Musicals - Movies

Hullabaloo

Musicals

Eager to make a name in radio, ex-vaudevillian Frank Merriweather (Frank Morgan) hits the airwaves by playing all the roles in a skit about Martian invaders. He plays the parts too well, raising panic in the streets and causing station brass to fire him. Hullabaloo's spoof of the Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds radio event is an antic highlight of this movie musical centered on merrily befogged Merriweather's attempt to restore his career – all while reuniting with his three children (from his three alimony-seeking ex-wives!). Joining Morgan for the fun is a mix of screen veterans (Billie Burke, Donald Meek), rising talents (Virginia Grey, Dan Dailey, Jr.) and specialty performers that include deadpan song stylist Virginia O'Brien and 31-year-old tenor Charles Holland as a singing bellhop. Holland would find operatic success in Europe and make his long-overdue debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of 73.

Music for Millions

Musicals

The women of a touring symphonic orchestra are a tightly knit group, and they're not about to let the secret they hold slip through the knitting. They'll wait until fragile, pregnant bassist, Barbara Ainsworth (June Allyson), has her baby before letting her know about a War Dept. telegram that says her husband is missing in action in the WWII Pacific. But Barbara begins to notice differences in the way the women are acting around her. The all-star Music for Millions is part weepie, part comedy, part morale booster and, all in all, a stirring showcase of works by Chopin, Debussy, Grieg and others. José Iturbi adds his gifted screen presence and talents as the orchestra's conductor. Jimmy Durante provides warmth and comedy relief that includes his nightclub favorite "Umbriago." And Margaret O'Brien's endearing performance as "Mike" capped a year that resulted in a special Academy Award for Outstanding Child Actress of 1944.

A Prairie Home Companion

Musicals

A prestigious cast headed by Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner director Robert Altman ("Short Cuts," "Gosford Park"), including Academy Award-winner Tommy Lee Jones ("In the Valley of Elah," "The Client") and Academy Award-winner Meryl Streep ("The Devil Wears Prada," "The Bridges of Madison County"), among many others star in this fictionalized film account of Garrison Keeler's popular radio program. The Fitzgerald Theater is about to close for business after radio station WLT is purchased by a rich Texan company and the celebrity cast prepares for its last performance as they fill quirky roles of singing cowboys, stagehands, businessmen and angles. Also starring Lindsay Lohan ("Georgia Rule," "Mean Girls"), Academy Award-nominee Woody Harrelson ("Semi-Pro," "Natural Born Killers") and Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominee John C. Reilly ("Chicago," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby").

Cover Girl

Musicals

An ambitious chorus girl seeks a career on Broadway by entering a magazine's Cover Girl contest.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Musicals

Celebrate 75 Years of Glamour from 20th Century Fox! Two glamorous showgirls have everything a girl could want – except engagement rings! In a quest for true love, Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) and her gold digger pal Dorothy (Jane Russell) set sail on a luxury-liner for France. While on board, the pair hit rocky waters when a manipulative detective (Elliot Reid), an over-aged millionaire (Charles Coburn), and the entire men's Olympic Gymnastics team try to put an anchor in their marriage-minded mischief. It's a wild and joyous funny ride across the Atlantic as Lorelei and Dorothy plan and plot a way to land their men!

Pearly Gates

Musicals

Whiner is a successful Urologist, a Jewish Mohel, a hopeless humanitarian, a charismatic visionary, friend, role model, husband and son. When the news is broken to him that he has but a few months to live, he panics. How can he leave this world without the realization of his legacy: 'Pearly Gates', an affordable housing existence for senior citizens? He needs time; more time. As Whiner makes his way through the five stages of his imminent death, he learns more lessons about life than he could have bargained for, especially that funerals are wasted on the dead. Whiner's life takes on unimagined meaning as he experiences his death while he's still alive. With 16 original songs, audiences sing, laugh and cry through the five stages of death as they discover how real legacy lives on in ones we love after we have entered the Pearly Gates.

