AFI's 25 GREATEST MOVIE MUSICALS OF ALL TIME

[KayFrancis]

I'd leave Guys and Dolls on the list and Add Kiss Me Kate, Beauty and the Beast can go

[Bronxgirl48]

Guys, I know I'm going to incur wrath here but....can I just say that I have never cottoned to FUNNY FACE? In fact, it has taken me more than a few times to actually get through the whole movie. And I am someone who loves Astaire, Audrey, and Stanley Donen! I've been trying to analyze why I'm not a fan and think I've come up with, well, something -- it's too....I don't know....good! Too chic, too slick, I can't quite verbalize this (and I am one you normally can't shut up) -- the whole production is too TOO. Does this make any sense?? Please don't hate or judge me! I want to love this film, I really do!!

What am I missing? Please feel free to disabuse me of my crazy notions.

[Bronxgirl48]

(maybe it could have worked with Gene Kelly, who was about 12 years younger than Fred)

[jimimac71]

You knew I'd go there, right?
The second hit after "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A."
I don't remember Funny Face (the movie) I guess.
I love Donna Fargo. I don't expect others to (cotton) agree.
Disabuse is probably a mistamenor out here.
I am not a fan, and you can't make me be one, of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

[KayFrancis]

Sorry, duplicate post

[Swithin]

My favorite movie musical never makes any lists ever. I saw a summer stock production of Li'l Abner as a kid and have loved it ever since. Interestingly, Paramount Pictures backed the creation of the Broadway show (1956) with the specific intention of making a movie version. The movie (1959) kept most of the original Broadway cast, with the notable exception of the Julliard-trained Edie Adams, who was replaced by non-singer Leslie Parrish, who admittedly could look more seventeen-ish on a movie screen. I can't think of another musical movie which built so literally on its stage roots by embracing the cartoonish phoniness in its sets, costuming and characters. I love the stupid fun of it all and especially the cleverness and pointed satire of the songs. I've heard it criticized as an elitist jab at the lower class, but in fact the jabs are left, right and center and the whole point is to laugh at ourselves, wherever we fall socially or politically. Is it sexist? Maybe, but Dogpatch is a matriarchal society and women call the shots. It's full of colorful nonsense, an abundance of energy and some laugh-out-loud performances, and it's my #1 no matter what choices AFI tells me I have.

I love Li'l Abner and have the soundtrack on my phone. When I was a kid, I had both the original Broadway cast album and the film soundtrack LPs. I love the way the opening number -- "It's a Typical Day in Dogpatch USA" -- introduces all the characters.

I saw the Encores production at NY City Center in 1998. Lea DeLaria played the Stubby Kaye role. Julie Newmar, aged 65, reprised the role of Stupefyin' Jones, which she introduced on Broadway in 1956, aged 23.

Billie Hayes, who played Mammy Yokum on stage and screen, died in 2021, aged 96.

Charlotte Rae originated the Mammy Yokum role on Broadway. Hope Holiday (!) was her understudy (she played Mrs. Margie MacDougall in The Apartment, and is still with us). There was also a chorus member in both the Broadway and film version of Li'l Abner that gained later fame as a slightly pudgy New Yorker transplanted to Minneapolis: Valerie Harper. She was also in the chorus for Lucille Ball's stab at a Broadway musical: Wildcat.

Billie Hayes replaced Charlotte Rae as Mammy Yokum in the original Broadway production.

Btw, one of my favorite Hope Holiday roles is as Lolita in the film of Irma la Douce. Many of the songs from the stage musical were adapted for the film, but not sung.


Hope Holiday as Lolita in Irma la Douce

[txfilmfan]

I love Li'l Abner and have the soundtrack on my phone. When I was a kid, I had both the original Broadway cast album and the film soundtrack LPs. I love the way the opening number -- "It's a Typical Day in Dogpatch USA" -- introduces all the characters.

I saw the Encores production at NY City Center in 1998. Lea DeLaria played the Stubby Kaye role. Julie Newmar, aged 65, reprised the role of Stupefyin' Jones, which she introduced on Broadway in 1956, aged 23.

Billie Hayes, who played Mammy Yokum on stage and screen, died in 2021, aged 96.

Charlotte Rae originated the Mammy Yokum role on Broadway. Hope Holiday (!) was her understudy (she played Mrs. Margie MacDougall in The Apartment, and is still with us). There was also a chorus member in both the Broadway and film version of Li'l Abner that gained later fame as a slightly pudgy New Yorker transplanted to Minneapolis: Valerie Harper. She was also in the chorus for Lucille Ball's stab at a Broadway musical: Wildcat.

Billie Hayes replaced Charlotte Rae as Mammy Yokum in the original Broadway production.

