The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

You write so passionately it almost convinces me that I'm entirely wrong, lmao.

I will watch it again someday, when I'm completely out of new movies to check out... which probably never comes, lmao... maybe I'm pissed that it beat Dr. Strangelove at the Oscars that year, or I should've struggled with the old-fashioned attitude of it (Rex being so sexist as I remember, and he still gets her at the end!)... I liked An American in Paris. Now that's charming, besides effortlessly sexy.

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HEI guys.

Out of the Near Misses, I was one of two (thanks, Citizen Rules!) who voted for Holiday Inn and I had it in my #2 slot. Love that movie. It was the basic story (albeit with some changes---WWII for instance) that White Christmas did later. But I prefer this one. You've got Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire together. You've got a great Irving Berlin score, including the introduction of a great new song called White Christmas! There's also the well-known Christmas classic Happy Holiday. And there's this other song that got made into a movie, Easter Parade. Just a few of the great tunes. You've got lots of comedy as Bing tries to keep Fred away from his gal (played by the beautiful Marjorie Reynolds), with Fred's nosy manager (played by the hilarious Walter Abel). So much fun. I love White Christmas but the misunderstandings between Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, and the concern for the boys' former General (Dean Jagger) put too much drama into the fun for me. I'll take the earlier one any time.

My Fair Lady is a great movie that I've seen several times, including last year. Yeah, Rex Harrison plays a total jerk but we get to see who the really classy person is (Audrey Hepburn of course), even though she starts as a low-level flower girl. Her rise above his level IMO, is what makes this movie. And I love Audrey Hepburn in anything. There was just something magical about her that I can't describe. I almost put MFL on my ballot but I was stupid, stupid, stupid! Therefore I left if off for one that I don't even watch as much as this classic. I wish I had voted for it, but luckily, 19 MoFos voted it in.


1. On the Town #93 (list proper)
2. Holiday Inn #109 (NEAR MISS)
#5. The Blues Brothers #19 (list proper)
#6. Easter Parade #78 (list proper)
#8. Meet Me in St. Louis #33 (list proper)
#9 Yankee Doodle Dandy #32 (list proper)
#10. Gigi #85 (list proper)
#12. Calamity Jane #84 (list proper)
#14. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers #71 (list proper)
#18. The Muppet Movie #45 (list proper)
#25. Neptune's Daughter (one-pointer)

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

I had A Woman is a Woman in my number 10 spot... which is, 15 points? I think? So does that mean someone else had it as their number six spot?

I love Godard and that film is so funny and off beat and even though there's only I think two direct songs or musical numbers in it, I love how it plays with dialogue and music so even though there's not songs in the traditional sense... like most everything Godard, he turns that completely around and sets music in a very MGM Hollywood style against spoken dialogue where it becomes more than just a "music score" or background music.

It's all very strange and odd and subverts while also embracing and celebrating the genre, in similar fashion to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, albeit in an entirely different approach. It could be called into question whether or not A Woman is a Woman even qualifies as a musical, but I think the general consensus among critics and film historians is that it is a musical, and as such I had to have it in my top 10 as I love the works of Godard so much and what he does with film. And Anna Karina is so great and infectiously charming in it too.

But yeah, whoever else voted for it... the single other culprit, come clean and show yourself!!!

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My Fair Lady was #40 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1960s.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Yeah, this one really has me perplexed. I truly, genuinely thought it was more likely that it was in the Top-10 than that it missed the list. I had originally had it pegged for somewhere between like 50 and 30 but I have seen lists where it is Top-10 or Top-25 online and I hear it discussed enough that... it just didn't cross my mind whether it would make the list or not, it was just a matter of how high.
So this is the one, out of everything I've seen in this experience, that has baffled me the most.

Holy crap, I hadn't realized it yet but this really shocks me too. I feel like that is on the Quintessentials list. It probably only didn't make mine because it's been a long time since I'e seen it.

From the near misses, Annette was #10 (of 18) on my ballot. I think I was trying to come up with a ballot of musicals for people who generally don't like musicals.

I didn't even realize A Woman is a Woman was a musical (it's an unseen).

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs doesn't register as a musical in my mind after the first segment, even though there's at least three or four diegetic singing bits I can think of (Tom Waits singing coming in and leaving in his segment. The Molly song starting off The Mortal Remains, as well as Gleeson's rendition of The Unfortunate Lad). It seems unfair given something I did put on my ballot, but that movie I did put, just doesn't make sense in my mind if I don't view it partially as a musical (maybe it has something to do with the convention of the musical number in westerns vs that not being a common practice in horror movies).

My Fair Lady - ....I don't know if I've seen My Fair Lady. But if I had it would have been when I was fairly young, which, if I don't even remember if I've seen it at this point, would make it indistinguishable from I haven't.

I expect to still have two movies from my ballot appear in the top 10.

