I love musicals, they're like an all-natural version of Prozac for me. If I could sing properly, I'd try my hand at playing around in the theater. A vast majority of these films were a repeat viewing experience, and many of them will make an appearance on my favorite movies list, with a few first timers thrown in for good measure.
I have decided to discuss not by ranking, but by grouping them decade by decade. This method provided me the chance to witness the growth and development of the movie musical from awkward first steps to 1950s mega-blockbusters to genre deconstructions and modern day throwbacks.
So let’s deep dive into this list and see how I think it all stacks up. Enjoy!
1930s
The advent of sound in 1927 ushered in the movie musical with awkward fits and starts, but the next few years found the genre quickly gaining its footing.
Directors: Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley
Main Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Guy Kibbee, Una Merkel, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell
Release Date: March 11, 1933
Rank: 13
Does it deserve to be on the list? 42nd Street is the premiere backstage musical, the granddaddy of them all, setting the template for the narrative and crafting the character molds. If some of it feels flabby or overly familiar, that’s simply because it’s impossible to view 42nd Street in any other way than through the prism of our current age. A veteran stage star (Bebe Daniels) has a sugar daddy putting up the money for a new show, but still pines away for her former vaudeville partner (George Brent). A young up-and-comer (Ruby Keeler, all wet in dramatics but a sensation when dancing) befriends two veteran chorus girls (Ginger Rogers and Una Merkel, stealing the movie with one-liners every chance they get), a horny chipmunk singer (Dick Powell), and finds herself slowly emerging as the rising star while Daniels descends into self-destruction, alcoholism, and abusive diva tantrums. The plot is a rusty cliché, but the pace keeps humming away and it's got a saucy Pre-Code vibe, including a character dubbed "Anytime Annie," that makes it an engaging viewing experience.
Standout scene: No moment better encapsulates both Busby Berkeley's film-making ethos and the grueling, taxing process of rehearsal quite like the montage of the chorus girls that quickly turns into a kaleidoscopic view of geometric patterns moving in precision. They become inseparable from each other, and reduced to moving parts, repeating the same actions again and again until they become smooth and familiar. Berkeley would follow this obsession throughout his career, from the "Mickey and Judy putting on a show" films to Esther Williams and co. displaying their wet thighs in the pool.
Director: Mark Sandrich
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore
Release Date: August 29, 1935
Rank: 15
Does it deserve to be on the list? You simply cannot discuss greatest film musicals without including at least one entry from the Fred and Ginger pairing, and I'm only shocked that AFI chose Top Hat instead of Swing Time, which appeared in the 2007 version of 100 Years... 100 Movies. Top Hat undoubtedly deserves placement on the list, but its exact ranking is a bit too low in my estimation as it's a tried-and-true classic with absolutely no fat. Top Hat is the type of escapism that is utterly charming in its simplistic structure, an escape into an Art Deco Wonderland where the idle rich engage in oblique games of love and heaven looks an awful lot like two people dancing cheek to cheek. Much like later day musical sensations like Esther Williams or Mickey Rooney, all of their films follow a basic series of events, types of dances, and supporting players. What makes Top Hat such a definitive example of the Astaire-Rogers films is how effortless it all appears, how much energy it projects, the strength of the Irving Berlin songs, and a dreamy, tender world unlike any other before or since.
Standout scene: What a plethora of great scenes to chose from! Take for example of athletic tap routine that functions as flirtation and a piece of character development in "Isn't This a Lovely Day (to be Caught in the Rain)," but nothing tops the ebullience and aching romance of "Cheek to Cheek." She wears the infamous feather dress, and it only underscores the romance and culminates in a deep back-bend that looks positively dreamy.
Main Cast: Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Queenie Smith, Sammy White, Hattie McDaniel, Donald Cook
Release Date: May 17, 1936
Rank: 24
Does it deserve to be on the list? Show Boat is one of those titanic musical experiences that demands respect and attention when debating what ranks as the "greatest." Despite entering the Nationa Film Registry in 1996, this particular version of Show Boat was a ghostly presence on the home video and retrospective circuit until relatively recently, and we're all the better for it. James Whale, primarily known for his work with the Universal Monsters franchise, creates a predominantly faithful film version that takes the lessons of 42nd Street in fluid camera work, the Astaire-Rogers films in how to integrate musical numbers, and expanded them into a high-spirited, engaging, melodramatic work of surprising grace and beauty. What really stands out the most here is how desperately Whale's career is in need of a serious critical reappraisal for how textured, authentic, and admirable a film he has created. Led by an incandescent Irene Dunne, with scene-stealing support from Paul Robeson, Hattie McDaniel, and Helen Morgan, this version of Show Boat comes awfully close to Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire as one of the best stage-to-screen adaptations.
