History of Musical Film
1960s Part II
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996-2003)

(The images below are thumbnails – click on them to see larger versions.)

Broadway's Leftovers
The souvenir book for the film version of My Fair Lady (1964) – an outstanding example of the multi-image logos that were very popular with 60s screen musicals.

Without the old studio system to generate original projects, Broadway became Hollywood's primary source for musicals. With a typical corporate belief that large budgets could compensate for a lack of fresh imagination, filmmakers often went overboard in adapting stage musicals for the big screen. Some of the resulting films, although uneven, still had their virtues. In many cases, the presence of a project's original stage star made the difference –

• Bells Are Ringing (1960) was the last screen musical produced at MGM by Arthur Freed. With his production unit disbanded, Freed found it challenging to adapt this Broadway hit. Although the film is not entirely satisfying, it preserves Judy Holliday's inspired performance as an answering service operator who finds love and adventure in Manhattan.

• The Music Man (1962) was twenty minutes longer on screen than on stage, but stellar performances by Robert Preston and Shirley Jones and a picture-perfect physical production made it all irresistible.

• My Fair Lady (1964) also ran on the long side, but Rex Harrison recreated his definitive stage performance as Henry Higgins, and Cecil Beaton's costumes looked even more breathtaking than they had on stage. Although Audrey Hepburn's singing was dubbed (by gifted soprano Marni Nixon), her luminous performance has proved a timeless delight. Few were surprised when My Fair Lady received the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Harrison was name Best Actor

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1967) preserved the hilarious stage performances of Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford. Film director Richard Lester stressed the raucous comedy over the music, with amusing results.

• Sweet Charity (1969) is an underrated gem, thanks to the vision of director/choreographer Bob Fosse and an endearing title role performance by Shirley MacLaine -- and solid supporting work by stage veterans Chita Rivera, Stubby Kaye and John McMartin. Like the screen version of Hello Dolly, it had the misfortune of opening at a time when critics and audiences were turned off by a surfeit of bad movie musicals.

Big Winners
An ad for the soundtrack recording of Oliver! (1969). It was the last musical film of the 20th Century to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. In fact, no other musical took the coveted prize until Chicago won in 2003.

On at least four occasions, filmmakers adapted a stage musical with real imagination, creating musical films that were arguably stronger than the Broadway originals –

• West Side Story (1961) had Jerome Robbins on hand to adapt his stage choreography for the camera – producer/director Robert Wise did the rest. The results garnered ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Director.

• The Sound of Music (1965) -- discussed at length on a previous page -- became one of the highest grossing films of all time. It combined sweeping visuals with shrewd casting to counteract the sweeter aspects of the story. Directed by Robert Wise, it received five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Director.

• Funny Girl (1968) had veteran director William Wyler on hand to help Barbra Stresiand reshape her stage performance as Fanny Brice in vibrant cinematic terms. The "Don't Rain on My Parade" sequence, beginning in a Baltimore train station and ending on a tugboat steaming through New York harbor, was pure big screen magic. Streisand's impressive screen debut brought her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

• Finian's Rainbow (1968) was the first feature film directed by Francis Ford Copolla, who wisely left most of the original plot and score in place. Fred Astaire was still a charmer in his final musical screen role as an Irishman who has stolen the leprechaun's legendary crock of gold. 

• Oliver! (1968) was as magical as any musical film could hope to be. It dazzled in all departments, with unforgettable performances by Ron Moody as Fagin and young Jack Wild as the precocious Artful Dodger. British director Carol Reed and American choreographer Onna White fashioned a lasting triumph. The film received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Director.

Oliver was the fourth musical in ten years to win Best Picture – no previous decade had seen more than two musicals cop the top prize. It would be thirty four years before the Academy Award went to another musical.

Big Losers
The smashing success of these films led others to attempt big musical films, but the trend soon petered out. Why? For one thing, rock had become the predominant sound in popular music, but the key issue was the poor quality of the musicals in question. Again, money was poured into the creative breach, resulting in bloated, boring musical films –

• Half a Sixpence (1967) still had the energetic British stage star Tommy Steele in the lead, but even he could not break through through an overblown, heavy-handed film version.

• Camelot (1967) had possibilities, but director Joshua Logan squelched them all. Despite having a score by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Logan cast leads who could not sing, and took such a muddled approach that he was relieved of his duties before the film could be completed. No wonder the final product wanders into embarrassing incoherency.

• Paint Your Wagon (1969) saw Logan directing yet another Lerner & Loewe project, with even more ghastly results. The leads can't sing and the film descends into chaos. Harve Presnell's thrilling rendition of "Mariah" seems like it wandered in from another movie.

• Hello Dolly (1969) had Gene Kelly directing and a team of MGM musical veterans behind the scenes. It offered Barbra Streisand in the title role and included tons of solid entertainment, including Streisand joining forces with Jazz legend Louis Armstrong for a memorable duet. But the late 1960s saw so many overblown screen musicals that critics were not in the mood to give this film its due. Many complained that Streisand was too young to play the title role, and the $15 million film failed to make a profit on its original theatrical release. But fans developed an affection for this period spectacle, making it a ratings winner on television reruns. When home video was introduced in the 1980s, Hello Dolly earned a long overdue profit when it became one of the first best sellers on VHS.

Believe it or not, the worst was yet to come. The decade ahead would bring some of the most appalling screen musicals ever seen – and a new record-setting hit.

Next: Film 1970s