My Fair Lady was #15 on my ballot.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

Yeah, all very well put.
And as a very-non non-Christian I was not bothered by it anymore than if it had been set in Greek mythology, the story works. One understands what's going on and what's at stake and I actually liked some of the imagery used for the angels and such.
And Lena Horne is such a treat. Though honestly, I loved Little Joe the most.
I've seen this three times and each time I like it just as much as the time before if not a little more.
I think I went straight to four stars on it.
And again, I'm just in shock that it's not on this list.

1. All That Jazz
2. Dancer in the Dark
4. The Burden
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
7. The Young Girls of Rochefort
8. Top Hat
12. Duck Soup
15. My Fair Lady
16. Meet Me in St. Louis
17. The Music Man
20. The Nightmare Before Christmas
22. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Cheers.

Hey, it's not like the song, Singin' in the Rain, was an original song for Singin' in the Rain.*

*: I honestly can't remember which musical it appears in earlier, but I just remember Buster Keaton is there, singing it.

Gasp. Eliza's father is one of the best things about the movie and his big number "I'm Gettin' Married In The Morning" is probably the best number in the film.

Hello police? I'd like to report a troll.


What are you, a movie reviewer or something?

I wanna see Wonka hit that TOP 5.

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"Well, at least your intentions behind the UTTERLY DEVASTATING FAULTS IN YOUR LOGIC are good." - Captain Steel

No one's mentioned it even once in this entire thread.

Maybe Thursday or Yoda got to you, but I won't be silenced.

So I guess I'll be the one to say what everyone's already thinking:

















Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was robbed.

I think most people just haven’t seen it. It’s got like 3500 votes on IMDb (compare with, say, My Fair Lady at 103,000 votes). This countdown is the first I’ve heard of it. Which, for me, is one of the big benefits of this exercise, the championing of underseen films.

Agreed. I haven't seen it, and it's not a film I've heard of before. (Or maybe I have, but it didn't stick).

Been busy. So, catching up on revealed titles from my list.


La La Land was all the way up at number two. It’s tone, visuals, attitudes, and the two central performances enchant the Hell outta me. It is my most favorite movie of the past dozen or so years. I saw it seven times, theatrically, during its initial months in the cinema. The music, the cinematography (by Oscar-winner Linus Sandgren), and the general vibe make me laugh, smile, and cry over and over again. And in an era where Romantic Comedies have largely fallen by the wayside, it is also one of my favorite RomComs in many a moon. I am beyond giving two stinky dumps who doesn’t like it. I lurve La La Land to pieces and suspect I always will.



La La Land is surely one of the best looking Musicals ever made, and THE best may well be Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg! Jean Rabier was somehow unnominated for his cinematography, but the splashy Technicolor world he, Demy, production designer Bernard Evein (The 400 Blows, Cléo from 5 to 7), and costume designer Jacqueline Moreau (The Young Girls of Rochefort, ‘Round Midnight) bring to life is a visual tour de force. Catherine Deneuve is one of the all-time screen beauties, and this may actually be her at her most impossibly and stunningly perfect. Generally, I am definitely not a fan of recitative, non-rhyming, operetta dialogue, but with Cherbourg's myriad of other strengths it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. That the story itself is a rather unromantic tale of two lovers who do not connect for very long, that real-word edginess juxtaposed as the filling in these bright and beautiful movie macarons brings it all together for me. I had it at number eight on my ballot.



While the 1950s may be the golden era of the Hollywood Musical, it was the 1960s that saw them transform into gigantic prestige productions that won Best Picture Oscars. Nine Musicals in the 1960s were nominated for Best Picture. Funny Girl (#77), The Music Man (#29), and Oliver! (#44) have already shown on the countdown. Four of the eight won, the last being Oliver!. All four will make it, as will one other non-winner that is practically perfect in every way. Of course the other Best Picture winner was…

My Fair Lady. I had it at the bottom of my ballot, only two points from me as my number twenty-four. But no more was needed from me to propel it into the Top Ten. The Pygmalion story is so strong, making Lerner & Lowe’s wonderful wordplay and melodies the perfect compliment. Yes, I am well aware like everyone that the loverly Audrey Hepburn was not allowed to do her own singing, but her Eliza Doolittle is delightful all the same. Couldn’t leave it off my ballot.


That makes seventeen of my choices, and I only have one more coming in the collective Top Ten.

HOLDEN’S BALLOT
2. La La Land (#13)
3. Pennies from Heaven (#56)
4. Dancer in the Dark (#20)
5. A Hard Day’s Night (#23)
6. The Blues Brothers (#19)
7. That Thing You Do! (#31)
8. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (#11)
11. This is Spın̈al Tap (#55)
13. A Star is Born (#43)
14. Hair (#47)
15. Sing Street (#40)
17. Amadeus (#97)
18. Once (#25)
21. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (#69)
22. Little Shop of Horrors (#18)
24. My Fair Lady (#10)
25. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (#74)

I also hadn’t heard of Cabin in the Sky until now.

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Me either.