Standout scene: Show Boat contains classic showtunes like "Bill," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," and "Life Upon the Wicked Stage," so there's no shortage of pyrotechnics to pick from here. Yet Paul Robeson's deep voice blaring out “Ol’ Man River” is the obvious highlight. A show-stopper made up of Whale's creative direction, impressionistic imagery, and Robeson's vocal performance, which finds the poetry and suffering in the lyrics.
Main Cast: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Clara Blandick, Charley Grapewin
Release Date: August 25, 1939
Rank: 3
Does it deserve to be on the list? There are movies, and then there are movies like The Wizard of Oz. Classics who are eternal and so reinvigorating that terms like "masterpiece" or "beloved" don’t justify their rarefied space. They sit high upon the top shelf of the canon, projecting the highest artistic heights of which we may achieve. Since 1939, hasn't The Wizard of Oz been a seminal film in the sparking of our collective imagination? I would argue that it has, and that its eventual inclusion on the list was a mere inevitability and more of a choice of where it place it.
Standout scene: Because I'm gay, because she's Judy Garland, because it's The Wizard of Oz, there's really only one choice here: "Over the Rainbow." Garland was one of the greatest film actors of her generation, an underrated dramatic performer who could sell any lyric or moment by finding the correct emotional tone. Her personal vulnerability makes lines about troubles melting like lemon drops feel spectacularly real, and "Over the Rainbow" is a moment of quiet, restrained movie magic that's indispensable.
1940s
The movie musical becomes an industry titan producing heralded classics and an entire branch of movie stardom.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Main Cast: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf, Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeanne Cagney
Release Date: May 29, 1942
Rank: 18
Does it deserve to be on the list? Dubious as biography yet it doesn't matter, Yankee Doodle Dandy is one of the most gloriously entertaining, propulsive musical films ever made. If anything, it's a bit too low down on the list at 18 considering it's stronger than several films that rank above it (Funny Girl, for instance). Between the twenty-three musical numbers, James Cagney's go-for-broke central performance, and a naivety that's endearing and warm, Yankee Doodle Dandy is enough of a tonic to make you believe in a concept of America that's alive and well, where dreams are possible to achieve, an America without limits. Without the central performance of Cagney and the locomotive-like direction of Michael Curtiz, Yankee Doodle Dandy could have easily fallen by the wayside of cinematic history, regulated to the same heap as other WWII morale boosters, but there's just something about their myth-making of George M. Cohan that remains vital. Perhaps by the time it's over you'll want to skip and leap in joyous abandon just like Cagney does down the White House steps.
Standout scene: Cagney's rubber-legged entrance in "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and everything that follows, is an iconic bit of cinematic business. The fact that the film shares its title with this song is no coincidence as everything convenes into this one moment, one that rivals anything from the MGM factory in terms of dynamism and exuberance. According to legend, Cohan said this upon seeing the completed film, "my god, what an act to follow," and that sentiment extends to Cagney's electrifying song-and-dance routine throughout.
Main Cast: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Leon Ames, Tom Drake, Marjorie Main, Harry Davenport, Henry H. Daniels, Jr., Joan Carroll
Release Date: November 28, 1944
Rank: 10
Does it deserve to be on the list? It's that subtle hint of darkness lurking underneath the sweet, colorful surfaces that makes Meet Me in St. Louis such a classic. Centering on a year-in-the-life of one typical suburban family in the days leading up to the 1904 World’s Fair, the story quietly details the triumphs and travails of the family, forfeiting a complicated narrative for the comfort of nostalgia. It is one of the greatest films ever made, and possibly Vincente Minnelli's best-known film. There's a certain modernity at play here too, as sisters Judy Garland and Lucille Bremer are the romantic aggressors, Margaret O'Brien is a death-obsessed neurotic child, and the father clearly doesn't know best. This was the first glimpse of Minnelli's strengths and towering achievement as a director, and he created a film musical for the ages.
