What are your favorite "lesser known" movie musicals? I'm in a musical mood, DL! I'd like some recommendations.
I thought that Good News was great. Certainly lesser known compared to other MGM musicals, but I'm not sure if it'd truly be considered "lesser known."
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 35 | May 11, 2021 12:50 PM |
Defarto always uses a less than subtle segue into his racially charged threads. I wonder what he is going for here...
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 8, 2021 10:55 PM |
I like "St. Louis Blues," love "Cabin in the Sky," which shouldn't be "lesser known" among movie musical watchers but who knows nowadays, love the freedom and brilliance of Rita Hayworth's joy in performing in "You'll Never Get Rich" (and all of her dance movies), and appreciate "Stormy Weather" a lot.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 8, 2021 10:57 PM |
It's time for the OP's offensive dance number to be banned.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 8, 2021 11:06 PM |
“Small Town Girl” is not loved enough IMHO. TCM shows it now and then, and it’s great. Known chiefly for the two amazing dance numbers by Bobby Van and Ann Miller.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 6 | May 8, 2021 11:31 PM |
Thanks for posting this number from Good News. I’ve always been curious about Joan McCracken. She’s mentioned in a Capote biography having been married to Jack Dunphy who was Capote’s king teen lover. They met in the chorus of Oklahoma and Agnes DeMille was impressed with McCracken and gave her bits to perform in the show that highlighted her ability. DeMille predicted great things for her but says she got involved with an intellectual crowd and wanted to be a serious actress. Dunphy divorced her when she had an affair. He claimed to have decided to become gay because of McCracken.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | May 8, 2021 11:37 PM |
Read king term for king teen!
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 8, 2021 11:38 PM |
I've always been very fond of a B musical from 1950 called THE PETTY GIRL, a totally fictitious account of how cheesecake artist George Petty, played by Robert Cummings, created his iconic calendar girl when he meets up with beautiful but prim college professor Joan Caulfield and convinces her to pose for him. Her over-protective college cronies are played by the delightful trio of Elsa Lanchester, Melville Cooper and Mary Wickes.
Just a very sweet little diversion with some delightful numbers composed by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, that occasionally plays on TCM. I love Joan Caulfield in this, I don't know why her career didn't progress further.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 8, 2021 11:47 PM |
R8, R9 What do you mean by 'Capote’s king term lover'?
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 8, 2021 11:48 PM |
long term lover, I think.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 8, 2021 11:50 PM |
Good News is one of the best known musicals from MGM's glory days.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 8, 2021 11:52 PM |
I've always thought "Private Buckaroo" was a super fun movie. Andrews Sisters, Harry James, what's not to like?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 14 | May 8, 2021 11:58 PM |
Comden and Green didn't think much of Good News early on. Towards the end of their lives they conceded it was better than they thought.
It has always been one of my favorite musicals. Robert Alton's choreography for the two production numbers is among the best.
If you like this film you must get the new bluray. It is spectacular.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 9, 2021 12:04 AM |
The only thing I don't like about GOOD NEWS are the costumes which mostly look very 1940s and bear little relationship to the 1920s. And many of girls' dresses are simply unflattering and matronly and not even pretty for 1947 fashions. But otherwise, I love the film.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 9, 2021 12:39 AM |
Joan's dress in the OP's video was unflattering and I don't need to see her frilly vagina panties!
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | May 9, 2021 12:45 AM |
I've always loved this musical. Not sure if it's 'lesser known', but many have never heard of it.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 19 | May 9, 2021 3:16 AM |
R19 Wow, Ida Morgenstern could really cut a rug when she was Rhoda’s age. Seriously though, everything Nancy Walker did was wonderful. Even when the material wasn’t the greatest, she always made it better.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | May 9, 2021 3:58 AM |
If one can get past the angel-rape, Messainic complexes, and the most juvenile schmaltzy and teeth-clenchingly horrid spoken-word poetry ever recorded, then Prince’s GRAFFITI BRIDGE is life-changing.
It’s the never-should-have-been sequel to PURPLE RAIN, and it’s...really something.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 9, 2021 12:10 PM |
R3 Is that a MOVIE musical?
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 9, 2021 1:02 PM |
I like Best Food Forward until Ball is humiliated at the dance. I think that's a really bad moment.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | May 9, 2021 6:59 PM |
Made in 1991, Stepping Out with Liza Minnelli as an amateur tap dance instructor of a group of misfits is a pure show-business fantasy piece of delightful mindless fluff. The film also features Datalounge favorite Shelly Winters as the rehearsal pianist. It is a shame this film has never attracted the attention of mainstream audiences.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | May 9, 2021 7:23 PM |
The end number in "Best Foot Forward" is one of my favorites ever. Tommy Dix has the most amazing voice - I can't believe he didn't become a star. I also can't believe the movie is only rated at 6.4 at IMDB!
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | May 9, 2021 7:43 PM |
SUN VALLEY SERENADE (1941) with ice skater Sonja Henie, the full Glenn Miller Orchestra, Milton Berle as comic relief, and best of all, the Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge doing a "specialty" number, "Chattanooga Choo Choo." Very entertaining.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | May 9, 2021 7:55 PM |
r24 Good movie. Andrea Martin is also in it.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | May 9, 2021 7:58 PM |
Not sure about Gloria de Haven but I believe June Allyson and Nancy Walker were both imported by MGM to make their screen debuts in the film of BEST FOOT FORWARD, in which they both starred on Broadway.
Obviously, the studio kept June but did they ever give Nancy another chance after that film? She's really terrific in it (see r19) and quite charismatic in her way, even if she didn't have Cyd Charisse's looks.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | May 10, 2021 12:33 AM |
Unfortunately, Nancy didn't even have June Allyson's looks. She did not have the right look for movies, even as a rubber-faced comedienne like Joan Davis and Judy Canova.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | May 10, 2021 12:39 AM |
Nancy is also in Girl Crazy probably the best of the Rooney-Garland films. She seems to have gone straight back to Broadway for On the Town.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | May 10, 2021 3:23 AM |
“Were The World Mine” 2008 only features Judy McLane in maybe one number, but it’s adorable and uses Wendy Robie in a non-psycho role.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | May 10, 2021 3:33 AM |
Inexplicably, Nancy Walker was chosen by producer Allan Carr to direct the "lesser" musical CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC. And it's Nancy's birthday today, so let's celebrate her!
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | May 10, 2021 2:04 PM |
R32 Nancy Walker was one of the few actors that when she appeared on screen, I knew I was going to have a laugh. She could take even a mediocre script or dance number and make it funny. When the writing was superb (e.g., her appearances on the Mary Tyler Moore Show), she could be spectacularly funny.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | May 11, 2021 1:35 AM |
Ann Sheridan and Sterling Hayden in Take Me To Town
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 34 | May 11, 2021 6:00 AM |
I still remember that lyric! “Take me to town, my darling m, take me to town! I will hug and kiss you if you take me to town! “
Oddly, I don’t remember Sterling Hayden. Hello, dementia!
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | May 11, 2021 12:50 PM |
