." Jimi Hendrix is the last act before the movie ends....and what a send off despite the sparse crowds, with his famous version of "The Star Spangled Banner," along with the hits "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," "Purple Haze," and "Villanova Junction." Crosby, Stills, and Nash return over the end credits and the sights of what all those humans did to that field with the title song and "Find the Cost of Freedom." 

Trivia: Won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1970 and was nominated for Best Sound and Best Editing.

Among the groups invited to perform who declined or couldn't show were The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Chicago, The Guess Who, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Tommy James and the Shondells, Joni Mitchell, and Iron Butterfly.

The concert got so big, and they were so short of food and sanitation, the Governor of New York almost called the National Guard in. 

Credence Clearwater Revival, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, Sweetwater, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and The Grateful Dead are among those bands who played Woodstock but aren't on the original or Director's cut of the film. (Some of their performances are included in bonus features on the DVD and Blu-Ray sets.) 

The organizers of the event didn't make money on the festival itself, but they did finally earn a small profit when the film and its soundtrack were among the biggest critical and financial hits of 1970. 

What I Don't Like: Like Gimme Shelter, this concert is for adults only. Bad language, including F-bombs, are tossed around frequently, and drug use and naked bodies are everywhere. We also get a look at the devastation wrought on Max Yeager's farm afterwards, when everyone is cleaning up mountains of trash and refuse from those 450,000 bodies. Not to mention, the movie does run almost four hours in its director's cut. 

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of classic rock, concert documentaries, or any of the bands involved and have time on your hands, you owe to yourself to check out this look at a time when peace, love, and the power of rock and roll truly conquered all. 

Home Media: The Director's Cut that I based this review on is easily found on all formats, often for under $10. 

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La La Land

Lionsgate/Summit, 2016

Starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, and J.K Simmons

Directed by Damien Chazelle

Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyrics by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, John Legend, and Marius de Vries

This week, we return to the here and now with two recent hit musicals about musicians, actors, the creative process, and how hard it can be to make it in show business. Director Chazelle based this on his years as a jazz drummer when he originally wrote it in 2010. He had a hard time getting backing for it until the success of his music drama Whiplash in 2014 gave him more clout. 

On its debut during Christmas 2016, it was hailed as a breathtaking masterpiece and one of the best films of the year. Does it remain so almost a decade after its debut? Let's begin with the Cinemascope banner that hadn't been used since 1967 and people stuck in LA freeway traffic and find out...

The Story: Among those stuck on the freeway are jazz musician Sebastian "Seb" Wilder (Gosling) and Mia Dolan (Stone). Seb plays piano in local restaurants, but what he really wants is to open his own jazz club. Mia is an actress, but she keeps getting disregarded or ignored at auditions. They initially meet when she tries to compliment him on his playing, but he brushes her off after being fired by the manager of his latest gig (Simmons). 

They connect again at a party where Seb's playing 80's rock with a cover band. Though Mia teases Seb, they do end up spending the evening together. One date turns into many, and they fall in love with each other as they explore Los Angeles She writes a one-woman show, while he gets a job in a jazz club, and then a jazz-rock fusion band with a friend (Legend). Her play isn't a success, but it does snare her one last audition. Even as he tells her about it, they realize that, no matter what happens, they'll always love each other...but in truth, they love their dreams more. 

The Song and Dance: No doubt about it, this is a gorgeous film to look at. The searing color almost literally bursts from the screen, especially in the epic opening number "Another Day In the Sun" and in the closing fantasy sequence. LA probably hasn't looked this good on film since the 50's. It really does look like a "city of stars," with its long, romantic cliffs, smoky blue jazz bars, and wild neon parties. 

Stone deserved her Oscar win as Mia, the adorable movie-lover whose determination to be an actress teaches her that sometimes, you need to step out of the box a little to find what you want in life and relationships. Terrific music, too. "City of Stars" won an Oscar and "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" was nominated, but my favorite is the iconic "A Lovely Night" dance at twilight, on the cliff overlooking a dreamy LA.

Favorite Number: We open with a typical Los Angeles traffic jam that becomes "Another Day In the Sun" as those trapped in it sing about their dreams, hopes, and desires in a rolliking chorus routine. Mia's friends convince her to come out clubbing with them and find "Someone In the Crowd" who catches her eye. "Take On Me" and "I Ran" are performed by the 80's cover band at the party. The lead singer especially throws himself into "Take On Me." "A Lovely Night" isn't so lovely at first for Mia and Sebastian as they complain about wasting a nice night with each other before going into their rousing tap dance. "Planetarium" is an instrumental number that turns into a dance in the stars when Mia and Sebastian waltz around the Griffith Observatory's theater. 

"City of Stars" turns up twice, as a solo for Sebastian on Hermosa Beach Pier following "Lovely Night" and a duet for him and Mia later showing him going on tour with his friend Keith's jazz fusion band and her renting the theater for her one-woman play. "Start a Fire" is the number with Keith's band, a strong pop-jazz melange with Sebastian playing a neon piano while ladies sing around Keith. "The Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" is Mia's heart rendering solo as she explains in tears to the producers why this dream is so important to her. "Epilogue" becomes a fantasy for Mia when she and her husband turns up at Sebastian's jazz club and she sees him play their love theme and wonders "what might have been" in an epic imagine spot.

Trivia: Mostly filmed on location in the real Los Angeles, including the Colorado Street Bridge, the Griffith Observatory, the Grand Central Market, the Watts Towers, and the Warner Bros Studio Lot. 

The historic Angels Flight funicular mountain train had been shut down for four years when it was reopened to film the Summer Montage sequence. It would resume service in 2017. 

It was shot on film, rather than digital, to give it the look of 50's and early 60's Technicolor movies like An American In Paris and the French Umbrellas of Cherbourg. 

A stage version was announced last year. 

Along with the Oscars for Best Song and Best Actress, it also picked up awards for Best Director, Cinematography, Production Design, and Score. 

What I Don't Like: Like Moulin Rouge, another director's bold vision of musical romance, this isn't for everyone. Sebastian can come off like a major jerk, obsessing over the past while not giving the present much of a chance. Neither Gosling nor Stone are the strongest singers and dancers in the universe, though that sort of works with their struggling characters. His friend Keith is painted as wrong for wanting to push jazz into the 21st century, but he does have a point. Music has to evolve to survive. 

"Another Day In the Sun" doesn't have much to do with the film, other than foreshadowing it being about young hopefuls in LA, and it's such a strong opening that the rest of the movie often has a hard time matching it. I understand the bittersweet finale a little bit better this time around than I did the first time I watched this in 2017, but it still feels a little off with the rest of the movie.

The Big Finale: If you love jazz, bittersweet romances, or the movies this is referring to, you'll want to head down to that "city of stars" and experience the Technicolor, Cinemascope magic for yourself.

Home Media: As a very popular and relatively recent movie, this is easily found in all formats, often for under $10. 

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A Salute to Doris Day - Love Me or Leave Me

MGM, 1955
Starring Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, and Robert Keith
Directed by Charles Vidor
Music by Nicholas Brodzsky and others; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn and others

First of all, this is my last review for the next week and a half. I'll be on vacation from tomorrow through Thursday, May 23rd, which is when regular reviews will resume.

Though she's best-known for her comedies, Day could be a credible dramatic actress when called on to be. Probably her best-known foray into drama was this mid-50's hit, one of her two pairings with James Cagney. This dark gangster musical is unusual territory for MGM, who usually preferred their musicals on the fluffy side. The gamble paid off - it won Best Writing at the Oscars and received a truckload of good reviews for Cagney and Day. Let's head to a dance hall in Chicago during the Roaring 20's to see if it's worthy of that acclaim...

The Story: Ruth Etting (Day) may work in a dance hall, but she has every intention of going places. She catches the eye of Chicago big shot Martin "The Gimp" Snyder (Cagney) when she kicks a customer who's getting fresh. He's smitten with her and promises that he'll get her into the big time. He starts with pushing her into a nightclub act, then a stage show when the regular act gets drunk. He wants her to go to Miami with him, but she insists she's not anyone's  plaything and declines. He's initially angry, but eventually gets her and her loyal pianist Johnny Alderman (Mitchell) first a radio show of her own, then a spot in the Ziegfeld Follies. Ruth may be doing well, but Snyder isn't. Each move takes him further and further away from his accustomed turf, and puts Ruth's career further out of his control.

She marries him out of gratitude, even though she doesn't love him. It turns out to be a mistake. He becomes increasingly jealous and violent as he micromanages every aspect of her life and career, from her radio show to her recordings. Tired of being told he's riding her success, he opens his own nightclub. She's making movies in Hollywood and is renewing her feelings for Johnny, who returns them. Martin doesn't like this at all...and the resulting shooting and scandal would damage Etting's career and make her realize that, no matter how much she appreciates what Martin did for her, she can't live with his abuse anymore.