Standout scene: It's really saying something that in a film packed with "The Trolley Song"'s jubilance, "The Boy Next Door"'s sweet yearning, and energetic "Skip to My Lou," it's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" that emerges as the standout. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” has achieved a fame so vast outside of the film that it's easy to forget how ironic the lyric is. It's an intimate moment between Garland and O'Brien, an older sister trying to comfort the younger one, yet it throbs with the uncertainty of the future, the intangibility of time, how even holiday cheer can evaporate within an instant.
Main Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen, Alice Pearce
Release Date: December 8, 1949
Rank: 19
Does it deserve to be on the list? Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra were an iconic buddy-team in the musical comedy world, and On the Town is the strongest of their three films together. Where On the Town really excels is in creating an ensemble of characters that we enjoy spending time with, that we root for, and want to see succeed. Kelly, Sinatra, and Jules Munshine play sailors on leave looking for a little romance and a good time, and Betty Garrett, Vera-Ellen, and Ann Miller are only too happy to provide all of that for them. It's an almost-masterpiece with the biggest problem being Vera-Ellen, an awkward actress but a stellar dancer, and that's something the rest of the film can't compensate enough for as she's Kelly's love interest. Still, this is one of the most enthusiastic and charming of films to come out of Arthur Freed's unit, and its placement feels just right.
Standout scene: The on-location moments of "New York, New York" are as impressive as the ballet "A Day in New York," but this one belongs to perpetually horny best friend Ann Miller in "Prehistoric Man." Miller gets a line about liking bare skin, a whooper of a naughty pun that somehow zipped past the censors, that makes Kelly and Sinatra swallow hard and blush in demureness at her sexual prowess. She also does her machine gun-like tap dancing and the entire gang destroy a dinosaur skeleton in the end - what more could you need in a number?
1950s
The movie musical machine is operating at its height with a string of masterpieces released during the decade that remain the pinnacle of the genre, most of them produced by the Arthur Freed unit at MGM.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Main Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, Nina Foch
Release Date: November 11, 1951
Rank: 9
Does it deserve to be on the list? While Singin' in the Rain is easier to embrace and admire, An American in Paris is the more coolly intellectual. It's the pop-sophisticate in comparison to its more extroverted sibling. The two films probably shouldn't be compared too much as their aims are different, but they keep getting compared due to Gene Kelly's starring in both, and that this one swept the Oscars while Singin' was ignored. It's not fair as An American in Paris offers plenty of its own giddy thrills, including an exuberant songbook comprised of famous George Gershwin tunes, Vincente Minnelli's incomparable work, and Kelly's wonderful choreography. It sits pretty in the top ten, but somehow I feel like its a bit too low when placed behind Mary Poppins.
Standout scene: An American in Paris culminates in a seventeen-minute ballet that is among the most beautiful sequences to come out of MGM and the Arthur Freed unit. Hell, it's one of the most wondrous things to come out of American cinema, period. It comes damn close to rivaling the similar ballet sequence in The Red Shoes, which was Kelly's aim/inspiration and no small accomplishment.
Main Cast: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Cyd Charisse, Rita Moreno
Release Date: March 27, 1952
Rank: 1
Does it deserve to be on the list? Singin' in the Rain plants its tongue in both of its cheeks at the same time, offering up a self-aware guffaw and an eye-roll over how preposterous this whole fame thing is. Typically, Hollywood can’t help but indulge in some deeply self-critical appraisals in films about its own practices and history, but Singin' in the Rain is a jubilant blast of musical comedy. Telling the story of the fraught transition between the silent era and the talkies, Singin' in the Rain plays like A Star is Born for laughs and a happily-ever-after. Composed as a love letter to not only the industry, but to MGM's Arthur Freed (they even throw in a proxy for him), the super-producer of the most beloved and well-known musicals of the 30s through 50s. Widely regarded as the greatest movie musical ever produced, Singin' in the Rain works on every conceivable level, is one of our cinematic treasures, and deserves the number one slot.
Standout scene: I had the good fortune to see this on the big screen in 35mm where the audience would erupt in applause and cheers at the end of scenes like "Moses Supposes," "Make 'em Laugh," and "Good Morning," but no scene got quite the ovation that the title song did. "Singin' in the Rain" is perhaps the most simplistic number in the film, but Kelly's true genius as a choreographer is in how simple he keeps the scene. Sometimes splashing around in puddles really is the best, purest way to express new found love, and never before have an umbrella and lamppost seemed so romantic.