Btw, one of my favorite Hope Holiday roles is as Lolita in the film of Irma la Douce. Many of the songs from the stage musical were adapted for the film, but not sung.


Hope Holiday as Lolita in Irma la Douce

..But that's another story

[BagelOnAPlate]

It's difficult to pick the "greatest" American musicals.
Musica;s are my favorite movie genre, but I tend to go with ones I like rather than ones that scholars and critics would call "great."


So, my favorite American musicals are:

1. Cabaret [probably no surprise to anyone]
2. Victor/Victoria
3. Mary Poppins
4. The Sound Of Music
5. Funny Girl
6. Thoroughly Modern Millie
7. Calamity Jane
8. On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
9. Funny Face
10. Mamma Mia

Well someone like me enjoys Julie Andrews.
I would like to see a 100 list from AFI.

Yes!
I do indeed love Julie Andrews.

[skimpole]

The last four are hard to justify and Chicago is not a great musical. Fantasia, in my view, is the indispensable Disney musical. Aladdin, Pinocchio, even Alice in Wonderland are better choices than Beauty and the Beast. Concert movies deserve to be on the list (Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz, Woodstock.

[dianedebuda]

The last four are hard to justify and Chicago is not a great musical. Fantasia, in my view, is the indispensable Disney musical. Aladdin, Pinocchio, even Alice in Wonderland are better choices than Beauty and the Beast. Concert movies deserve to be on the list (Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz, Woodstock.

I'll disagree with your last four statement, but that's ok. I did like Beauty and the Beast, but really don't think animated movies fit well into the movie musicals classification and concert movies would definitely not fit ... to me.

[jimimac71]

I don't think AFI would agree skimpole. Not in the top 25 anyway.
I can agree about Fantasia. Otherwise, I don't agree with animated or the concert category.
In my opinion, Unsinkable Molly Brown is classic musical. Talking in one breath then breaking into song.
I have not seen Beauty and the Beast and only know of Angela Lansbury singing. Really, a singing teapot.
Kind of feels like a stretch for AFI but what do I know.
I can't find a list larger than this 25 offering.
Would like to know what is bubbling under the top 25.

[LiamCasey]

Would like to know what is bubbling under the top 25.

For what it's worth, the following is a listing of AFI's 180 nominated musicals:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110313150 ... ballot.pdf

[Bronxgirl48]

Has CAMELOT and OLIVER! been mentioned?

[skimpole]

Has CAMELOT and OLIVER! been mentioned?

I would have mentioned Oliver!, I actually prefer it to the other three sixties Best Picture musicals. But I thought it was British, and hence not eligible, given that it originally appeared in London, and the movie has a British director as well as a British cast.

Also from the 180 nominees, better than Chicago and the other AFL choices I mentioned: Broadway Melody of 1940, Alice in Wonderland, Easter Parade, Footlight Parade, The Gay Divorcee, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Gold Diggers of 1933, Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, It's Always Fair Weather, Kiss me Kate, The Love Parade, The Little Mermaid, Love me Tonight, The Muppet Movie, A Night at the Opera, Purple Rain, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Stormy Weather, Swing time and quite a few of the others. Striking that A Night at the Opera is considered a musical, but The Cotton Club isn't.

[I Love Melvin]

Guys, I know I'm going to incur wrath here but....can I just say that I have never cottoned to FUNNY FACE? In fact, it has taken me more than a few times to actually get through the whole movie. And I am someone who loves Astaire, Audrey, and Stanley Donen! I've been trying to analyze why I'm not a fan and think I've come up with, well, something -- it's too....I don't know....good! Too chic, too slick, I can't quite verbalize this (and I am one you normally can't shut up) -- the whole production is too TOO. Does this make any sense?? Please don't hate or judge me! I want to love this film, I really do!!

What am I missing? Please feel free to disabuse me of my crazy notions.

I wonder if some of that feeling of too TOO has to do with the presence of Kay Thompson? I love her but she does steamroll her way onto the screen, which I think may be part of the reason why she spent so much time behind the scenes on films. Otherwise, the film is modestly clever, with nice touches like the models with clothes pins up the back of their dresses and Dovima reading a comic book, the sendup of psychobabble like "Empathicalism", observational type humor, whereas Thompson jolts you out of your seat.



The movie as a whole is admittedly slick in the mid-century Populuxe style and uses real models like Suzy Parker and Richard Avedon's photography, so maybe it's the intentionality of being SO on trend that bothers you? The age difference thing is weird, but from what I've heard, Audrey wouldn't sign on without Fred. I kind of feel sorry for the guy because by that point he'd been at it so long that he was bound to take crap for being too old whatever role he took, if he wanted to stay with musicals. Wasn't he semi-retired at that point and came back for this and Daddy Long Legs? I think he knew he had a target on his back but wanted to do what he loved.