COM 329, Contemporary Film
The “Death” of the American Movie Musical
The movie musical as one of the most popular genres:
1. RKO in the 1930s * Astaire and Rogers * Busby Berkeley--Mostly “backstagers” (all diegetic music)
2. MGM in the 1940s and 1950s * The Freed Unit—Many “integrated” musicals (some operatic/no spoken dialogue) * Gene Kelly et al.
3. Roadshow musicals in the 1950s and 1960s * e.g.: South Pacific (1958); Porgy and Bess (1959); The Sound of Music (1965); Camelot (1967); Oliver! (1968); Funny Girl (1968)
4. Best Picture Academy Award winners--Four in the 1960s: West Side Story (1961); My Fair Lady (1964); The Sound of Music (1965); Oliver! (1968)
Factors related to the failure of the movie musical:
1. Loss of “stable” of dancers, musicians, choreographers, etc., due to the weakening Studio System
2. Dual acting/singing system Dubbing of singing voices works for playback singers in contemporary Bollywood, but in Hollywood in the 1950s/1960s, not so much * The wonderful case of Marni Nixon, who sang for, e.g.: Deborah Kerr in The King and I (1956) Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961) Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964) Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)—but only the “high notes”
3. Failure of some big budget musicals *The Sound of Music (1965) raised unrealistic expectations; musicals that followed did not give the same return on investment. . . why? See #4 for a partial answer. * Examples of notable failures: Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969); Hello, Dolly! (1969); Man of La Mancha (1972); Lost Horizon (1973); Mame (1974); New York, New York (1977); For a nice, comprehensive list, see AMC’s Musicals/Dance Films, Part 5
4. Star power over musicianship (forget the dubbing!) Examples: * Guys and Dolls, 1955 (MGM, D: Joe Mankiewicz; music and lyrics by Frank Loesser) with Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons * My Fair Lady, 1964 (Warner, D: George Cukor; by Lerner & Loewe) with Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn * Camelot, 1967 (Warner, D: Josh Logan; by Lerner & Loewe) with Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave * Goodbye, Mr. Chips, 1969 (MGM, D: Herbert Ross; songs by Leslie Bricusse) with Peter O’Toole, Petula Clark * Hello, Dolly!, 1969 (Fox, D: Gene Kelly; music and lyrics by Jerry Herman) with Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau * Man of La Mancha, 1972 (UA, D: Arthur Hiller; lyrics by Joe Darion and music by Mitch Leigh) with Peter O’Toole, Sophia Loren * Paint Your Wagon, 1969 (Paramount, D: Josh Logan; by Lerner & Loewe) with Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg
And then came:
1. What Thomas Schatz calls the “music movie” (e.g., Saturday Night Fever, 1977)
2. The teen musical (e.g., Grease, 1978; Footloose, 1984; Dirty Dancing, 1987)
3. Notable exceptions * Bob Fosse in the 1970s (Cabaret, 1972; All That Jazz, 1979) * Disney’s animated musicals--Great scores in the 1950s (e.g., Cinderella, 1950; Peter Pan, 1953; Sleeping Beauty, 1959), then great success with Beauty and the Beast (1991)…with many more to follow
4. Alan Parker’s bold experiments (e.g., Bugsy Malone, 1976; Fame, 1980; Pink Floyd The Wall, 1982; The Commitments, 1991; Evita, 1996)—a real mixture of all musical types—backstagers, integrated musicals, operatic
5. Post-MTV musicals (e.g., Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, 2001)
6. The franchise musical (e.g., The Producers, 2005; Hairspray, 2007)
7. Autotuning—a way to tolerate star power over musicianship? (e.g., Moulin Rouge!, 2001; Les Miserables, 2012)