The Song and Dance: This is familiar turf for Cagney, one of his last gangster roles...but who knew Day could be this tough? She matches him snarl for snarl in what's probably one of her best performances as the singer who will do anything to further her career. Cagney's just as good as the gangster who refuses to admit that he's in over his head in show business. Keith's also excellent as Snyder's friend and Etting's agent Bernie Loomis.

MGM spared no expense on this one. The costumes are gorgeous, especially early-on, when they're still running with the twenties flapper aesthetic. The movie was shot in Cinemascope, and it looks great.

Favorite Number: Day's famous "Shakin' the Blues Away," the sole chorus number, really benefits from the wider screen, with wind machines and chorus boys in tuxes and canes flanking Day. Her other songs are mostly sung behind a microphone or a piano. "Ten Cents a Dance" was an Etting staple, and Day knocks it out of the park in the other major stage number. Her "I'll Never Stop Loving You" (which was Oscar-nominated) gets a tender run-through late in the film, when she's realized how much she loves Johnny.

Trivia: Spencer Tracy was originally going to play Martin, but turned down the role. Ava Gardner and Jane Russell were considered for Etting until Cagney suggested Day.

Unlike earlier singer biographies such as Lillian Russell, this one at least somewhat sticks to the facts. Etting really did marry Snyder to further her career, and she really was a popular singer in the late 20's and early 30's who appeared briefly in the Ziegfeld Follies, had her own radio show, and recorded dozens of hits. Snyder really did control her career that much, even starting fights and pulling pranks backstage at her shows.

The shooting scandal, however, was even nastier than what they depicted here. Johnny was married with children at the time, and Martin actually threatened them along with him. His wife even sued Etting for damages - it was dropped in 1939. Etting married Johnny after he recovered, and they happily retired to Colorado Springs for the rest of their lives.

What' I Don't Like: Despite the happy ending, this is not a feel-good movie. Those who are expecting Day's usual fizzy comedies will likely be baffled. These are not the nicest people, even Etting, and some harrowing scenes of verbal and physical abuse makes it hard to watch occasionally towards the end.

The Big Finale: If you're looking for a different Day or are a fan of her, Cagney, or gangster tales, you'll want to give this one a try.

Home Media: As one of Day's biggest hit musicals, this is easily found on all formats; the Blu-Ray is available from the Warner Archives.

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A Salute to Doris Day - Calamity Jane

Warner Bros, 1953
Starring Doris Day, Howard Keel, Allyn Ann McLerie, and Phillip Carey
Directed by David Butler
Music by Sammy Fain; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster

In honor of Doris Day, who passed away today at age 97, my last reviews before my vacation hiatus will be devoted to two of her most popular musical vehicles. She appeared in movie musicals for Warners years before she starred in her famous series of romantic comedies in the late 50's and 60's. Today, this movie is probably best known for the Oscar-winning ballad "Secret Love," but there's a lot more to this girl-power western than a sweet tune. How much more? Let's take a stagecoach to Deadwood City in Dakota Territory to find out...

The Story: Calamity Jane (Day) is the toughest-talking, hardest-drinking "shotgun" messenger (stagecoach guard) in the Dakota Territory. She's got a ton of tall tales to tell about  her exploits fighting outlaws and Indians off the coach, and she's always as good as her word. When she tells the boys she'll go to Chicago to get a famous actress to play at the Golden Garter Saloon, she does it. Turns out that the actress is on her way to Europe. What Calamity finds is Katie Brown (McLerie), her maid, who wants to be a performer. Calamity can't tell one bustle-wearin' female from another and brings Katie back to Deadwood.

The boys aren't happy about the switch at first, but Katie wins them over with her girlish charm and sweet voice. She even gains two suitors in the handsome cavalry officer Lieutenant Daniel Gilmartin (Carey) and Calamity's guy friend Wild Bill Hickock (Keel). She and Calamity move in together; she helps her fix up her tumbledown cabin and gives her a dress to wear. They attend a ball with the menfolk to show off Calamity's new, daintier style. That lasts for barely ten minutes before she catches Gilmartin and Katie kissing. Calamity has had her eye on Gilmartin, and she's angry enough to threaten Katie there and at the Saloon. After Bill tells her that he defended Katie during her act, she realizes that he's really her "secret love," and she has to keep Katie from leaving town.

The Song and Dance: It's rare to see a strong female hero in a western even nowadays, never mind in the 50's. Day's Calamity may be willing to submit to Katie's "Woman's Touch," but in a refreshing turn, she never quite loses her tomboyish spirit. Indeed, she wears simple western trousers and a lacy blouse during her "Secret Love" number, showing that while she have embraced her feminine side, she's going to do it her way. She and Keel make a nifty couple; she's even better with the tougher-than-she-looks McLerie. Dick Wesson has some funny moments as a tenderfoot actor whom the owner of the Golden Garter mistakes for an actress due to his feminine name, Francis.

Favorite Number: The opening "Whip-Crack Away/Very Good Friend of Mine" smoothly takes us from Calamity on the stagecoach to Deadwood City to the discovery of the mistake with Francis in an extended musical sequence that's a smooth and robust way to kick things off. Calamity and Bill express their antagonistic friendship in "I Can Do Without You." Wesson's drag number, "A Hive Full of Honey," when he's trying to convince the audience in the saloon that he's a woman, is hilarious.

The standard here is "Secret Love," the simple and lovely ballad Day sings towards the end of the movie, after she's realized that she really cares about Bill. The number that goes along with it is equally simple and sweet, just Day beautifully performing the song in a glowing Technicolor valley.

Trivia: The real Calamity Jane did have many adventures, and she was inclined to tell tall tales...but it's not really known what her actual relationship with Wild Bill Hickcock was. Historians say they were likely just acquaintances and Calamity exaggerated their relationship, the way she did many of her stories.

There's a stage version of this one around. It hasn't made Broadway at press time, but it did turn up on TV in 1963 with Carol Burnett as Calamity and in London's West End.

What I Don't Like: At times, this feels like it was cobbled together from other, better-known musical westerns. "I Can Do Without You" sounds like "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun, which also provides the general idea of a musical about a famous female sharpshooter. "Just Blew from the Windy City" bears more than a passing resemblance to "Everything's Up to Date In Kansas City" from Oklahoma. Carey's Gilmartin is so dull, he barely registers, making you wonder exactly what the ladies see in him.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of Day or musical westerns, this is a whip-cracking good tale that Calamity herself might have approved of.

Home Media: As one of Day's most popular musical vehicles, this is easy to find in all formats, including Blu-Ray and on several streaming services.

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Bohemian Rhapsody

20th Century Fox, 2018
Starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, and Ben Hardy
Directed by Bryan Singer
Music and Lyrics by Brian May, Freddie Mercury, and Queen

Our second rock musical of the week is last year's biography of Freddie Mercury, the dynamic lead singer of the 70's-80's hard rock band Queen. I've been a fan of theirs since I first heard the title song in the early 90's. Does the movie live up to their legendary and ferocious on-stage presence? Let's head to a pub in London in 1970, where rock history is about to be made, and find out...

The Story: Indian refugee Farrokah "Freddie" Bulsara (Malek) spends his nights in a pub in London, listening to the band Smile. He befriends Brian May (Lee) and groupie Mary Austin (Boynton), then offers to join the group when their original singer quits. Impressed by his vocal prowess, they agree to let him in. He pushes the group to bigger and better things, selling their touring van to record their debut album. When their sound engineer Roy Thomas Baker (Tim Plester) gives a representative from EMI Records their demos, he offers to sign them for a contract with agent John Reid (Aidan Gillien). They do have a hit with "Killer Queen" (which gives the band its name), but ultimately leave EMI when they refuse to release the 6-minute epic "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single. Freddie manages to get it on the radio anyway, where it becomes one of their biggest hits.

While Queen continues as one of the biggest rock bands of the disco-saturated late 70's, all is not well with Mercury. Having privately come out as homosexual, he amiably breaks up with Mary and begins a relationship with his personal manager Paul Prenter (Allen Leech). His is the rock star lifestyle of parties, drugs, and debauchery, and while his performances remain electric, his relationship with the rest of the band is starting to deteriorate. Matters come to a head when he fires John Reid without asking the others and the band does the video for their single "I Want to Break Free" in drag, getting them banned from MTV. He finally does go solo in the early 80's...but realizes how important music, Mary, and his bandmates are when they're offered a gig with Live Aid, a concert to support HIV/AIDS awareness, that Paul refuses to tell him about.

The Song and Dance: Malek studied long and hard to get Mercury's mannerisms down right. It paid off. He's a perfectly swaggering, sexy Mercury, deserving every bit of his Oscar win this past February. Boyton also does well as his understanding girlfriend and long-time best friend Mary. The movie ably recreates some of their finest performances; the Live-Aid concert is so convincing, it makes me wish I wasn't 6 years old at the time and had actually been able to see it for real.

Favorite Number: "Killer Queen" in particular is fabulous; they must have knocked the British kids' socks off on the BBC's music show Tops of the Pops. It's really neat to see how "Bohemian Rhapsody" came about, and "I Want to Break Free" is campy fun. Heck, the movie is worth seeing just to catch the amazing 4-song Live Aid concert at the end; Malek is on fire, and the performances are incredible.

