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Post by mattgarth on Nov 1, 2017 14:15:57 GMT
And then there's CAROUSEL, based on LILIOM. (OK, was a stage show first) Oh, it's all too impossible for me now, matt! Well, at least I can say that I saw (actually even read) LILIOM. Liked it better than CAROUSEL, but I'm sure I'm in the minority in that. Two of my favourite songs are from CAROUSEL, however: "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "If I Loved You." CAROUSEL is close to my heart, Spider. Played 'Billy Bigelow' in college production. The 'Soliloquy' number wore me out at every performance.
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,544
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Post by spiderwort on Nov 1, 2017 15:05:32 GMT
CAROUSEL is close to my heart, Spider. Played 'Billy Bigelow' in college production. The 'Soliloquy' number wore me out at every performance. You as Billy Bigelow, wow - that's wonderful, Matt! I've only seen the film, but I imagine it wasn't an easy stage production to do. And you must have a great voice to be able to sing those songs. I wish I knew why I'm not a big fan of the film. I think I need to see it again. Maybe I'll seek it out today and see if it calms my fettered mind. I remember when I saw it as a kid I was completely overwhelmed by "You'll Never Walk Alone" - one of the great musical memories of my childhood and one of the great Rogers and Hammerstein songs. I don't remember the "Soliloquy" number, but as I said I need to see it again. Oh, and that's a film that certainly fits on my Films in New England thread, if someone didn't already post it. Shot in Boothbay Harbor and Camden - two of my favorite places.
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Post by koskiewicz on Nov 1, 2017 15:56:29 GMT
Down Argentine Way
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Post by mattgarth on Nov 1, 2017 16:10:42 GMT
More musicals based on non-musicals: ________________________________________
SUMMER HOLIDAY / AH WILDERNESS
DOWN TO EARTH / HERE COMES MR. JORDAN
YOUNG AT HEART / FOUR DAUGHTERS
BUNDLE OF JOY / BACHELOR MOTHER
ABOUT FACE / BROTHER RAT
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Post by kijii on Nov 1, 2017 17:44:34 GMT
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Post by neurosturgeon on Nov 1, 2017 18:10:40 GMT
"Lost Horizon" did have a brief life as a Broadway musical called "Shangra-La" but it was not that version that made it as a screen musical. I had a good cast and music by a good composer, but it just flopped.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 1, 2017 18:25:11 GMT
More musicals based on non-musicals: ________________________________________ SUMMER HOLIDAY / AH WILDERNESS DOWN TO EARTH / HERE COMES MR. JORDAN YOUNG AT HEART / FOUR DAUGHTERS BUNDLE OF JOY / BACHELOR MOTHER ABOUT FACE / BROTHER RAT Very good ones, matt, although I'd debate Down To Earth/ Here Comes Mr. Jordan. The characters of Max Corkle (played again by James Gleason) and Mr. Jordan (not played by Claude Rains) reappear from the earlier film, but it tells an entirely different story, that of goddess Terpsichore descending to Earth to correct a Broadway producer's inaccuracies in a show depicting Greek mythology.
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Post by teleadm on Nov 1, 2017 19:04:27 GMT
Gigi 1958, looks like a stage musical but was written directly for the screen, it later became a stage musical though.
Disney's Mary Poppins 1964, The Happiest Millionaire 1967 and Bedknobs and Broomsticls 1971, were all written directly for the movies.
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Post by teleadm on Nov 1, 2017 19:12:19 GMT
Later Fred Astaire musicals Daddy Long Legs 1955, Funny Face 1957 and Silk Stockings 1957 were all written directly for the movies.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 1, 2017 19:48:23 GMT
Later Fred Astaire musicals Daddy Long Legs 1955, Funny Face 1957 and Silk Stockings 1957 were all written directly for the movies. If you won't mind the corrections, I'm afraid that's not quite the case. Daddy Long Legs was adapted from a novel which had been filmed twice before, in 1919 and 1931. Funny Face featured an original story, but borrowed its title and four songs from a 1927 Gershwin show. Silk Stockings had been a 1955 Cole Porter B'way musical adaptation of Ninotchka.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 1, 2017 19:56:32 GMT
Gigi 1958, looks like a stage musical but was written directly for the screen, it later became a stage musical though. While it is fair to consider Gigi an original film musical, it should be noted that its basis was a 1944 novella by Colette that had been adapted for the screen in France in 1949.
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Post by teleadm on Nov 1, 2017 20:00:28 GMT
Doghouse6Silk Stockings, yes I should have looked further down, "Produced on the stage by Cy Feuer". Funny Face and Daddy Long Legs, as they are presented, I can't find any stage musical versions that they are based on. Though Funny Face has songs that were written long long before by The Gershwins that I guess have been used in many stage musicals.