Anchors Aweigh

Musicals

Oscar-winners Gene Kelly ("Singin' in the Rain," "An American in Paris") and Frank Sinatra ("From Here to Eternity," "The Manchurian Candidate") star as two sailors on leave in Hollywood who sneak into a movie studio so they can win an audition for aspiring singer Kathryn Grayson ("Kiss Me Kate," "Show Boat"). Nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, it won for Best Score. Kelly received a nomination for his outstanding performance, including a wonderful dancing duet with "Jerry," the cartoon mouse. Great songs from legendary Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. With Oscar-nominee Dean Stockwell ("Married to the Mob," TV's "Quantum Leap"). Directed by the acclaimed George Sidney ("Bye Bye Birdie," "Show Boat," "The Three Musketeers").

The Sound of Music

Musicals

Rodgers & Hammerstein's® cinematic treasure, “The Sound of Music” is the winner of five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture. In this true-life story, Julie Andrews lights up the screen as Maria, a spirited young Austrian woman who leaves the convent to become a governess for Captain von Trapp’s (Christopher Plummer) seven unruly children. Her charm and songs soon win the hearts of the children – and their father. But when Nazi Germany unites with Austria, Maria is forced to attempt a daring escape with her new family.

Snow White and the Three Stooges

Musicals

The world-famous Three Stooges turn the classic fairy tale on it's ear, with their own personal send-up of the Snow White tale. The usual slap-shtick high jinks of the trio of kooks - Curly (Joe), Larry, and Moe - are wrapped around a not-so-close resemblance to the story about the lovely maiden and the wicked queen. Olympic champion figure skater Carol Heiss plays Snow White, and the Three Stooges take the place of the seven dwarfs.

The Harvey Girls

Musicals

It's a high-spirited Oscar-nominated musical clash between respectable waitress Judy Garland and wicked dance-hall queen Angela Lansbury when a restaurant chain opens up along railroad lines in the wild west of 1880's New Mexico. Get on board for the Oscar-winning song, "On the Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe." A lavish MGM production, based on a true story. Starring Academy Award-winners Garland ("The Wizard of Oz," "Meet Me in St. Louis") and Lansbury (TV's "Murder, She Wrote," "Gaslight") with Ray Bolger ("The Wizard of Oz"), Marjorie Main ("Meet Me in St. Louis"), Academy Award-nominee Chill Wills ("The Alamo," TV's "Francis, The Talking Mule") and Cyd Charisse ("Singin' in the Rain"). Directed by the acclaimed George Sidney ("Bye Bye Birdie," "Show Boat," "The Three Musketeers") and produced by Oscar-winner Arthur Freed ("An American in Paris," "Gigi").

Broadway Melody of 1940

Musicals

Oscar-honoree and Golden Globe-winner Fred Astaire ("Top Hat," "The Towering Inferno") stars in this enjoyable musical about the friendship and rivalry between two dance partners. Problems arise when both men fall for the same gorgeous woman. Co-starring Oscar-honoree George Murphy ("Battleground") and Eleanor Powell ("That's Dancing"). An outstanding Cole Porter score, including "Begin the Beguine."

Maytime (1937)

Musicals

One of the top-grossing films of 1937, Maytime is the poignant, glorious musical that has long been acknowledged as a supreme masterpiece of its genre. See and hear Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy at the height of their vocal powers and popularity. John Barrymore gives a thunderous portrayal as Nicolai Nazaroff, the egocentric voice teacher whose jealousy proves to be fatal. Marcia (MacDonald), young and beautiful, is an opera singer, the toast of Napoleon III's Paris. Paul (Eddy) is an American voice student, homesick and penniless. They meet and fall in love. Unfortunately, she has just accepted Nazaroff's proposal of marriage. Maytime's many highlights include Sigmund Romberg's lovely theme song, "Will You Remember? (Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Sweetheart)", the superb Russian opera sequence adapted from Tchaikovsky's "Fifth Symphony" and the ghostly, flower-strewn finale, one of motion-picture history's most touching scenes.