What I Don't Like: Most critics have complained loudly about the historical inaccuracies. Mercury had known members of the band before he met them at the pub, and he'd mentioned joining before then. The EMI executive Ray Foster (Mike Myers) who turned down "Bohemian Rhapsody" is based after Ray Featherstone, and he did like the band. Mercury didn't meet Mary at a pub the same night he met the band, and many details of his relationships with her, Paul, and his later boyfriend Jim Hutton (Aaron McCuster) are glossed over. He didn't find out that he had AIDS until probably around 1986, well after Live Aid. The band never broke up as depicted, and May and Taylor released solo albums long before Mercury did.

Actually, the movie's biggest problem is it's a mess of cliches that aren't that far removed from Lillian Russell and Look for the Silver Lining. Pretty much every biographical trope you can think of is here, from how the band meets to Mercury's drug-fueled out with the group to their triumphant return. Not to mention, Malek is so good in his role, everyone else - including his band mates - pretty much pale besides him.

The Big Finale: For all the critics' carping, enough Queen fans came out to make this one of the biggest hits of 2018...and yeah, I mostly enjoyed it too. If you love Queen and their music or want to see Malek's Oscar-winning turn as one of British rock's great characters, you'll want to grab a guitar and give this one a look.

Home Media: As one of the biggest hits of 2018 about a hugely popular rock group, it goes without saying that this one is easily found in all formats.

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Animation Celebration Saturday - The Princess and the Frog

Disney, 2009

Starring Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, and Jennifer Cody

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman

I'm doing this one in honor of Mardi Gras earlier this month. This was Disney's return to traditional animation and princesses after both fell out of favor in the late 90's, and their first African-American princess. Although it did well enough at the time, it was by no means a smash, especially having been released just a week before the record-breaking Avatar. How does the story of a hard-working waitress and a spoiled prince hold up a decade later? Let's head way down to New Orleans and find out...

The Story: Tiana (Rose) is a waitress in 1926 New Orleans who works hard in two diners, hoping to open her own restaurant like she and her late father (Terrance Howard) dreamed of. Her slightly ditzy best friend Charlotte LaBouff (Cody) is over the moon when she learns that Prince Naveen of Maldonia (Campos) is going to be staying with her and her father "Big Daddy" LaBouff (John Goodman). Naveen is more interested in her money. He's a high-living playboy whose parents cut him off without a cent until he can figure out what to do with himself. He's an easy mark for Dr. Facilier (David), the Shadow Man, a voodoo magician who intends to use him to get Big Daddy's money. He turns Prince Naveen into a frog and his valet Lawrence (Peter Bartlett) into Naveen, sending him to a ball at Big Daddy's mansion. 

Meanwhile, Tiana's got her own problems. The men who were supposed to sell her the mill she wanted for her restaurant offered it to a higher bidder. Naveen mistakes the gown Charlotte gave her for a princess dress and kisses her...turning them both into frogs. They flee into the bayou, where they encounter frog hunters, love-sick firefly Ray (Jim Cummings), trumpet-playing crocodile Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), and voodoo priestess Mama Odie (Jennifer Lewis). They have to get back to New Orleans in time for Charlotte to kiss Naveen back to his human form...but Naveen is starting to have second thoughts about the whole "marry for money" thing, and Facilier is still after them.

The Animation: I really wish Disney would do hand-drawn animation more often. Their work here was gorgeous, especially in the bayou, with its shadowy light and glowing colors. The sequences with Facilier are appropriately creepy as well, especially in his musical sequences and when he lures Naveen and Lawrence in. 

The Song and Dance: Tiana is one of my favorite Disney princesses, and her strong character really anchors the movie. Absolutely nothing stops her, including witch doctors, obnoxious and racist real estate dealers, and hillbilly frog hunters, and Rose really does well with her. Cody as Charlotte, the ultimate man-hungry blonde, almost steals the movie and gets some of the best lines. I also like Ray the love-sick firefly; Cummings is warm and likable, and makes his unusual romance almost believable. He and Louis are not only funny sidekicks who actually move the plot forward, but Ray's sacrifice is one of the most touching things I've ever seen in an animated film. 

Dr. Facilier is one Disney's spookiest villains, and the voodoo aspects just heighten the horror. He's charming and witty, but his charm hides sinister intentions. Disney doesn't often mess around with "the other side"; his death is one of the scariest in any Disney movie.

Favorite Number: I love "Way Down In New Orleans," performed by Big Easy native Dr. John in the opening and closing sequence. It makes an appropriately jazzy intro to what's about to come. Tiana's "Almost There" is her rousing "I Want" song, detailing in some nifty Art Deco-influenced animation how she'll run her own place. "When We're Human" is a fun ensemble song in the bayou. David's "Friends on the Other Side" is appropriately creepy, and Cummings "Ma Belle Evangeline" is a lovely ballad.

Trivia: "Way Down In New Orleans" and "Almost There" were nominated for Oscars in 2010; they lost to "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart. It was also nominated for Animated Feature, but lost to Up. 

What I Don't Like: As much as I love Tiana, her story is a bit cliched. It feels like a retread of earlier Disney princess tales, including Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. Prince Naveen is thankfully far from bland earlier princes, but he can also be a bit obnoxious, especially in the beginning. And what was with the sequence with the hillbilly frog hunters towards the middle of the movie? Not only does it do nothing but pad out the movie and contribute a few bits of slapstick, but they're annoying hillbilly stereotypes. There's also complaints about Tiana's "balancing work and play" moral being pushed a bit too hard, and the fact that she can come off as a bit subdued next to the very funny Charlotte.

The Big Finale: This may not have been the instant masterpiece Disney was hoping for when it came out, but it is an enjoyable musical with a strong heroine, one of Randy Newman's better scores, and a diverse cast. If you or your elementary-school age girls are fans of other princess tales or historical fantasies, give this Big Easy fairy tale a try.

Home Media: As one of Disney's most recent animated movies, this is quite easily found in all formats, including most streaming companies.

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Oscar Winners - Chicago (2002)

Miramax, 2002
Starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifa, and Richard Gere
Directed by Rob Marshall
Music by John Kander; Lyrics by Fred Ebb

We end our Oscar Winners series where we began it, with a pair of ambitious dancers in the Roaring 20's who are hoping to become the next big thing. These girls, however, aren't merely willing to rely on a fiancee or business smarts to get them to the big time - they're ready to literally kill for their chance in the spotlight. How does the tale of two murderesses who hire a shady lawyer to get their names "in the papers" look nowadays? Let's head backstage at a vaudeville theater in the titular Windy City and find out...

The Story: Housewife Roxie Hart (Zellweger) longs for a career on the stage. She thinks Fred Casley (Dominic West), who claims to know the manager of a theater, is her ticket to the big time. She's so angry when she discovers he lied about his connections to get her in bed, she shoots him. Turns out another dancer she'd been admiring at the theater, Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones), is also guilty of murder, having killed her sister and husband when she found them in bed together.

They end up in the infamous Murderess' Row, run by corrupt Mama Morton (Queen Latifa). Morton suggests Billy Flynn (Gere) take Roxie's case. He turns her into a good girl gone bad and makes her the sensation of Chicago. Roxie's desperate to keep her name in the headlines and herself out of the hangman's noose...but while she and Billy may be able to fool the courts and reporter Mary Sunshine (Christine Baranski), they may not be able to keep fooling a public that's craving the next big thing.

The Song and Dance: The original Broadway show debuted in 1975, but ended up being overshadowed by the runaway success of A Chorus Line. Audiences found it too cynical and downbeat at the time, despite several of the songs becoming popular. There were no such problems when it was revived in 1996; if anything, the advent of the internet, and later, social media, that covered celebrities' every move had made the show's points about the fleetingness of fame more relevant than ever.

Zeta-Jones won an Oscar as the amoral Velma Kelly; Queen Latifa and John C. Reilly were nominated for supporting awards as Mama Morton and Roxie's sad-sack husband Amos. Lucy Liu is fun in a cameo as another murderess who killed her lover and his two mistresses, and Gere's having a wonderful time as crafty Billy Flynn. The great costumes and sets do a wonderful job of contrasting the gritty world of the prison and backstage with the glittering, glamorous vaudeville going on in Roxie's head.

Favorite Number: In addition to the big opener "All That Jazz" that introduces us to the show in Roxie's mind and Velma Kelly, two of the film's big dance routines, the sexy "Cell Block Tango" and Gere's "Razzle Dazzle" with the spangled chorus girls, have become nearly iconic today. Latifa and Reilly score with their big solos, "When You're Good to Mama" and the sad-clown "Mr. Cellophane." Gere also gets a good solo, once again with the chorus girls. "All I Care About" makes Billy look like the white knight on his way to Roxie's rescue...but what we actually see reveals a shifty shyster who cares more about his image than the women he's supposed to defend. Zellweger and Zeta-Jones have a great time camping it up for their final dance, "Nowadays."