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Post by teleadm on Nov 1, 2017 20:06:28 GMT
Gigi 1958, looks like a stage musical but was written directly for the screen, it later became a stage musical though. While it is fair to consider Gigi an original film musical, it should be noted that its basis was a 1944 novella by Colette that had been adapted for the screen in France in 1949. I meant to put that in too, but my net have been shaky today, and I wanted to send it before it broke down again.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 1, 2017 20:22:38 GMT
Doghouse6 Funny Face and Daddy Long Legs, as they are presented, I can't find any stage musical versions that they are based on. Though Funny Face has songs that were written long long before by The Gershwins that I guess have been used in many stage musicals. Quite correct: neither were based on previous stage musicals, but in the case of Daddy Long Legs having existed as a novel and two earlier films, the Astaire version doesn't seem to qualify as "written directly for the movies," although the songs certainly were.
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Post by Richard Kimble on Nov 1, 2017 22:25:47 GMT
Oh, it's all too impossible for me now, matt! Well, at least I can say that I saw (actually even read) LILIOM. Liked it better than CAROUSEL, but I'm sure I'm in the minority in that. Two of my favourite songs are from CAROUSEL, however: "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "If I Loved You." CAROUSEL is close to my heart, Spider. Played 'Billy Bigelow' in college production. The 'Soliloquy' number wore me out at every performance. Those interested in studying film style can try the exercise of watching the 1930 US Liliom and then comparing it to the Liliom Fritz Lang made in France in 1934. I did this awhile back (even though the Lang had no subtitles and I don't speak French; it's the visual style I was studying). The 1930 (Borzage) is rather static in the early talkie style, with very theatrical, almost expressionistic sets. It does however contain a magnificent shot of an astral train arriving in the next world. The Lang, w/Boyer in the lead, is much more fluidly directed and edited, and is almost noir in atmosphere. There's a scene where Boyer shows up at a Kafkaesque office to be processed for the afterlife by various bureaucrats. The influence of Kafka himself, or Lang's reaction to his recent experiences w/ the Nazis?
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Post by Richard Kimble on Nov 1, 2017 22:28:20 GMT
Gigi 1958, looks like a stage musical but was written directly for the screen, it later became a stage musical though. While it is fair to consider Gigi an original film musical, it should be noted that its basis was a 1944 novella by Colette that had been adapted for the screen in France in 1949. Has anyone ever noticed how closely it resembles Pygmalion/MFL?
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Post by Richard Kimble on Nov 1, 2017 22:37:27 GMT
Sticking with my original interpretation (that of film musicals adapted from other, non-musical sources...sounds like an AMPAS category), another comes to mind: You Can't Run Away From It, a misbegotten 1956 musical remake of It Happened One Night, with June Allyson, Jack Lemmon and songs by Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul. Thanks, Doghouse. And I never saw You Can't Run Away From It, but it sounds like fun. I thought it was kinda blah, though I admit it's been awhile since I saw it. However, the musical My Sister Eileen, a concurrent Columbia Lemmon musical, has at least two nice moments: the song "Bigger Than Both Of Us", which Lemmon sings trying to seduce Betty Garrett (I'm surprised it never became a songbook standard -- somebody like Diana Krall should revive it), and the classic "Alley Dance" duel between Tommy Rall and Bob Fosse (who choreographed).
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Post by Richard Kimble on Nov 1, 2017 22:49:38 GMT
How about musicals that aren't musicals?
The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) w/David Niven, Great Expectations (TV 1974) w/ Michael York, and I'll Do Anything (1994) w/Nick Nolte and directed by James L. Brooks. Each one was shot as a musical, but had all song numbers cut before release. As an exercise try watching them and see if you can spot the song cues.
Irma La Douce began as a stage musical, but Billy Wilder cut all the songs for the film version. However this was done in the script stage -- TTBOMK no numbers were filmed.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 1, 2017 22:50:37 GMT
While it is fair to consider Gigi an original film musical, it should be noted that its basis was a 1944 novella by Colette that had been adapted for the screen in France in 1949. Has anyone ever noticed how closely it resembles Pygmalion/MFL? Must be one of "The Seven Basic Plots," although for my money, teleadm 's submission of Funny Face comes even closer (and would have even with someone other than Audrey Hepburn). It could also stretch to accommodate Ninotchka/ Silk Stockings; they're all variations on the theme of "naive plain Jane" turned elegant sophisticate under an urbane gent's tutelage. EDIT for an out-of-nowhere afterthought: y'know who would have made a great Henry Higgins if the timing had been right? Clifton Webb. In a sense, he embodies such a character in Laura, which might be thought of as the dark side of Pygmalion's aftermath.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 1, 2017 23:28:04 GMT
I'm still trying to stick to film musicals adapted from non-musical sources, so here's another: Step Lively. This 1944 musical with George Murphy, Frank Sinatra and Gloria DeHaven was adapted from the 1937 play Room Service, which became the '38 Marx Bros film of the same name. Sinatra plays the role done onstage by Eddie Albert and first on film by Frank Albertson. Also in support are Adolphe Menjou, Walter Slezak and Eugene Pallette, but even with such a cast, the result lacks any spark.
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