Roberta

Musicals

Fun's in fashion when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (plus Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott) enter the ultrachic Parisian world of high fashion in Roberta. The third Astaire/Rogers film, a silky screen adaptation of the 1933 Broadway hit, has all that fans have come to expect from the pair's movies: a jaunty romantic plot, fabulous sets, memorable music and above all, incomparable dance magic to match the score. "The most pleasant moments in Roberta," Time reported, "arrive when Astaire and Rogers turn the story upside down and dance on it." Astaire may sing I Won't Dance. But his feet betray him.

Higher and Higher

Musicals

Servants pass off one of their own as an heiress in hopes of winning her a wealthy husband.

Live a Little, Love a Little

Musicals

Elvis Presley stars as a photographer working two very different jobs and trying to juggle his responsibilities while being pursued by a beautiful, idiosyncratic woman. When the salary from Greg's (Presley) job as a photographer for a conservative magazine is not enough to pay his rent, he moonlights by shooting pin-up photos for a men's magazine. Now, while hoping that his straitlaced boss does not learn about his outside work, the singing, dancing, sexy Greg is pursued by a fashion model who may--or may not--be married.

Rose Marie

Musicals

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, Fernando Lamas, Bert Lahr, and Marjorie Main, this Cinemascope treatment of composer Rudolf Friml's operetta tells the familiar story of a trapper's daughter who is torn between the Mountie who wants to civilize her and a dashing prospector. At first, cheerful mountie Mike Malone (Keel) is only interested in using Rose Marie (Blyth) to capture her sweetheart, renegade trapper Duval (Lamas), but eventually Mike and Rose Marie fall in love. Comic Bert Lahr sings "I'm the Mountie Who Never Gets His Man," and the original score is augmented by several compositions. Popular songs include "Rose Marie" and "Indian Love Call." A young Rita Moreno performs in a remarkable "Indian sacrifice" production number.

On the Town (1949)

Musicals

Oscar-winners Gene Kelly ("Singin' In the Rain," "An American In Paris") and Frank Sinatra ("From Here to Eternity," "Guys and Dolls") star in this fun-filled spectacular musical about three sailors who wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York. Oscar-winning score features "New York, New York."

Presenting Lily Mars

Musicals

Judy Garland stars as a small-town girl with big-city dreams who heads to Broadway and--despite many disappointments and much hard work--stardom in Presenting Lily Mars. After years of struggling in New York, Lily Mars (Garland) finally lands and job as understudy to the star of a Broadway show produced by the man she has come to love, John Thornway (Academy Award winner Van Heflin). Yet, when the star can't go on and Lily triumphs on stage, Thornway refuses to give her the leading role, afraid that he will be accused of favoring his girlfriend. But nothing is going to stop Lily Mars from reaching the stardom she seeks in this delightful musical.

The Gang's All Here

Musicals

Eadie Allen (Alice Faye) is a chorus girl who dreams of becoming a star. While working at a New York nightclub, she meets Sergeant Andy Mason (James Ellison); they fall in love but he is shipped off to war. As Eadie becomes the headliner at the nightclub, Andy comes home a war hero. But complications arise when Eadie finds out Andy is unofficially engaged to another woman. It's up to Eadie's friend and nightclub co-star Dorita (Carmen Miranda) to set things straight. The Gang's All Here is filled with leggy chorus dancers and lavish musical production numbers including Faye's flashy neon finale "The Polka Dot Polka."

It Happened At the World's Fair

Musicals

Elvis Presley, the undisputed King of rock 'n' roll, stars in this fun-filled musical romance as a crop-dusting pilot who is escorted through the Seattle World's Fair by a cute Chinese girl and falls in love with a beautiful woman. Look for the screen debut of Kurt Russell ("Executive Decision," "Stargate"). Co-starring Gary Lockwood ("2001: A Space Odyssey").

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