Trivia: The director of the original Broadway show, Bob Fosse, wanted this to be his next movie musical after the success of Cabaret, but he died before it got far. Interest in the film version was revived after the huge success of the 90's revival. (Which, by the way, is still running, and at press time is the longest-running revival in Broadway history.)

The movie was based on a 1927 play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by two real-life murder cases in the city that writer Maurine Watkins worked on.

Along with Best Picture and Zeta-Jones' performance, the movie won Oscars for sound, editing, costumes, and art direction.

What I Don't Like: For all the "Razzle Dazzle," this is a very dark show, and absolutely not for children. Zellweger is only a so-so singer and dancer, which to tell the truth, works in the film's favor when it becomes quite obvious that Roxie isn't going to get into vaudeville because of her talent. The idea of putting the numbers in Roxie's head can occasionally be confusing, and I do wish it hadn't lead to them cutting the witty "Class" number with Latifa and Zeta-Jones that didn't fit that storyline.

The Big Finale: Brassy, sexy, and utterly amoral, if you can handle that cynical tone, Chicago is a fun ride with some interesting things to say about celebrity and how desperate some people are to get - and keep - those fifteen minutes of fame.

Home Media: As the most recent musical to win an Oscar and one of the movies that revived the genre in the early 2000's, it goes without saying that you can find it pretty much anywhere in almost every format.

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Amazon Prime

(Oh, and we resume our regularly scheduled programming on Tuesday with two of MGM's most famous musicals in honor of the recently-passed Stanley Donen, starting with Singin' In the Rain.)

Oscar Winners - Oliver!

Columbia Pictures/Romulus Films, 1968
Starring Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Carol Reed, and Jack Wild
Directed by Carol Reed
Music and Lyrics by Lionel Bart

Oliver! came out at a turning point for Hollywood and the American film industry. Huge "roadshow" musicals, usually based after popular shows, were the studios' way of pulling people away from their newfangled TV sets and into the theaters. Inspired by the success of The Sound of Music, these lavish epics had massive sets, elaborate costumes, widescreen color cinematography, and casts of thousands. They also couldn't have come out at a worse time. Rock was taking over as the music of the future, making the Broadway show look passe, and newer styles of film making were telling more intimate and violent stories. Does that mean Oliver! is as out of date as it's Victorian setting? Let's head to a workhouse in a small town in England and find out...

The Story: Oliver Twist (Lester) is sold to an undertaker after he asks Mr. Bumble (Harry Secombe) for more of his daily gruel. That ends after Oliver attacks one of his apprentices for saying nasty things about his mother. The boy eventually escapes to London, where he falls in with the Artful Dodger (Wild), a crafty young pickpocket. Dodger brings him to his boss Fagin (Moody), the roguish head of a group of boy thieves. The real head of the group is brutish Bill Sykes (Reed), who rules over the London underworld with an iron fist. His girlfriend Nancy (Shani Wallis) finds Oliver charming.

Oliver is caught by a rich gentleman, Mr. Brownlow (Joseph O'Conor), when he tries to pick his pocket. Mr. Brownlow takes him to his lavish row house in Bloomsbury Square. Bill and Fagin are determined to make sure he doesn't talk about them and order Nancy to kidnap the boy. Nancy's not too happy about the situation and is determined to bring him back to Brownlow...especially after Bumble shows up and reveals the truth about who Oliver really is...

The Song and Dance: Like The Sound of Music, this is a big movie - and this time, the story is as sweeping as the camerawork. Ron Moody got an Oscar nomination as the roguish and calculating Fagin, who may kind-of like the kids he works with, but loves the gold he gets from them more. Wild was also nominated as the hilarious Dodger. Reed is appropriately intimidating as Sykes, and Wallis makes a heartbreaking Nancy. Reed's work here also won an Oscar; check out that finale, with half the cast chasing Sykes and Oliver around a dark and foggy London, or the opening with the Beadle selling Oliver.

Favorite Number: Moody has a grand time with his three big solos, "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two" and the two versions of "Reviewing the Situation." It's the chorus numbers where this movie really works. "Consider Yourself," "Who Will Buy?" and "Oom Pah Pah" are all energetic and fun to watch, with some great choreography by Onna White. (She earned a special Oscar for her work.) My favorite song from this is "I'd Do Anything," and it doesn't disappoint - Wallis, Wild, and the kids are absolutely adorable, with their parasols and spoof manners.

Trivia: Moody was carried over from the original London cast of Oliver! in 1960, which featured the Georgia Brown as Nancy and Keith Hamshere, who later became a popular still photographer in Hollywood, as Oliver. The show ran for nearly a decade there. It did almost as well on Broadway, with Clive Revill as Fagin, Brown as Nancy, and the late Davy Jones of The Monkees as the Artful Dodger. It's been revived on Broadway once and in London three times, most recently in 2009 with Rowan Atikson as Fagin.

This was and remains the only G-rated movie to win Best Picture. It was also the last British movie to win Best Picture until Chariots of Fire in 1983.

What I Don't Like: Poor Oliver himself is a bit bland, compared to the colorful folks around him. It doesn't help that Lester has a tiny little voice that barely can be heard in "Where Is Love?" Despite the kids and goofy comic numbers like "I'd Do Anything," this is a fairly dark musical, especially in the second half. Considering there's two murders, one a bit gristly, some violence, and a kidnapping, I'm not even sure how this got a G rating. The plot can also get a bit convoluted in the second half, and that's after eliminating a lot of characters from the book and most of Oliver's tangled family history.

The Big Finale: Alternatively charming and intense, the great cast and some outstanding dances carry the day here. If you have older kids or young teens the ages of Oliver and the Artful Dodger who are ready for a slightly darker musical and/or are interested in history, try this one on them.

Home Media: I have the 2006 DVD with the movie on two sides of the disc. There's apparently a Blu-Ray edition that's more-or-less the same thing, and it's available on several streaming platforms.

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Amazon Prime

Oscar Winners - The Sound of Music

20th Century Fox, 1965
Starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, and Richard Hayden
Directed by Robert Wise
Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein

Yes, I know the next musical to win an Oscar was actually My Fair Lady, but I covered that one back in October before I decided on this theme. We're going to skip ahead a year to our next winner. This was one of the biggest musicals of the 60's, in every way possible. It solidified Julie Andrews' status as a major star after the success of Mary Poppins and proved that musicals could still do big business in a changing Hollywood. How does the real-life tale of the Von Trapp Family, singers who fled Austria during World War II, look now? Let's make swooping tracking shot on a certain hill overlooking Salzburg, Austria and find out...

The Story: Maria (Andrews) is supposed to be a novice nun at an Abbey outside of Saltzburg in Austria, but she just can't seem to conform to the church's strict rules. At a loss with what to do with her, the Mother Superior (Peggy Wood) sends her to former naval officer Captain Georg Von Trapp (Plummer), who needs a governess for his seven children. They've driven off other governesses in an attempt to get their frequently-absent father to notice them, but Maria wins them over with her honesty and imagination. She especially becomes friendly with the oldest Von Trapp child, sixteen-year-old Lisel (Charmian Carr), after she helps the girl cover up her outdoor rendevous with a young messanger boy, Rolf (Daniel Truhitte).

The Captain has forbidden both play and music after the death of his wife. When he goes away for a month, Maria introduces the children to both, teaching them how to sing and have fun all over Saltzburg. The Captain is angry that Maria disobeyed him, but his new fiancee Baroness Elsa von Schraeder (Parker) and friend Max Liberman (Hayden) are so enchanted by the children's singing, he ends up encouraging Maria to stay. Maria, however, is quite smitten with the Captain, to the consternation of the Baroness. She tells her that his feelings are mutual. Confused, Maria returns to the Abbey, only to be sent back by the Mother Abbess when she realizes that the young woman is trying to hide her feelings.

Even as they confess their love, the Nazis are marching on Austria, annexing it into Germany. The Captain is against the Nazis and being conscripted into their navy. It'll take a little help from their friends in Saltzburg...including Max and the nuns at the Abbey...to help the Von Trapp Family Singers escape to Switzerland and freedom.

The Song and Dance: What I like about this film (and our previous Oscar winner West Side Story) is the dynamic cinematography. These films inhabit the slums of New York and the majestic Austrian alps in a way seldom seen in musicals. The stunning color and camerawork, including those famous tracking shots in the opening, give this movie a feeling of intimacy. The Von Trapps are a part of their world in a way characters in films, let alone musicals, almost never allow for. Maria takes the kids swimming and boating; we see them dancing and singing in various real-life locations, many of which still exist today.

The script is much better than I remember it (and than most critics give it credit for), especially in the first half, where the emphasis is more on the kids and the triangle between the Baroness, Maria, and the Captain. (I also appreciate how the Baroness bowed out gracefully, instead of prolonging things or fighting.) Andrews, Plummer, and Parker were all excellent, Carr was lovely in "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," and the other kids were adorable.

