WHAT MUSICALS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

I second Paula's motion, while I have soft spot for the 1941 version with Jeanette, Brian & Gene, because it was the first one I saw and I watched it many times afterwards, the 1932 version with Norma, Fredric & Leslie is superior and it was the version of wich my grandmother and her husband talked me about for years. Sadly, I only had access to the latter after both died, because I'd loved to have watched it with them, who had fond memories when they saw it in the cinema in the 1930s -and never again.

[feaito]

Last night I revisited, after more than 25 years I believe, Vincente Minnellis' "The Pirate" (1948) & I loved it. Judy & Gene are perfect together and the story, the atmosphere, the cinematography and the wonderful use of color by Minnelli, make this a film definitely ahead of its time. IMO a masterpiece! I did not remember the wonderful musical numbers "Niña" and "Mack the Black" - Judy's and Gene's reprise The Pirate Ballet- (fantastic both)....I did remember both numbers of "Be a Clown". The whole cast is fabulous. MGM and the Freed Unit at their peak!

[JackFavell]

I love The Pirate - Judy is sooooooo funny and beautiful. Plus the Nicholas Bros.

It's always been a favorite.

[Uncle Stevie]

I started to watch The Pirate last night and was put off by the "hoakie" beginning. Then Gene came out in his usual phony flare and I got disgusted so I turned it off. Now with your rave reviews I will play it again tonight. This time I will watch it all the way through. I will let you know what I think after I see it. I am not a lover of phony camp and this movie starts out that way. So I will turn off my cynical eye and try to watch it objectively and lovingly. Do you see? I can be forgiving.

I watched Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin in Christmas Holliday and was totally turned off by the "noir" of the film. I expect dance and singing from those two and never got it. And I am in love with Deanna Durbin. I am hopeful The Pirate will sooth my ruffled feathers.

[Uncle Stevie]

Well I finally got around to watching "The Pirate" last night and my opinion has not changed. This movie is not for me. It is too soupy camp. I love Judy and Gene but not in this flick. I saw little humor in the humor of the plot. I know this was meant to be a spoof and a farce but they went a lot overboard here.

Sorry

Uncle Stevie

[Fossy]

Well I finally got around to watching "The Pirate" last night and my opinion has not changed. This movie is not for me. It is too soupy camp. I love Judy and Gene but not in this flick. I saw little humor in the humor of the plot. I know this was meant to be a spoof and a farce but they went a lot overboard here.

Sorry

Uncle Stevie

I have enjoyed “The Pirate” a couple of times. I thought it a good show, Judy was great, as she usually is. I think that Gene`s exaggerated posing is what Uncle Stevie meant by “camp”. Personally, I would not use the word “camp”. In Australia that word has a slightly different meaning.

Slight differences between American English and Australian English are interesting. A couple that spring to mind, apart from camp, are words are spelt differently ,for instance favour and harbour. Dates are shown back to front in America. (or perhaps they are back to front in Australia). For instance 1-02-2011 in America is 2nd Jan., but in Australia is 1st Feb. Another difference is the use of the word “b****”, which seems to be a rude word in America, but in Australia is a female dog.

On another forum I used that word and my posting was deleted. I see it gets different treatment here.

[Fossy]

Tonight I watched Song Of Russia (1944)

A great movie, Starring Robert Taylor and Susan Peters. There is something for everyone, a beautiful love story, beautiful music and plenty of action. It begins in pre World War two Russia and includes the German invasion.

[charliechaplinfan]

Well I finally got around to watching "The Pirate" last night and my opinion has not changed. This movie is not for me. It is too soupy camp. I love Judy and Gene but not in this flick. I saw little humor in the humor of the plot. I know this was meant to be a spoof and a farce but they went a lot overboard here.

Sorry

Uncle Stevie

I have enjoyed “The Pirate” a couple of times. I thought it a good show, Judy was great, as she usually is. I think that Gene`s exaggerated posing is what Uncle Stevie meant by “camp”. Personally, I would not use the word “camp”. In Australia that word has a slightly different meaning.

Slight differences between American English and Australian English are interesting. A couple that spring to mind, apart from camp, are words are spelt differently ,for instance favour and harbour. Dates are shown back to front in America. (or perhaps they are back to front in Australia). For instance 1-02-2011 in America is 2nd Jan., but in Australia is 1st Feb. Another difference is the use of the word “b****”, which seems to be a rude word in America, but in Australia is a female dog.

On another forum I used that word and my posting was deleted. I see it gets different treatment here.

Your dates are the same as British dates, it's the American's who have them back to front The word for a female dog has two meanings, it's literal meaning is a female dog but it's usually used as an insult.

I love The Pirate, I love Gene's 'camp' behaviour, I love the nod to Doug Fairbanks, it's the best pairing of Gene and Judy. Must watch it again.

[Uncle Stevie]

The best pairing I have seen of Gene and Judy is Summer Stock. The best Judy scene I love is "Born In A Trunk" from A Star Is Born with James Mason. The best Gene film I like is Singing In The Rain.

