Musical film
The
musical film is a
film genre in which several
songs sung by the
characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are usually used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters. A subgenre of the musical film is the
musical comedy, which includes a strong element of
humour as well as the usual
music,
dancing and storyline.
The musical film was a natural development of the
stage musical. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery which would be impractical in a
theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if there is a live audience watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the deictic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it.
The musical film is the genre associated with the transition from
silent film to
sound film. The concept of "talking pictures" had been considered a risky investment by the major
Hollywood studios until the
Warner Bros. studio took the leap and produced
The Jazz Singer (
1927), starring
Al Jolson. Jolson's singing in the picture forever changed the medium of film, and it jolted Hollywood into the era of sound. As Hollywood adapted to sound films, musical films were an important part of Hollywood's movie output, ranking alongside
Westerns, dramas, and comedies.
The
1930s,
1940s, and
1950s are often considered the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its height.
The First Musicals
In 1928, Warner Brothers released the first all-talking feature
Lights of New York (1928) which included a musical sequence in a night club. The enthusiam of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. The first movie that could be said to be a musical was
The Broadway Melody, it was a smash hit and won an
oscar for
Best picture of
1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed version of Broadway hits. Warner Brothers produced the first screen operetta,
The Desert Song in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film in
Technicolor. This was followed by the first all color all talking musical feature which was entitled
On with the Show (1929 film)}On with the Show (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was in fact the second all-color all-talking feature which was entitled
Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). This film broke all box office records and remained the highest grossing film ever produced until 1939. Suddenly the market became saturated with musicals, revues and operettas. The following all-color musicals were produced in 1929 and 1930 alone:
The Show of Shows (1929),
Sally (1929),
The Vagabond King (1930),
Follow Thru (1930),
Bright Lights (1930),
Golden Dawn (1930),
Hold Everything (1930),
The Rogue Song (1930),
Song of the Flame (1930),
Song of the West (1930),
Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930),
Under A Texas Moon (1930),
The Bride of the Regiment (1930),
Whoopee! (1930),
The King of Jazz (1930),
Viennese Nights (1930),
Kiss Me Again (1930)''.In addition, there were scores of musical features released with color sequences. By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut the music from films that were then being released. For example,
Life of the Party (1930) was originally produced as an all-color all-talking musical comedy. Before it was released, however, the songs were cut out. The same thing happened to
Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931) and
Manhattan Parade (1932) both of which had been filmed entirely in
Technicolor. The public had quickly come to associate color with musicals and thus the decline in their popularity also resulted in a decline in the use of color.
Busby Berkeley
The taste in musicals was finally revived once again in 1933.Director
Busby Berkeley began to enhance the traditional dance number with ideas drawn from the
drill precision he had experienced as a soldier during the
First World War. In films such as
42nd Street (
1933), Berkeley choreographed a number of films in his unique style. Berkeley's numbers typically begin on a stage but gradually transcend the limitations of theatrical space: his ingenious routines, involving human bodies forming patterns like a kaleidoscope, could never fit onto a real stage and the intended perspective is viewing from straight above. Berkeley's use of the female body as an erotic spectacle is regarded by many
feminists today as exploitation.
Musical stars
Musical stars such as
Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers were among the most popular and highly respected personalities in Hollywood during the classical era; the Fred and Ginger pairing was particularly successful, resulting in a number of classic films, such as
Top Hat (
1935),
Swing Time (
1936) and
Carefree (
1938).
Many dramatic actors gladly participated in musicals as a way to break away from their typical typecasting. For instance, the multi-talented
James Cagney had originally risen to fame as a stage singer and dancer, but his repeated casting in "tough guy" roles and
gangster movies gave him few chances to display these talents. Cagney's
Oscar-winning role in
Yankee Doodle Dandy (
1942) allowed him to sing and dance, and he considered it to be one of his finest moments.
Many comedies (and a few dramas) included their own musical numbers. The
Marx Brothers' movies included a musical number in nearly every film, allowing the Brothers to highlight their musical talents.
The Freed Unit
During the late
1940s and into the
1950s, a production unit at
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer headed by
Arthur Freed made the transition from old-fashioned musical films, whose formula had become repetitive, to something new. In
1939, Freed was hired as associate producer of
The Wizard of Oz, and rescued the film's signature song,
Over the Rainbow, from the editor's scissors. Recruiting his own workers, mostly from
Broadway and the
New York stage, Freed was responsible for bringing such talents as director
Vincente Minnelli to the world of film. Starting in
1944 with
Meet Me in St. Louis, the Freed Unit worked independently of its own studio to produce some of the most popular and well-known examples of the genre. The products of this unit include
Easter Parade (
1948),
On the Town (
1949),
An American in Paris (
1951),
Singin' in the Rain (
1952) and
The Band Wagon (
1953). This era allowed the greatest talents in movie musical history to flourish, including
Judy Garland,
Gene Kelly,
Ann Miller,
Donald O'Connor,
Cyd Charisse,
Mickey Rooney,
Jane Powell,
Howard Keel, and
Kathryn Grayson. Fred Astaire was also coaxed out of retirement for
Easter Parade and made a permanent comeback.
The 1950s musical
Since the 1950s, the musical film has declined in popularity. One reason was the change in culture to
rock n' roll and the freedom and youth associated with it. Elvis Presley made a few movies that have been equated with the old musicals in terms of form. Most of the musical films of the 50s and 60s, e.g.
Oklahoma! and
The Sound of Music, were straightforward adaptations or restagings of successful stage productions.
The musical film today
The trend in modern filmmaking after the
1960s has been to avoid "musical films" as such, in favour of using music by popular rock or pop bands as 'background music' in the hope of selling a
soundtrack album to fans. There are exceptions to this rule, however, and films about actors, dancers or singers have been made as successful modern-style musical films, with the music as an intrinsic part of the storyline. The other exception to the rule is the children's
animated movie, which almost always include traditional musical numbers, some of which, such as
Beauty and the Beast and
The Lion King, have later become live stage productions. In the early
2000s however, the musical film has begun to rise in popularity once more, with new works such as
Moulin Rouge!, or film remakes of stage shows, such as
Chicago,
Rent, and
The Producers, with the last two featuring many of the original Broadway cast members.
Another exception to the decline of the musical film is
Bollywood, the
Indian film industry, where the vast majority of films have been and still are musicals. Thanks to the
incumbent Bollywood formula of the often garish and unrealistic "
song and dance" routine, and the lack of an independent Indian
popular music scene until the late nineties, the Indian film and popular music industries have been intertwined since virtually the beginning of film production in the country. Some top
playback singers are
celebrities in India due to the demand for so-called
filmi singles and albums. This trend continues even to date, although a few of the newer Bollywood films (usually in the English language or art genres) are breaking the mold by releasing films with no songs (such as
Black,
Matrubhoomi and
15, Park Avenue).
* A list of musicals in alphabetical order can be found
here (names beginning A to L) and
here (names beginning M to Z); note that not all of these have been made into films.
* A list of musical films in chronological order can be found
here.
*
List of movies with sing-along scenes*
List of movies based on stage plays or musicals