Favorite Number: The movie almost literally soars whenever it's outside. Andrews' opening rendition of the title song, shot as she twirls around the hills, is iconic today, as is Maria teaching the kids how to sing "Do-Re-Mi" as they frolic across a glowing Saltzburg. Maria and the Captain's "Something Good" in the gazebo in the second half is warm and touching, while Rolf and Lisel's "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" earlier in the same place is too cute. Andrews also has fun performing the holiday standard "My Favorite Things" with the kids during a thunderstorm.

But my favorite song from this show is the gentle ballad "Edelweiss," originally performed by the Captain solo after the kids and Maria do "The Lonely Goatherd." It's such a sweet number, one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's best ballads, and Plummer's dubber Bill Lee gives it the right soft sell.

Triva: "Edelweiss" isn't just sentimental for the Captain and the citizens of Austria. It was the last song Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote together. Hammerstein had been diagnosed with stomach cancer;  he died nine months after the opening of the stage show.

Rodgers wrote the movie songs "Something Good" and "I Have Confidence" solo. Some current stage versions of the show will occasionally add them in.

The original Broadway show debuted in 1959, with Mary Martin as Maria and Theodore Bikel as the Captain. It ran for four years and shared a Best Musical Tony with Fiorello! It was an even bigger hit in London, running for nearly a decade. A Broadway revival in 1998 with Rebecca Luker as Maria and Michael Siberry as the Captain also did fairly well, running a year and a half. There was a live TV version in 2013 and another one in England in 2015.

The movie was the blockbuster film of 1965, running in theaters for over four years. It was the biggest hit film of all time until The Godfather surpassed it in 1972 and remains on the list of all-time top-selling movies today.

There's a lot of historical fudging here. The Captain did hate the Nazis and was supposed to join the German navy, but the family escaped by train to Italy, not by foot to Switzerland, and he and Maria had been married for almost a decade by that point. The real Von Trapp villa was closer to the border to Germany than Switzerland. Max is fictional as well.

What I Don't Like: With Maria and her children still alive then (Georg died in 1946), there's no way this was going to be anything like accurate. A lot of critics in the 60s, and even to this day, deride the film as overly sentimental...and while it's not nearly as treacly as Going My Way, it can get a bit cutesy at times. "The Lonely Goatherd" marionette number is cute and funny, but it seems kind of shoehorned in for no reason other than to use the song and pad the already overlong running time. And yeah, the mood whiplash at the end, from romantic comedy-drama to tense thriller, is a bit much.

The Big Finale: Too sweet? Maybe a little, but it's also beautifully shot and acted, with wonderful songs and some of the most stunning camerawork of any musical film. If you're a musical lover or a fan of Andrews, you owe yourself to check this one out.

Home Media: As one of the most popular films of all time, you can pretty much find this one in any format of your choosing, including many streaming platforms.

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Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime

Oscar Winners - West Side Story

United Artists, 1961
Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, and Russ Tambyn
Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
Music by Leonard Bernstein; Lyrics by Stephan Sondheim

This tale of warring teen gangs in the changing New York of the early 1960's is about as far from High School Musical shenanigans as you can get. Indeed, it was ripped directly from the headlines of the time, as real gangs of the new immigrants who now mainly populated Manhattan found themselves crowded with long-time residents. How does this tragic modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet look today? Let's head down to the impoverished Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York's West Side, where one particular gang is gearing up for a very choreographed rumble, to find out...

The Story: The Jets, a group of white teens, and the Sharks, newly-arrived Puerto-Ricans and Hispanics, are warring for control of their neighborhood. The Jets are lead by tough-guy Riff (Tambyn); the Sharks by explosive Bernardo (George Chakiris). Riff wants his best buddy Tony (Beymer) to come to the big local dance, but Tony's not interested. His buddies manage to talk him into it...and he falls in love with Bernardo's beautiful and innocent sister Maria (Wood) the moment he sees her there.

Needless to say, almost no one approves of the romance from the get-go. Bernardo breaks it up as soon as he can. Tony, however, is smitten with Maria, and she with him, enough that he visits her on her fire escape. The other kids are more interested in fighting each other than romance, no matter how often local beat cop Officer Krupke (William Bramley) breaks up their rumbles. The Jets want Tony to take part in the rumble the next day, but Maria wants him to stop it. Her best friend and Bernardo's girlfriend Anita (Moreno) is convinced to help them flee and get married. Tony, however, is not only unable to stop the rumble, but he's involved in two deaths. Maria loves him no matter what, but the other kids are out for literal blood...and it won't end until hearts and lovers are broken and scattered, and Maria is left wondering what all the killing was for.

The Song and Dance: With emphasis on the "dance" side. Those famous chorus numbers are just as amazing as everyone has always claimed. The brilliant costumes and expansive cinematography shows off a gritty New York just as it was starting to slide into its late-20th-century decay. Jerome Robbins' stylized choreography was ground-breaking in its day, and became the benchmark for chorus routines in film for years to come.

I know Natalie Wood isn't Puerto Rican, but she's so good, I don't care what race she is. She totally nails that final scene with the gun and the gangs. You can so feel her rage, and there's not a dry eye in the house by the time of the kids' final  procession. Chakiris and Moreno won supporting actor Oscars as the leader of the Sharks and his fiery girlfriend; Tambyn and Ned Glass as Doc, Tony's boss and the owner of the drug store where the kids hang out, are also excellent.

Favorite Number: My personal favorite of the famous chorus routines is "America," as the Hispanic ladies sing the praises of their adopted country, while their boyfriends point out that they haven't exactly felt welcome in it. (I like it much better than the stage version, where the girls are just picking on a homesick classmate. Here...unfortunately, what the boys say makes a great deal of sense.) The opening number, shot against the then-real-life tenements of the West Side, "Cool" towards the end of the movie, and the Rumble at the Dance are also excellent.

Of the ballads, I'm fondest of the dreamy "Somewhere," performed by Tony and Maria towards the end of the film as they meet one last time; their "Tonight" is also lovely. Tony gets two good solos, the hopeful "Something's Coming" and passionate "Maria."

Trivia: The exterior shots were filmed in Lincoln Square, a real block of tenements on New York's west side. They were empty because they were on the verge of being demolished for what's now the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, making them the perfect film set.

Why are there two directors on this movie? Robert Wise realized he knew nothing about making a musical and brought in Jerome Robbins, the director and choreographer of the stage version, to direct the musical sequences. He ended up getting about a third of the way through when the production company was worried that the movie was going over-budget, but Wise still insisted he get credit.

The movie won ten Oscars, the most of any musical movie to date; along with Supporting Actor and Actress and Best Picture, the movie picked up statues for Cinematography, Editing, Score, Costumes, Director(s), and Art Direction, and a special award for Jerome Robbins' choreography.

Steven Spielburg is apparently going to direct a remake of this, his first out-and-out musical. No word on a release date, but at press time, it's due to start filming this summer.

What I Don't Like: Obviously, this is not what you would call a feel-good movie. This is fairly dark material for a musical, especially for its time; it's not for those who prefer their song-and-dance films on the light and fluffy side. The way the cops treat the Hispanic kids in the drugstore towards the middle of the film and the racially-insensitive language they use would probably start race riots nowadays (though it is pretty accurate to the time and place). The kids' slang, real and made-up, kind of sounds goofy to modern ears and can occasionally undercut the serious intentions. Wood's not the only non-Hispanic actor playing an immigrant; Moreno is the only authentic Puerto-Rican in the entire cast.

And...to be honest, I agree with Maria in the end and several adults that there's no real reason for these kids to be fighting, other than they want to.

The Big Finale: While it's a little dark and depressing to be a personal favorite, there's enough I like for me to understand why many film and musical fans regard it as a masterpiece. It might especially be good for real-life teens and adults with a taste for tragic romance.

Home Media: Its status as one of the most popular and beloved film musicals of all time makes it quite easy to find on all home media formats, including most streaming platforms, usually for under 10 dollars.

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Amazon Prime

Oscar Winners - Gigi

MGM, 1958
Starring Leslie Caron, Louis Jordan, Maurice Chevalier, and Hermione Gingold
Directed by Vincent Minnelli
Music by Fredrick Loewe; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

Along with having many things in common with our previous film An American In Paris, this one also has a lot in common with My Fair Lady, which would have still been running on Broadway when this movie came out. It uses a lot of the same creative team, once again has a story involving the relationship between a vivacious girl and a middle-aged man, and a cool old guy steals the show and has some of the best numbers (including a duet with the equally cool old lady). How does the story of a charming teenager and her relationship with a wealthy playboy look now? Let's return to Paris, this time in the early 1900's, and find out...

The Story: Parisian school girl Gigi (Caron) doesn't understand why her Grandmama (Gingold) keeps sending her to dull lessons in manners and charm with her strict Aunt Alicia (Isobel Jeans). She thinks it's all silly. Her grandmother and aunt would disagree. They're training her to become a courtesan - a high-class call girl - so she'll have some security later in life.