Main Cast: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan, James Mitchell
Release Date: August 7, 1953
Rank: 17
Does it deserve to be on the list? I suppose so, if for no other reason than to get people to watch "The Girl Hunt" sequence, the uneasy combination of ghoulish/hilarious that is "Triplets," and the one-two punch of "Shine on Your Shoes" and "That’s Entertainment!" The latter became something of a rallying cry for MGM's musical units, and The Band Wagon does consistently entertain. It's just such a shame that Cyd Charisse was given no visible acting coach here, as she appears to be performing like a pre-programmed android. Fred Astaire needs someone who is a better sparring partner for him as he defaults to onanism and never bothered to share the cinematic glory unless it was fought for (think Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland). While Astaire is giving a career-best performance, Charisse is a lead balloon with the dramatics, but the sight of Vincente Minnelli doing a backstage musical pushes everything to a near-masterpiece status.
Standout scene: "The Girl Hunt" is a marvel of Charisse's lusty, abandoned dancing demanding attention and a shared spotlight from Astaire's one-man-band."The Girl Hunt" could be a prime example of explaining the lasting influence and love for Minnelli's art as it combines bright colors, an ever-moving camera, skilled dancers and brilliant pantomime. By the end, Astaire and Charisse demand our applause, and they get them, oh boy do they get them.
Main Cast: Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Jeff Richards, Julie Newmar, Matt Mattox, Ruta Lee, Marc Platt, Norma Doggett, Jacques d’Amboise, Virginia Gibson, Tommy Rall, Betty Carr, Russ Tamblyn, Nancy Kilgas
Release Date: July 22, 1954
Rank: 21
Does it deserve to be on the list? For the dancing, yes, it merits inclusion. It definitely feels like a film that needs to be discussed when the greatest movie musicals topic comes up, and sitting at 21 feels accurate. But now we need to talk about everything else that comes along with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and it isn't always pretty. Stanley Donen's direction is effervescent, Michael Kidd's choreography is unique and lively, the score is pleasant if unmemorable, but that story is just so aggressively archaic, bordering on sexist. I suppose the sexist overtones of the film's second half could be overcome with more distinct characters, but both the brides and the brothers are largely shades of beige with no discerning traits or personalities to speak of.
Standout scene: This raccoon cap wearing farce reaches its apex during the barn dance sequence, a segment which launches itself from the rest of the film by sheer force of will. It begins simple enough and keeps expanding and growing. The brothers begin by peacocking for the prospective brides, then engage in macho one-upmanship, before turning into a hand-clapping, foot-stomping flurry of body parts and flouncy skirts, and nothing else matches its energy or wit.
Main Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan
Release Date: September 29, 1954
Rank: 7
Does it deserve to be on the list? You're goddamn right it does, as this version of A Star is Born is not only one of our great movie musicals, but one of our greatest films ever and it contains one of the most masterful film performances in Judy Garland's Esther ingenue-cum-megastar. It'd be easy to write off A Star is Born as a star vehicle and vanity project, but George Cukor and James Mason give just as much of their blood, sweat, and tears to this version of the story as Garland. Yet the film really does belong to Garland as it runs the gamut of her talents - comedy, drama, singing, dancing - and contains several bits of autobiographical detail that only make the final film a richer experience. A Star is Born is a melodrama that is alive with song and dance, fiery performances and beautiful craft. It’s three hours long, never dull, and proof positive that sometimes remakes can better the original.
Standout scene: "Born in a Trunk" comes close, but nothing beats the heartbreak and joy of performing that Garland essays in "The Man That Got Away." It's the first hint that Garland is going to go for broke throughout this film, that she's not going to rest on her laurels and give us an "easy" comeback performance, but that she's rather going to reveal her soul, vulnerability, and dynamic range as a performer. "The Man That Got Away" is merely a prelude of the acting decathlon she's about to run.
Main Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Robert Keith, Stubby Kaye, B.S. Pully, the Goldwyn Girls
Release Date: November 3, 1955
Rank: 23
Does it deserve to be on the list? Perhaps it's a bit too long, and maybe a few of the musical sequences are a little stiff, but I still think Guys and Dolls is an enjoyable riot. Obvious musical players like Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine excel here, but Jean Simmons is the surprising coup, providing the movie with a heart and soul, while Marlon Brando reveals that there was a natural comedian lurking underneath all that smoldering Method intensity. Perfect it ain't, but it's got a lot of color and charm. Sometimes Joseph L. Mankiewicz's choice to simply plant the camera and shoot works, like in the high-spirited "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat," but it undoes the winking sexuality in "Pet Me Poppa" and leaves "Luck Be a Lady" is little soggy. Mankiewicz was smart to simply shut up and follow the acrobatic dancing and pantomime of the opening, which slowly introduces us to the lovable grifters and criminals we'll see more of, but he's clearly no Vincente Minnelli or Stanley Donen in the musical department.