[JackFavell]

I like Gene in roles where he has a little con man in him. Most of his movies are along this line. The Pirate fits this bill, so does Singing in the Rain, the sailor movies, Inherit the Wind, Les Girls and For Me and My Gal. The other "type" that works for me is something like a spoof - D'Artagnan appeals because he's a bit actor-y and over the top (in the best way), and The Pirate fits this category as well. I have to say, I am not really crazy about Gene in An American in Paris. Oooh. I am so gonna regret admitting this!

[moira finnie]

I like Gene in roles where he has a little con man in him. Most of his movies are along this line. The Pirate fits this bill, so does Singing in the Rain, the sailor movies, Inherit the Wind, Les Girls and For Me and My Gal. The other "type" that works for me is something like a spoof - D'Artagnan appeals because he's a bit actor-y and over the top (in the best way), and The Pirate fits this category as well. I have to say, I am not really crazy about Gene in An American in Paris. Oooh. I am so gonna regret admitting this!

I love Gene Kelly in everything, (the tongue-in-cheek musical scenes in The Pirate are fun, though the script is not appealing), but I know what you mean about his character in An American in Paris.

I love all the musical numbers in that movie, but Jerry the Painting Veteran is a smug jerk when he's not singing or dancing. Why he's even rude to Lois Lane aka Noel Neill, who is the pretentious American student trying to talk to Gene as he sets up his paintings! I suspect that the writers were trying to make him a character who lost his overbearing self-confidence and became a mensch once he gave his heart away, though there are problems there too. As fetching a dancing gamine as she is, Leslie Caron's acting inexperience, and perhaps her mastery of English, did not enable her to bring much warmth to her role, while the grown up Nina Foch, who was in the terribly underwritten role of the rich Lady Bountiful, brought something beyond the stilted words that gave her character a fillip of poignancy and an implied backstory--but she was made to seem unattractive in overplayed scenes--though her generosity and her lost quality might have brought a bit more depth to the story. I read somewhere that Oscar Levant and Nina Foch were meant to come together at the end as Gene and Leslie did in one version of the script, but somehow that got lost in the shuffle.

I've always wanted to see that alternate version.

[intothenitrate]

I watched Gene Kelly with Rita Hayworth recently in Cover Girl 1944. Although made during the war, there was something about it that seemed to me to harken forward to other technicolor productions that came out post-war and into the fifties. Gene's character is abrasive, possessive and self-involved--not very endearing to be sure, but that's not what I found so distracting. All the characters were one-dimensional, caricaturish, with paint-by-numbers motivations, each one a stereotype unto themselves. It had the psychotic quality of mainstream fifties cinema that I really, really have to be in the mood for to watch.

Gene Kelly's Hollywood must have been an extremely stressful place. The studio system was falling apart, television was gaining market share, and the second world war had created a moral ambiguity that we are still sorting out. I think that what I admire most about Kelly--besides his enormous talent--is that he could stand and deliver in the midst of what had to be a stressed-out and desperate environment.

This also got me imagining about what it must have been like to work on a Technicolor film at that time. Suddenly you have a whole host of new considerations: more complicated cameras, more expensive film stock, extra special considerations for wardrobe and make-up, lighting, etc. all adding up to money money money. All this had to add up to a design-by-committee situation that inevitably dilutes artistry and stiffens performance.

So the distinction I'm wondering about out loud is, might we be tending to enjoy performances in black and white films (like Gene in Me and My Gal or Inherit the Wind) because there is less technology getting in the way, fewer chefs spoiling the proverbial broth?

[Fossy]

The Great Lover (1931)
Womaniser, French baritone M`sieur Jean Paurel (Adolphe Menjou) falls for would be opera singer Diana Page (Irene Dunne). However, former friend Carlo (Neil Hamilton) is also in love with her and tries to win her back.

Ernest Torrence, gives a great performance as the lecherous butler Potter, who organizes Paurel`s “affairs”.

Adolphe Menjou gets mixed up with his “French” accent. Sometimes it is Italian and sometimes he has no accent at all. Also he pronounces “Diana” as “Deanna”. This is five years before a young Edna Durbin rearranged the letters in her name, added a couple of letters and invented the name Deanna.

[feaito]

Yesterday I watched the MGM biopic "Words & Music" (1948), just to enjoy the musical numbers featuring Rodgers & Hart's excellent songs....highlights by Judy Garland, June Allyson, Mickey Rooney, Gene & Vera-Ellan and Lena Horne....the story is inaccurate to say the least....but the same can be said of "Night & Day" (1946), "Till the Clouds Roll By" et al....films mainly enjoyable because of its stars and musical numbers...

[Fossy]

I have just watched Roberta (1935)

What a great show. Even the comedy is a bit subtle. 24 year old Ginger Rogers sings to 36 year old Fred Astaire the song “Lovely To Look At”, which includes the line “imagine finding a boy like you”. A boy? Now that is comedy.

To me it is far better than the remake Lovely To Look At (1952).