Gigi's not the only one who's bored. Gaston Lachaille (Jordan) is also tired of living the outsized and outrageous life of a playboy and dilettante. He's especially fed up with his latest mistress Liane (Eva Gabor) after she cheats on him with her ice skating teacher. His uncle Honore (Maurice Chevalier) encourages his partying, but he's weary of the whole society scene. He visits Gigi and her grandmother to escape the tedium and spend time with with the vivacious teenager. Gigi gets him to take them to the seaside, and they have a wonderful time...but now Grandmama and Aunt Alicia are convinced that the time is right for Gigi to make her debut as an adult. Gaston's not as sure that he's ready for Gigi to grow up; he fears he'll lose the charming "little sister" who brought  him so much delight.

The Song and Dance: This is considered to be the last major original musical from the famous "Freed Unit" at MGM...and what a way to go! Vincent Minnelli's work in this is outstanding, some of the best he ever did. There's a few outright gorgeous shots here; my favorite is right before the finale, as Gaston is contemplating why Gigi got so upset after he dragged her out of Maxim's. We see him at night, in silhouette against a flowing, glittering fountain, and it's framed beautifully. I adore his use of color here, from the brilliant red room where Gigi and her grandmother live to the glowing pastels of Paris in the spring. Most of the film was made on location in France, including the real Paris, and it's all the better for it.

What I really love about this one is how intimate it is, especially compared to some of the more "epic" musicals of the 50's and 60's. For all the sumptuous trappings, it's really just the story of a man watching a young girl grow up before his eyes...maybe a little too quickly for his taste. It's a relatively quiet story compared to some of the larger ones we'll be seeing here next week, and for all the talk of courtesans and the life they lead, it's actually quite elegant and classy.

Favorite Number: The title song won the Oscar, probably for the scene in which Gaston sings it while wandering around a stunningly-shot Paris, but my two favorites from this score occur before and during the trip to Trouville. Having won her vacation with Gaston in a card game, Gigi celebrates with "The Night They Invented Champagne." The song is energetic and fun, especially Gingold and Jordan's spontaneous little dance. Grandmama has her own fun with Honore at Trouville when they recall their original affair many years before in the rueful and witty "I Remember It Well."

Maurice Chevalier revived his career in the US with his performance of "Well" and two more hits. He opens the movie with "Thank Heavens For Little Girls" and responds to Gaston's romantic difficulties with Gigi towards the end with "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore."

Trivia: It won nine Oscars in every category it was nominated, including Best Picture, cinematography, score, adapted screenplay, song, editing, costumes, and production design. It was a record at the time, one that would be bested a year later by another big MGM movie, Ben-Hur.

Two of the songs heard here were originally written for other projects. Gigi's wistful ballad "Say a Prayer for Me Tonight" was intended for Eliza to sing before the ball in My Fair Lady, but was cut before the show hit Broadway. Lerner had originally penned the lyrics and title of "I Remember It Well" for a Broadway show he did with Kurt Weill called Love Life and re-wrote them slightly to fit Gigi.

There was a Broadway version that debuted in 1973, with long-time stage star Alfred Drake as Honore, Daniel Massey as Gaston, and Karin Wolfe as Gigi. It was a surprise flop, only lasting four months. A revival in 2015 with Vanessa Hudgens as Gigi made a little over two months.

What I Don't Like: First of all, they way they treat Lianne's attempted suicide is appalling. Granted, they do mention she's done this before and survived, but the men in particular celebrate it and their ability to drive women mad. There's also the whole "courtesan" thing to consider. On one hand, I can understand Aunt Alicia and Mamita wanting niece and granddaughter to have some means of support in her later years, and courtesans were among the few women in Belle Epoque Paris with any real means of controlling their freedom, but they're basically training her to be a very fancy prostitute...and as she frequently complains, she has little say in the matter. She does have a point in her solo "The Parisians" that love is a lot more than that - it's the reason Gaston is bored.

Chevalier's "Thank Heavens" can come off as less slyly winking and and more uncomfortably close to pedophile territory for many audiences today, especially given he sings this around little girls in the opening. (There's a reason Mamita and Aunt Alicia perform this song in the 2015 stage revival.) Also, like My Fair Lady, the intimate story allows for very little dancing. Mamita and Gaston's routine in "The Night They Invented Champagne" is pretty much it.

The Big Picture: The elegant production, lovely music, and outstanding cast helps one overlook some of the more questionable or dated aspects of the plot. If you're a fan of Chevalier, Minnelli's other work, or the musicals of MGM's "Golden Age," this is absolutely worth checking out.

Home Media: As an Oscar-winner and one of the most popular musicals of the 1950's, this is quite easy to find in all major formats, including some streaming platforms.

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Google Play

Oscar Winners - An American In Paris

MGM, 1951
Starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, and Georges Guetary
Directed by Vincent Minnelli
Music by George Gershwin; Lyrics by Ira Gershwin

Our first two Oscar-winners this week have a lot in common. Both are set in Paris, were made by MGM's famous "Freed unit" during the 50's, star French gamine Leslie Caron, were scored by popular composer-and-lyricist parings, and involve the romance between an older man and a younger woman. American In Paris is the modern-set one; along with taking home the Best Picture Oscar, it won Gene Kelly his only Oscar for his contributions to screen choreography. Does it soar like the dancers in its famous ballet in the finale? Let's head to Paris in the years following World War II and find out...

The Story: After World War II, American Jerry Mulligan (Kelly) stayed on in Paris to pursue his dream of painting. He's basically a starving artist in a tiny one-room apartment over a cafe, but he's happy having coffee and chatting with his buddy, the equally struggling pianist Adam Cook (Levant). Adam introduces him to his friend Henri (Guetary), who speaks eagerly of his new lover, Lise (Caron).

Jerry's career starts to take off when a rich American widow, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), takes an interest in his work and offers to sponsor an art show for him. She brings him to a bar to meet her fashionable friends, but he's more interested in Lise. He tries dancing with her, with little success; he does better visiting her at the perfume shop where she works the next day. They go on dates and fall in love, but she keeps running off. Meanwhile, Milo rents an art studio for Jerry and says he'll be able to pay her back after his art exhibit. Jerry, however, is still in love with Lise...but he and Henri have no idea that the woman they love is one and the same.

The Song and Dance: As slight as the story is, it's relatively mature for a big Technicolor MGM extravaganza of the 1950's, with Jerry objecting to being kept for his looks rather than his work and Lise insisting that she stays with Henri because her protected her during World War II. Kelly, Caron, and Foch are all quite good as the central lovers, but they're overshadowed by the gorgeous costumes, production design, and cinematography, all inspired by real-life French artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Favorite Number: Gene Kelly has fun with French urchins, teaching them "I Got Rhythm" near a street flower shop. The kids have a great time watching Kelly's energetic tap dance. He also gets a rather sweet number with Levant, Guetary, and the old folks in the cafe in the opening, "By Strauss." In more traditional girls-and-stairs mode, Guetary scores with a flashy "I'll Build a Starway to Paradise." Caron and Kelly do a lovely pas de deux by the Seine to "Our Love Is Here To Stay." Levant's best moment is his dream sequence where he becomes a one-man orchestra - including conductor! - during a performance of the Concerto In F.

By far the most famous sequence from this film - and likely the reason it won Best Picture - is the famous American In Paris Ballet in the finale. Kelly, Caron, and the MGM chorus run through a riot of sound, color, and jazzy ballet, all done with stunning costumes and choreography evoking that Belle Epoque Paris of the early 20th century.

Trivia: That's Noel Neill, Lois Lane in the original TV Adventures of Superman, as the snooty art student who wants to discuss Jerry's paintings with him when he first displays them at Montmatre.

Two stage versions of this show debuted in the late 2000's-early 2010's. The first seems to have been limited to a regional theater at Houston. The second came to Broadway via France in 2015 and was a hit, running over a year.

What I Don't Like: The fine performances and gorgeous production help to mask the fact that the story is slight, and at times, a bit of a bore. Jerry and Lise aren't terribly exciting characters, and Jerry and Milo can both come off as a tad creepy with how they chase younger members of the opposite sex. By the end of the movie, you stop caring who's going to end up with whom and wonder when they're going to make it to that ballet.

The Big Finale: The ballet alone makes this worth checking out at least once if  you're a fan of dance, Kelly, the Gershwins, or Minnelli's work.

Home Media: Look out for the beautifully restored two-disc Special Edition DVD and Blu-Ray; it's also on several streaming platforms.

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Blu-Ray
Google Play

Oscar Winners - Going My Way

Paramount, 1944
Starring Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, and Jean Heather
Directed by Leo McCarey
Music by Jimmy Van Heusen and others; Lyrics by Johnny Burke and others

Bing Crosby was at his height of popularity when he appeared in this story of a young priest who reinvigorates an aging parish and its stubborn old head pastor. Crosby and Fitzgerald worked so well together, the movie was the biggest hit of 1944 and won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture. Does it still "swing on a star" today? Let's follow that young priest to St. Dominic's Church in New York City to find out...