Standout scene: "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat" gives the exaggerated cartoon gangster of B.S. Pully's Nicely-Nicely Johnson a glory moment, and he goes for it big time. Guys and Dolls gives us a bevy of broad, comically large gangsters, and "Sit Down" gives several of them a moment to remind us that this film wants us to treat them as lovable and endearing kooks. It's also a climatic moment of these ne'er-do-wells prolonged tension with the Salvation Army, something that the film was clearly building towards and who knew it'd turn out to be such a gas.
Main Cast: Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno, Maureen Hingert, Martin Benson, Rex Thompson
Release Date: June 28, 1956
Rank: 11
Does it deserve to be on the list? Everyone’s quick to claim The Sound of Music as the best of the Rodgers and Hammerstein II film adaptations, but The King and I more than holds its own. Perhaps since this one ends more tragically than happily it’s not quite afforded the same amount of respect. Shame then, as Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner banter wonderfully in this story of culture clash and changing ideals. Kerr and Brynner get some of their best film roles here, but The King and I is also prone to needless detours and occasional dull spots, most of it involving the young lovers. Still, there's that Rodgers and Hammerstein II songbook ("Getting to Know You," "I Whistle a Happy Tune") to keep things moving, and it emerges as a more modest but no less great movie musical about how we're not so different from each other once we learn how to get along with one another.
Standout scene: "Shall We Dance?" is simplistic but elegiac in its demonstration of opposites enjoying a moment of connection and levity. Kerr wears that famous golden ballgown and Brynner spins her around the lush palace in a dreamy cinematic vision of elegance and romance. Nothing better summarizes the majesty of the movie musical quite like the lines: "Shall we dance? On a bright cloud of music, shall we fly?"
1960s
The transitional years as the studio system implodes while the New Hollywood era begins dominating the scene and the musical becomes passé.
Directors: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins
Main Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn, Ned Glass
Release Date: October 18, 1961
Rank: 2
Does it deserve to be on the list? This question feels like a joke when it comes to West Side Story, because it's a classic for a damn good reason. Or rather, for several damn good reasons like Jerome Robbins' choreography, the performances of Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and Russ Tamblyn, and a songbook that's one of the greatest in the history of American theater. The only major problem with West Side Story is the central romance, a problem that's ported over from the source material (not just the musical, but Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet), which is a case of miscast leads doing no favors to already weak material. Not that the rest of West Side Story is weak material, far from it in fact as segments like "Gee, Officer Krupke," "Cool," "Tonight Quintet," "Dance at the Gym," "Prologue," and Anita's near-rape at the drug store are all indelible moments that add up to something truly spectacular. You can argue about placing it at number two, I'm not about to, but there's no arguing that West Side Story is one of the titans of the genre and deserves inclusion in the upper echelons.
Standout scene: Despite a never-ending collection of great moments, nothing compares to the continued vitality of "America." Not just for Rita Moreno's fiery, teasing line deliveries or the athletic dancing that is both flirtatious and confrontational depending on the moment, but the political fury burbling underneath best exemplified by George Chakiris' Bernardo. When people talk about a show stopping number, what they're talking about is something like "America."
Main Cast: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johnson, Hermoine Baddeley, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber, Elsa Lanchester, Reginald Owen, Arthur Treacher, Ed Wynn, Jane Darwell
Release Date: August 27, 1964
Rank: 6
Does it deserve to be on the list? All of the good in Mary Poppins is found in the performances of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, so is everyone going to turn on me when I state that the film is actually a bit of a bloated mess? The first thirty minutes is occupied by the parents, and they're not characters, they're walking punchlines with only "Sister Suffragette" providing any spark. All is forgiven when Andrews descends from the heavens and the film really takes off during the chunk in-between "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Stay Awake," which is the longest sustained bit of weirdness, joy, and greatness in the film. There are subtle nods to Mary Poppins’ witchy powers and being that keep a tiny bit of darkness creeping underneath the sentimental, placid surfaces. In its own imperfect being, Mary Poppins is a too long but charming experience that doesn't belong in the top ten, maybe somewhere between 26 and 30 in a list of the the top 50 best movie musicals.
