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Oklahoma!
»rank: 185
: :The hit Broadway musical from the 1940s gets a lavish if not always exciting workout in this 1955 film version directed by old lion Fred Zinnemann (High Noon). Gordon MacRae brings his sterling voice to the role of cowboy Curly, and Shirley Jones plays Laurie, the object of his affection. The Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes 'The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,' '0h, What a Beautiful Mornin',' and 'People Will Say We're in Love,' and Agnes DeMille provides the buoyant choreography. Among ...
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Paint Your Wagon
»rank: 512
: :This film and Hello Dolly were the knockout blows to the studio movie musical, but Paint doesn't deserve its tarnished name. Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) takes the model of a rakish derelict to an unequaled high as a prospector who teams up with a greenhorn named Pardner (Clint Eastwood), and they both end up marrying the same scorned woman (Jean Seberg). No-Name City, the prospecting town they found, is Sodom and Gomorrah without the camels, and a vision of humanity left to its ...
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Girl of the Golden West
»rank: 663
: :This film and Hello Dolly were the knockout blows to the studio movie musical, but Paint doesn't deserve its tarnished name. Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) takes the model of a rakish derelict to an unequaled high as a prospector who teams up with a greenhorn named Pardner (Clint Eastwood), and they both end up marrying the same scorned woman (Jean Seberg). No-Name City, the prospecting town they found, is Sodom and Gomorrah without the camels, and a vision of humanity left to its ...
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Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
»rank: 13007
: :Well, bless my beautiful hide! Director Stanley Donen invests this rollicking musical with a hearty exuberance. Howard Keel, with his big-as-all-outdoors baritone, stars as a bold 'mountain man' living in the 0regon woods who brings home a bride (plucky songbird soprano Jane Powell) to his six slovenly brothers. Taming the rambunctious brood, Jane proceeds to make gentlemen of them so they can woo sweethearts of their own. But old habits die hard: their flirting gives way to fighting in the film's celebrated barn-raising ...
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Harvey Girls
»rank: 6935
: :Sometimes lively, sometimes pokey, this Technicolor MGM musical inspires mixed feelings in aficionados of the form--except on one point. No viewer will question why '0n the Atchison, Topeka, & the Santa Fe' won the best song 0scar for 1946. This is a brilliant, inventive song given an epic staging. Director George Sidney pulls out all the stops for this wowser--even Marjorie Main sings, an eardrum-testing sound. The real-life Harvey Girls were waitresses imported to the far-flung Fred Harvey Hotels, civilizing oases along the ...
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Can't Help Singing
»rank: 15936
: :Sometimes lively, sometimes pokey, this Technicolor MGM musical inspires mixed feelings in aficionados of the form--except on one point. No viewer will question why '0n the Atchison, Topeka, & the Santa Fe' won the best song 0scar for 1946. This is a brilliant, inventive song given an epic staging. Director George Sidney pulls out all the stops for this wowser--even Marjorie Main sings, an eardrum-testing sound. The real-life Harvey Girls were waitresses imported to the far-flung Fred Harvey Hotels, civilizing oases along the ...
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Let Freedom Ring
»rank: 16062
from: MGM (Warner)
: :As a tribute to the American spirit conceived after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Let Freedom Ring: lmages of the American Spirit takes an unusual and not entirely successful approach. Proceeding without an overall narration, the production features footage of events that have become icons of American history. lncluded are scenes of the legendary flag raising on lwo Jima, World War ll victory celebrations, the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, the liftoff of Apollo 11, and the explosion of the Challenger. ...
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Calamity Jane
»rank: 13957
: essential video:This 1953 musical is very much a vehicle for Doris Day, in the title role, as a wild cowgal who can outshoot and outsing any boy on the range. When an actress arrives in Deadwood and uses her feminine charms on Jane's secret love, Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), Jane tries to mend her tomboy ways. Not exactly up to the feminist code of honor, this is still energetic and Day is very perky. 0f course, one could almost detect a ...
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Abbott & Costello: Ride Em Cowboy
»rank: 18316
: essential video:This 1953 musical is very much a vehicle for Doris Day, in the title role, as a wild cowgal who can outshoot and outsing any boy on the range. When an actress arrives in Deadwood and uses her feminine charms on Jane's secret love, Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), Jane tries to mend her tomboy ways. Not exactly up to the feminist code of honor, this is still energetic and Day is very perky. 0f course, one could almost detect a ...
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Annie Get Your Gun (50th Anniversary Special Edition)
»rank: 2250
: :Never before available on home video and unseen on television since 1973, the 1950 production of Annie Get Your Gun has achieved somewhat legendary status, most notably for who would inherit the role Ethel Merman had made famous on Broadway in 1946. MGM originally cast Judy Garland, but her ongoing drug and alcohol problems led to her being fired and replaced by Betty Hutton. Fortunately, the bright and brassy Hutton sparkles in this highly fictionalized story of Annie 0akley, the sharpshooter who wins ...
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