The Story: Father Chuck O'Malley (Crosby) is a young priest with many new ideas on how to change life at St. Dominic's. His laid-back manner and casual clothes don't make a good first impression with the locals or head pastor Father Fitzgibbons (Fitzgerald), especially after Fitzgibbons learns that he's friends with the even more laid-back Father O'Dowd (McHugh) from the next-closest parish. O'Malley sets out to win over the churchgoers. He helps Carol, a young runaway (Heather, and convinces the hooligan boys of the church to start a choir. His ex-girlfriend Jenny (Rise Stevens) hears him singing a song he wrote and thinks he could sell it to help the parish. She even sets up for her and the boys choir to sing it for a music executive. Even though they do manage to sell another song, it's not enough to save the parish from destruction. Father O'Malley has to move on...but not before he gives Father Fitzgibbons what he's dreamed about.

The Song and Dance: Crosby won an Oscar for this as the kind, casual priest...but to tell the truth, it's not much different from his usual non-religious roles. Stevens and Fitzgerald come off a little bit better as his former flame and the crotchety head of the church with more old-fashioned views. The boys' antics, especially from future Bowery Boy Stanley Clements and former Little Rascal Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, have their moments as well.

Favorite Number: "Swinging On a Star" was the hit and also won an Oscar. I wish they'd released Bing and the kids' version of it on the piano. It's pretty cute. Stevens gets a lovely version of the title song with the boys and an orchestra when they're playing for the music executive. Her version of the Carmen "Habernara" aria is also quite well-done.

Trivia: Barry Fitzgerald was nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. He won for supporting. The rules changed the next year to prevent that from happening again.

What I Don't Like: First of all, though a lot of movie reference books and online movie sites list it as a musical, this is really more of a drama with songs. The songs are mainly there to let Crosby have fun with the kids and give Stevens something to do. They don't move the story along or really have anything whatsoever to do with the plot until late in the movie, when Jenny comes up with the idea of selling Father Chuck's song.

Second, the movie is overlong and takes forever to get where it's going. Carol, as Father Chuck points out, is frankly a bit of a spoiled brat who runs out on her parents because she claims they "don't understand her." Her romance with the son of the man who owns church's mortgage is wooden and cliched and seems shoehorned in from another movie entirely. The entire film is sticky-sweet and overly sentimental. That may have been what war-worn audiences wanted in 1944, but it's likely to be more annoying than heart-tugging for many modern audiences.

The Big Picture: Despite a few good songs and some decent performances from Crosby, Stevens, and Fitzgerald, this one mostly drowns in its own sentiment today. See it only if you're a huge fan of Crosby, the cast, or religious dramas. I personally prefer the slightly less sticky sequel The Bells of St. Mary's with Ingrid Bergman.

Home Media: Can be very easily found on its own on DVD or streaming or in a set with 23 other popular Crosby films on DVD.

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DVD - Bing Crosby: The Silver Screen Collection
Amazon Prime

Oscar Winners - The Great Ziegfeld

MGM, 1936
Starring William Powell, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, and Myrna Loy
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin and others

This lavish biography of the most famous producer ever on Broadway was one of MGM's attempts to out-do the Busby Berkeley spectacles over at Warners, and it was huge in every sense of the word. The sets were enormous, it employed literally thousands of people and tons of costumes, it was the longest musical yet at almost three hours, and it wound up being one of the biggest hits of the year. Does the story of the man who "Glorified the American girl" still deserve a place in the theatrical pantheon? Let's head to the midway of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to find out...

The Story: At the 1893 Chicago Colombian Exposition, Florenz Ziegfeld (Powell) finds himself barking opposite the flamboyant Billings (Morgan). Billings' attraction, the exotic dancer "Little Egypt," is more popular than Ziegfeld's strongman Sandow, until Ziegfeld gets the idea for women to actually be able to touch his muscles.

After his stint with Sandow fizzles out, he heads to England, where he learns that Billings wants to sign beautiful and vivacious French-Polish vaudeville star Anna Held (Rainer). He manages to sign her instead with promises of jewels and her name up in lights. She does appear onstage, but isn't a success. Ziegfeld generates publicity by claiming she bathes in gallons of milk. She's appalled, until he finds eight backup singers to add even more appeal to her number and all the women in the audience admire her supposed milk-fed complexion. He gives her jewels and offers to marry her, which doesn't impress her fellow chorus girl Audrey Dane (Virginia Bruce).

Ziegfeld does marry Anna and eventually makes stars out of even more beauties in his long-running, extravagant series of Ziegfeld Follies revues. He does try to make a star of Audrey, but she descends into alcoholism even as they conduct an affair. Anna walks out on him when she finds out what he's up to with Audrey. He rebounds, eventually marrying comedienne Billie Burke (Loy). His stage shows aren't going as well. Word in Times Square is he's all through...but then he has four hits simultaneously in the late 20's, including Show Boat, the first truly mature musical. The Depression finally wipes Flo out for good...but there will always be the memories of hundreds of showgirls on ever-expanding staircases...

The Song and Dance: Like another MGM musical from a year later, Rosalie, this movie is big. It was the biggest musical of the 1930's in every way conceivable. You can't fault MGM for not letting all that cash show up on screen. There's a lot to look at this movie, with everyone running around in acres of ruffles, sequins, and lace (designed by MGM's ace costumer Adrian). Rainer may have won the Oscar, but it's Powell as an urbane Flo Ziegfeld who really anchors the film. Morgan's also a lot of fun as his long-time rival, and Bruce comes across fairly well as the gold-digging chorus girl who cares more about liquor and diamonds and getting "Glorified" than anything.

Favorite Number: By far the most famous routine from this one is "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody." Set on a massive tiered wedding cake-like set lined with hundreds of dancers, with Bruce seated serenely on top, it's a glittering tribute to three centuries of "Glorifying" that's just as amazing for audiences now as it was in the mid-30's. Real-life Ziegfeld star Fanny Brice made one of her few film appearances singing another Berlin song "Yiddle On My Fiddle"; pity we didn't get to see the full rendition of her signature ballad "My Man." Rainer and those dancers have a lot of fun with a number by the real Anna Held, "It's Delightful to Be Married," and Ray Bolger gets a nice tap dance about mid-way through.

Trivia: Luise Rainer became the first person to win an Oscar for acting in a musical.

That "Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" number alone cost $220,000 to film in 1936, which is over 3 million in today's money.

The real Billie Burke was still very much active and alive in 1936, and in fact was an actress at MGM for years. (Most people know her as Glinda the Good Witch in the 1939 Wizard of Oz.) She was the one who sold the rights to a musical biography about her late husband first to Universal, then to MGM when Universal couldn't afford it. She acted as a consultant for the movie.

This is not the last time MGM would use the Ziegfeld name for their musicals. In 1941, the would do a backstage musical drama about showgirls called Ziegfeld Girl; in 1946, they debuted their own version of the Ziegfeld Follies (with Powell reprising his role as the showman briefly in the latter).

What I Don't Like: Rainer's histrionics may have impressed audiences in 1936, but between her yelling and her incomprehensible accent, she comes off as more overwrought than anything today. Between Ziegfeld still being a household in the 30's, Burke's involvement, and many of his former stars threatening to sue if they were mentioned, this is even more sanitized than most Hollywood musical biographies. You barely get a sense of any time passing. With the exception of Brice and ballerina Harriet Hoctor (who appears in the circus number towards the end), almost none of the stars had ever been in a Ziegfeld show, including Bolger.

Like Rosalie, the movie is really too big. All the flash tends to overwhelm the cliched and occasionally dull plot. It's also way, way too long at almost three hours. Some of the Follies musical numbers mid-way through that don't involve any of the stars are fun but do nothing other than pad out the run time and show how elaborate the Follies could get and probably could have been trimmed.

The Big Finale: If  you're a fan of Powell or the huge Busby Berkeley-style musicals of the 1930's, this is worth seeing for the cast and musical numbers alone if you have time on your hands.

Home Media: Not on Blu-Ray at press time, but the DVD is fairly easy to find, and it's on a couple of streaming platforms.

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Oscar Winners - The Broadway Melody

MGM, 1929
Starring Bessie Love, Anita Page, Charles King, and Kenneth Thomson
Directed by Harry Beaumont
Music by Nacio Herb Brown; Lyrics by Arthur Freed

For the next three weeks, we'll be looking at the musicals that took home Best Picture at the Academy Awards in honor of the Oscars ceremony on February 24th. We kick off the series with none other than the very first film musical. Most people consider The Jazz Singer to be the first movie musical, but it was really a silent movie with a few sound and song sequences. That title belongs to this blockbuster smash, the biggest hit of 1929 and one of the most influential films of the early talkie era. Does it still wow them in the aisles today, or should it be sent packing? Let's head to Tin Pan Alley in New York to find out...