Standout scene: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is the most famous scene in the entire film and it's plainly obvious why once you watch it. Not only is it a fun bit of nonsense, but it allows for a bit of levity to exude from the typically prim Poppins as she engages with a series of animated characters in dexterous wordplay and whimsical good humor. In a film not wanting for joy, this scene in particular is a ribald, riotous colorful blast.
Main Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper
Release Date: December 25, 1964
Rank: 8
Does it deserve to be on the list? God, do I love this movie and think of it as an exquisite jewel in the careers of everyone involved, but most notably for George Cukor and Audrey Hepburn. It feels about right at its placement, although I do find it an overall better movie than Mary Poppins and would probably switch this one to that slot. No matter, this film is a triumph, the kind of film that shouldn’t need a long dissertation or defense, it’s freaking My Fair Lady! After this deliciously tart pastry of a film, the movie musical would begin to deflate, the victim of increasing budgets and decreasing ticket sales. My Fair Lady is one of the final, elegant swan songs of the era, and a great movie for all-time.
Standout scene: "Ascot Gavotte" where Audrey Hepburn wears that improbably large hat and iconic gown while trying to display her newly acquired posh accent and refined bearing only for the illusion to come crashing down by a belting of "Move your blooming arse!" It's a perfect mixture of humor and glamour, of Hepburn's gamine charms, Rex Harrison's stiff upper lip, and the class warfare baked into the material. My Fair Lady has plenty of moments with better songs, but nothing cuts to the heart of the matter quite like the "Ascot Gavotte."
Main Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmain Carr, Heather Menzies, Nicholas Hammond, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, Kym Karath, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood
Release Date: March 2, 1965
Rank: 4
Does it deserve to be on the list? Yes, but sitting at number four feels a little too high given much of the competition it displaced, and that's about it for criticisms you'll get from me regarding The Sound of Music. It is so beloved and moves with surprising grace and energy considering its gargantuan running time that excluding it would be a travesty. At the time of release, the New York Times dubbed it "romantic nonsense and sentiment," they meant it as a criticism, but I bring it up as a strength. This is after all a story which bifurcates along its awkward two halves, the first sees a nanny fighting between the twin poles of the lord and her loins, and the second is a tension-filled escape from the Nazis. The Sound of Music is old-fashioned in the best of ways, a film about escaping that is pure escapism and timeless fun.
Standout scene: The film rests upon Julie Andrews' delicate shoulders and her ridiculous large soprano range, both of which she uses to carry this thing throughout with no visible sweat or strain. My personal preference is "The Lonely Goatherd," I just really love that bizarre song, but "Do Re Mi" is iconic. Who didn't want Julie Andrews to show up with her guitar and start breathing life and magic into their world like she did for the von Trapps after watching that scene?
Main Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Allen, Mae Questel, Gerald Mohr, Frank Faylen
Release Date: September 18, 1968
Rank: 16
Does it deserve to be on the list? As a star vehicle, Funny Girl is top of the class, as an actual movie, Funny Girl is a great star vehicle. It’s a towering monument to Barbra Streisand’s reading of Fanny Brice, and there’s more than a hint of Barbra in Fanny and Fanny in Barbra. Not enough good things can be written about Streisand’s performance, which is still her finest hour as a movie star, but this doesn't cross over into the rest of the film. The first half, in which the romance takes a backseat to Brice's career drive, ego, and indomitable vocal talents, is the clearly superior one, as the second half is leaden romantic melodrama. There's visible sparks between Streisand and Omar Sharif, but Sharif is left without much of a character to play and whole chunks of narrative and character development feel left out post-intermission.
Standout scene: One has to concede that Funny Girl is simply a 160 minute Streisand special, and it is better if you approach it that way. Naturally the film comes to a close with Streisand really singing and acting the hell out of "My Man," and it’s a thrilling moment in which she reaches beyond merely acting into some strange level of performing. The serendipity of the character and actress meld beautifully here, and it's a shame that the rest of the movie is merely ornamentation to her star persona and dominating willpower.
1970s
The theatricality and artifice of the classical film musical is largely left behind by a series of films that turned it into a diegetic experience or a jukebox exercise.