The Story: Queenie (Page) and Harriet "Hank" Mahoney (Love) are a small-time vaudeville sister act that's determined to make it on Broadway. Queenie is young and not terribly talented, but is also sweet-natured and quite lovely. While Hank is quite pretty herself, she's really the more talented and sensible (and short-tempered) of the duo and handles all their business affairs. Hank's fiancee Eddie (King) is a songwriter who claims they're virtually guaranteed a spot in impresario Francis Zanfield's (Eddie Kane) big Broadway revue. Turns out Eddie's not as influential as he thinks. Flo, one of the more obnoxious chorus girls (Mary Doran), sabotages the piano for their act, and the only reason Zanfield ends up taking them is because of Queenie's looks.

Meanwhile, Eddie admits he's fallen in love with Queenie, who knows how much her older sister loves him. She ends up going out with Jock Warriner (Thomson), a wealthy playboy. Things aren't going well with the show, either. The girls are cut from the big "Broadway Melody" number Eddie wrote for them, and Flo keeps baiting Hank into fighting her. Queenie insists that she knows what she's doing, but Hank knows better...and she's the one who finally sends Eddie to prove how much he truly loves her sister.

The Song and Dance: For all the melodrama, it's Bessie Love as Hank who really owns this film (and deserved her Oscar nomination). There apparently was a silent version, but silence could never do Hank justice. Only speech could truly show the vulnerability under the tough exterior. Of the remaining cast, Doran's not bad as her rival; their ongoing cat fights prompts some of the film's best lines. King's mostly stiff, but he does have a good moment after he's thrown out of the apartment Warriner bought for Queenie and realizes he's a better composer than fighter.

To give the movie some credit, it moves pretty quickly for a film of its time. Directed Harry Beaumont tried to give the movie more mobility than had been previously possible with the heavy sound equipment, including a mobile "coffin on wheels" camera for the scene where Queenie is chatting with Jock at her party.

Favorite Number: The hit ballad "You Were Meant for Me" is sweet, simple, and direct, just Eddie telling a reluctant Queenie how he really feels about her. The girls finally get a duo number that isn't sabotaged with the adorable "The Boy Friend" towards the end. The orchestra at Queenie's birthday party does fairly well with the low-key "Truthful Parson Brown" (the only song not written by Brown and Freed; it's from Willard Robinson). "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" may not have anything whatsoever to do with the rest of the story, but it does have some incredibly limber acrobatic work.

Trivia: Speaking of "The Wedding of the Painted Doll," that sequence was originally filmed in early 2-strip Technicolor. The color print has since been lost, and the sequence now only exists in black and white.

"Wedding" was also the first time a movie musical number made use of pre-recorded playback. Producer Irving Thalburg wanted to reshoot the number in color, but the color cameras were expensive. Instead of hiring the orchestra again, they just played the recording they made the first time. With very few exceptions, that's how most movie musicals have done it ever since.

Love had one of the most remarkable careers in Hollywood history. She started in silent films like the original The Lost World in the early 20's, and was still going in England in the early 1980's.

What I Don't Like: If there was ever a movie made for its time and place, this one was it. While its success gave credibility to sound movies and movie musicals, all most modern audiences (and critics) see is a load of overwrought soap opera with incredibly stiff and badly-choreographed musical numbers. Half the dancers don't know what they're doing, especially in the title number. And what's with the poor girl tapping on her toes there? It just looks painful. "The Love Boat" literally does not move at all. Tableaus - showgirls in living "pictures" - may have looked amazing on the stage, but they weren't made for movies (where things are supposed to, you know, move).

Most of the actors are nowhere near Love's level. Page was still a teenager when she made this movie, and her inexperience shows. She sings "The Boy Friend" with Love, then wanders off to the side to let Love and the dancers do their thing. Granted, this works with the plot when Zanfield hires them because of Queenie's looks rather than any natural talent, but it doesn't make the movie easier to watch. Jed Prouty, as Queenie and Hank's stuttering uncle and manager, is just annoying.

The Big Finale: I like this one because of Love and my interest in 20th century history, but it hasn't dated well, to say the least. Unless you're also a fan of the Roaring 20's or the early talkie era, or you must see every Oscar movie, you can probably take a pass on this one.

Home Media: I have the original 2-disc Special Edition from 2006, but most people who are interested will probably be fine with last year's re-release on the Warner Archives; as one of the few surviving films of its era and an Oscar-winner, it can also be found on many streaming platforms.

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Cabaret

ABC Pictures/Allied Artists, 1972
Starring Liza Minnelli, Joel Gray, Michael York, and Helmut Griem
Directed by Bob Fosse
Music by John Kander; Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Released at a low point for musicals in general, Cabaret became one of the most successful musical films in history, winning eight Oscars and making stars out of Minnelli and Gray. Does this decadent look at a changing Berlin in the early 30's earn it's "Money, Money?" Let's head to the infamous Kit Kat Klub in the heart of Berlin to find out...

The Story: Sally Bowles (Minnelli) is a singer in Berlin in 1931 who performs at the Kit Kat Klub, a sleazy nightspot. She meets a man from her boarding house, author and English teacher Brian Roberts (York), at the club one night. Despite his seeming disinterest, they eventually become friends, and then lovers. Sally and Brian eventually befriend Max (Griem), a rich German nobleman. He takes them to his country house and proceeds to have affairs with both. He eventually grows bored with them and heads to Argentina, leaving them money, to Sally's general lack of amusement. She's even less happy when she discovers that she's pregnant. Brian wants to take her back to England, but she has no interest in being a dull housewife and gets an abortion.

Two friends of theirs, Fritz, a German Jew who claims he's Christian (Fritz Wepper) and Natalia, a snooty German Jewish heiress (Marisa Berenson), don't do much better. He has to reveal his true religion to her parents...which turns out to not be the smartest thing he could do. The Nazis are rising to power, and they don't like anyone who is different from them, especially Jews. Meanwhile, the Master of Ceremonies (Gray) joins Sally and the dancers at the Kit Kat Klub in musical numbers that comment on the action, showing how the Nazis went in the space of two years from barely being tolerated in the Klub to having prime seats and influencing the numbers.

The Song and Dance: Gray's creepy performance and Minnelli's electric one won them both deserved Oscars. York and Griem are also excellent as the men in Sally's life who are more willing to get out of Germany before things get ugly. Fosse's dynamic direction turns the numbers into a riot of color and motion, showing off his famous knock-kneed, tight-limbed dancing style. The brilliant colors on the stage make a wonderful contrast to the darker tones in the non-musical segments and nearly shimmer in the spooky anthem "Tomorrow Belongs to Me." Love the art direction and costumes that ably capture all the glamour and hell-for-broke sexuality of Berlin in the early 30's, before the rise of the Nazis forced things to be toned down.

It's interesting how the movie portrays sexuality, especially homosexuality. At a time when the subject was just starting to come up more often in the US, it's pretty open about what Brian and Max were. Considering that the Nazis were even less fond of homosexuals than they were of Jews, it's probably just as well that both men left.

Favorite Number: Almost every song in this film has become iconic today, from Gray and Minnelli's classic bump-and-grind to "Money, Money" to Minnelli belting "Maybe This Time." The opening number "Willkomen" and title-song finale perfectly encapsulate the movie's themes as Gray introduces his "beautiful" girls in barely-there stripper costumes and black mascara, and then Sally pretty much demands that everyone join her in enjoying life, no matter what. "Mein Herr," with Sally dancing around the high-backed chair, is probably the one everybody thinks of when this movie comes to mind, along with the chilling Nazi ballad "Tomorrow Belongs to Me."

Trivia: Bob Fosse became the first director in history to win a Tony (for the show Pippin), Emmy (for the special Liza With a Z) and Oscar in one year.

This won eight Oscars in 1972, the most any movie has ever won without winning Best Picture.

The original stage version of Cabaret debuted in 1966. On stage, more time was spent away from the Kit Kat Klub, Brian was named Cliff and his sexuality was far less open, and the second couple were Sally and Cliff's German landlady and the kindly Jewish shopkeeper she was going to marry - until the Nazis come in. Gray had been the Master of Ceremonies in the original cast and would be the MC again in a 1987 Broadway revival. The show would turn up on Broadway again, with heavy revisions, in 1998 and 2014.

What I Don't Like: Definitely not for children, those who prefer their musicals on the lighter side, or aren't into Fosse's style. The book sequences between songs explore sexual, religious, and political themes in a way that's pretty darn grim. After all, this is a musical about the rise to power of one of the nastiest political groups in history. While the numbers do lighten things a bit, especially early-on, most of this is as dark as you can go. There's quite a bit of sex and adult themes, and we see the results of Brian getting a beating from Nazis (though not the actual beating).

Yet another musical I wish had kept more songs from its stage version. I understand that Fosse wanted to focus on the contrast between the escapism at the Kit Kat Klub and the difficulties of everyday life, but some of the cut songs are really good, including "Don't Tell Mama," "It Couldn't Please Me More," and "The Money Song."

The Big Finale: Adults who are fans of Fosse, Minnelli, or want to check out a more thoughtful and darker musical than usual will have a lot to chew on in this decadent, slightly sleazy tale.

Home Media: A restored Blu Ray edition was just released from the Warner Archives this past November.

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Blu-Ray
Google Play