Director: Bob Fosse
Main Cast: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Marisa Berenson
Release Date: February 13, 1972
Rank: 5
Does it deserve to be on the list? The greatest film musical for my money, and it feels right at home somewhere among the top five choices. This isn’t your typical musical, as it takes place in a very recognizable real world, with all of the musical numbers mostly kept to the Kit Kat Club, and the various musical numbers providing diegesis commentary. Then there is the ambiguity of the ending, which could almost be read as defiant and hopeful if it weren’t for the pan across the crowd in the finale revealing an audience comprised of Nazi youth.Taking place at the exact time when the Weimar Republic was ending and the Nazis were gaining more power and traction in German society, Cabaret lives up to Sally Bowles’ “divine decadence” philosophy of life. Director Bob Fosse keeps a cool distance from the proceedings and Liza Minnelli commands your attention in the performance of her career as tragic, doomed singer Sally Bowles while presenting a society of corrosion and perverted sexuality.
Standout scene: Every musical number is a knockout for various reasons, sometimes they emotionally punctuation what we're watching, or they're commenting on something that will happen, or acting as shorthand exposition for the historical realities of the time. "Cabaret" as birthed by Liza with a Z here is a defiant anthem of destruction and a declaration of self, a moment where her smiling facade cracks and all of the swirling, tortured, ugly emotions that are forcing Sally into chasing joy at all costs are finally glimpsed in their full glory. This moment alone seals up her Oscar victory as one of the smartest choices the Academy has ever made.
Main Cast: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Jeff Conway, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, Kelly Ward, Stockard Channing, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, Dinah Manoff, Eve Arden, Frankie Avalon
Release Date: June 16, 1978
Rank: 20
Does it deserve to be on the list? Nope, and sitting pretty at 20 is way too high. The choice of Grease feels like a complete concession to popularity, and I wouldn't grit my teeth completely if this popped up in a Top 50 list and it came in dead last. Let's examine Grease for a minute: it is empty calories, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as plenty of beloved films are pure artifice and joyous, but Grease can’t even bother to populate its musical with actors who can sing, singers who can act, or numerous players who can dance, and all of the teenagers look like they're pushing thirty. For a rock and roll pastiche, this thing plays out like the worst of 70s soft rock, it's antiseptic, and not about anything in particular. There's no joy, no wit, no vitality here, just a soulless synthetic experience.
Standout scene: It's hard to pick a decent scene as so often director Randal Kleiser turns a randy teenage musical into an impotent experience, or stages them in such a way that they're torpedoed from the start. I guess "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" sticks out in a positive way as Stockard Channing's Rizzo remains the one character I can stomach in this whole thing and her refusal to be slut-shamed is a delight. In a film where the grand romantic gesture is a complete and total makeover for the one you "love," it's Rizzo's refusal to go quietly into that goodnight that gives the biggest punch.
Main Cast: Roy Scheider, Keith Gordon, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer, Ann Reinking, Cliff Gorman, Ben Vereen, Erzsébet Földi
Release Date: December 20, 1979
Rank: 14
Does it deserve to be on the list? Think of this as Bob Fosse's singing, dancing variation of Federico Fellini's 8 ½, and the combination of artistic chutzpah and daring deserves some recognition. All That Jazz is equally energetic, mordantly funny, self-reflective, and surreal yet never feels weighed down as Fosse's dynamic editing and career-best performance from Scheider launch it into the pantheon of great films. Fosse turns his camera into a scan of his own brain, body, and soul. All That Jazz is littered with self-reflective choices, from storytelling beats, character relationships and interactions, to casting choices. Based on the time in Fosse’s life when he was editing Lenny and prepping Pippin for its Broadway debut, the film follows the trials and tribulations of Joe Gideon (Scheider), as he juggles his directing duties with his relationships with his ex-wife (Leland Palmer), his girlfriend (Ann Reinking), his daughter (Erzsebet Foldi), and the angel of death, Angelique (Jessica Lange).
Standout scene: You thought I was going to pick "Air-otica," didn't you? Well, you'd be close, but "Bye Bye Life" is a tour de force of minimal acting from Scheider, near operatic film-making, and closes out the film with one hell of a sick joke as Ethel Merman belts out "There's No Business Like Show Business" over the abrupt cut to a body bag. The daring of this gut-punch ending alone makes its placement inevitable and worthy.
1990s
After largely disappearing in the 1980s, the film musical makes a comeback...primarily as animated films, most prominently in the Disney Renaissance.
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Main Cast: Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury, Bradley Michael Pierce, Rex Everhart, Jesse Corti
Release Date: November 22, 1991
Rank: 22
Does it deserve to be on the list? Honestly, it's nearly impossible to discuss the evolution of the American film musical without mentioning at least one Disney film. There's only three eras that stick out as critically acclaimed periods (Golden, Silver, and Renaissance), and my money was on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a film the AFI clearly loves given its continual appearance on various lists. Color me pleasantly shocked that it's instead the Renaissance's answer to Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, the undisputed masterpiece of its era. This plays less like a typical animated feature and more like a long-lost MGM mega-production, picture direction by Vincente Minnelli, Howard Keel as Gaston, Leslie Caron as Belle, and a songbook comprised by one of Broadway's shiny, new writers. While this one may be second fiddle to Jean Cocteau's adaptation of the story, everything here still works as the animation is lush, the characters are enjoyable, the songs are memorable, and it's as good as fairy tale cinema can be, and it's certainly deserves a higher ranking than 22.
Standout scene: Not a dud in this film's songbook, Beauty and the Beast is an embarrassment of riches. The title song won the Oscar, but nothing beats "Be Our Guest," the only place you'll be able to watch silverware recreate an Esther Williams aqua-musical number. It's hard not to breakout into applause once it ends knowing the amount of time, skill, and energy it must have taken to animate it.
2000s
The movie musical is reborn in the 21st century.
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Main Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, John Leguizamo, Caroline O'Connor
Release Date: June 1, 2001
Rank: 25
Does it deserve to be on the list? This version of the famed French establishment is equal parts underground sex club, chic Studio 54, the wildest rave ever, and the mishmash of several famous operatic story lines fused together with a jukebox songbook. At once old-fashioned in how beautifully ornate it all is, how its characters are merely conduits for its broad themes (love, truth, freedom, and beauty mainly), and startlingly modern in its kinetic editing, Moulin Rouge! is a glorious contradiction of a film. But does it deserve to be considered one of the 25 greatest movie musicals of all-time? That's the rub, as I saw it at a formative time in my life and continue to love it, but I'm not going to argue against it coming in dead last. Without this, you don't have Chicago, Into the Woods, or Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Standout scene: If you thought I was going to say "Elephant Love Medley," you'd be wrong no matter how fun and ridiculous that scene is. "El Tango de Roxanne" is the real stunner, the film's secret weapon as the escalating number of dancers reflects the growing jealousy inside our hero until the very end is a sea of moving bodies. For a film so addicted to a sugar rush aesthetic, "El Tango" is an emotionally visceral scene that goes into the darkest parts of this love story.
Main Cast: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Christine Baranski, Taye Diggs
Release Date: December 27, 2002
Rank: 12
Does it deserve to be on the list? 24-karat cynicism at its most entertaining. Chicago is a solid racehorse of a movie musical, and it feels more classic in its presentation than many of its contemporaries. It loads the cast up with movie stars (a mixed bag, but mostly successful), glittery costumes, and grandiose production numbers. It might skirt some of the deeper thematic material at play, but it gives us, as crooked lawyer Billy Flynn sings, the old razzle dazzle and has us begging for more. It's too high at 12 as director/choreographer Rob Marshall is clearly trying to emulate Bob Fosse without Fosse's masterful command of editing, which leaves several parts of Chicago frenzied and confused.
Standout scene: The film is nothing but a series of musical showstoppers as each of them are mere imaginings from Roxie Hart, so they work less as narrative propulsion then they do as running color commentary. Although there's something about "Roxie" that calls more attention to itself, even with Renée Zellweger's technical limitations as a dancer, she manages to sell the hell out of the number. It's still the best of the recent musicals in the ways that it captures the audaciousness, sexual adventurousness, and sordid morality of the Jazz Age.
And why couldn't we include films as towering as Nashville, Robert Altman's document of country music and America's political psyche circa 1975? Plenty of other choices pushed the limits of what constitutes a movie musical, and that is a film filled with music and performance. The absence of Nashville brings up the complete lack of rock and roll films like The Girl Can't Help It or Jailhouse Rock.
Musicals are transformative and escapist in the best ways. They are proudly artificial in many instances, and all the better for it. This was one of my most enjoyable viewing challenges. Except for Grease, 'cause it's abysmal.
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