Movie Musicals

[bschneid76]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 5:27pm

I've been very interested to see if anyone has seen these Movie Musicals and what their opinions are of them. I've seen all of them, and I have my star rating out of 4 next to them.

Mame (1974) ***
Lost Horizon (1973) *
A Matter of Time (1976) **
Annie (1982) ****
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) ****

I'm interested in your opinions. Thanks!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 5:37pm

well, I haven't seen all of those, but I find your giving the original annie movie four stars extremely disturbing...

[bschneid76]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 5:40pm

Well, at least John Huston was trying to do his own thing with it. Plus how can you not love Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Ann Reinking, Bernadette Peters, Tim Curry, etc. The dancing is fabulous!

I know many people do not enjoy it, but I think it works. It's John Huston!

[hot_brdwy_diva]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 5:55pm

I love the original annie movie! Never saw the newer one. (Tim Curry hello? Love him!)

Best Little Whorehouse is fabulous. Dolly Parton is great in it! I saw a stage version of it and I was dissappointed. There's also songs in the movie that are not in the stage show and vice versa. They both have there good and bad points but I like the movie version better.

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 6:10pm

Best Little Whorehouse has it's *moments*.
Annie was overblown and overproduced. It added the characters of "Punjab" and "The Asp" from the original strip and had "Annie" scaling a drawbridge to escape Rooster?!!
Lost Horizon was a major mis-step by everyone involved. Some of those actors had no business singing let alone be in a musical.
Mame is a bad joke. Lucille Ball?!! She was way too old for the role, she couldn't handle the score. Unwatchable.
I've never seen A Matter of Time so I can't comment.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 6:53pm

I still can't get over the fact that Eileen Quinn got a golden raspberry for Annie, I mean she was only a child, how unfair! I think they decided to do "Annie" more as a comic strip musical rather than a serious post-Depression show about so many issues, it is the director's job to choose which focus the musical should have. I only think the movie works because of its leads; I mean Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, and Ann Reinking! That's like gay heaven!

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:30pm

1. Mame - dreadful, largely due to the pacing and unfortunately Ms. Ball. It felt like a big lead balloon.

2. Lost Horizon - okay this is a big "guilty pleasure" of mine. I saw this first in a movie theatre when I was ten years old and it made a HUGE impression on me. As a 10-year-old, I wasn't familiar with the plot at all, and I was smitten by it. I do know how cheezy it is with the Burt Bacharach songs, and the dramatic stars, most of whom act like they've never seen a musical, let alone been in one. But I have to say that some of it still works pretty well (if you can get through all the cheezy stuff). I just tend to laugh it off now, affectionately, rather than be repelled by it. But, again, I have that "nostalgia factor" working on me. But if you're seeing it for the first time, it could either be hysterically bad but fun... or just painful. This falls into the "Bad Movies We Love" category for me.

3. A Matter of Time. Haven't seen it.

4. Annie - dreadful. It was such a disappointment after the stage show. It's over-stuffed with celebrities and it feels strangely claustrophobic for something so huge. The little girl lead was too plastic, like a wind-up toy. You could almost see the key in her back. The Disney TV version directed by Rob Marshall was a vast improvement in all respects.

5. Best Little Whorehouse -- I enjoyed it quite a bit... until I was in a production of it a few years later with members of the original cast. I got to see and experience what that show could really be like, and then the movie seemed to pale in comparison. It has its moments, but never rises to the impact or level of the play.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:34pm

Aw, it warms my heart to see so many people bashing that awful Annie movie! I'll never forgive them for cutting "NYC" and replacing it with that ridiculous "Let's Go to the Movies" song, and that's only the first of many problems I have with it.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:39pm

I do'nt think ANNIE is a dreadful movie at all. Just because it's not a carbon copy of the stage show doesn't mean it's not a good film. There's a difference between faithful and just plain BAD - and ANNIE is anything but a bad movie.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:45pm

Faithful or not faithful... Annie is a bad movie.

Just my opinion, of course, but I'm entitled to it.

Updated On: 9/22/05 at 08:45 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:45pm

ANNIE [1982] isn't a BAD movie at all. It just happens to be one of THE WORST STAGE TO SCREEN ADAPTATIONS EVER only eclipsed a notch by MAME.

EDIT: ...and THE WIZ.
Updated On: 9/22/05 at 08:45 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:48pm

Yes.. but then there's... "A Chorus Line: The Movie."

[Marquise]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:53pm

Absofrigginlutley best12bars.
Two of cinema's best directors: John Huston and Sir Richard Attenborough have the distinction of taking two musicals and ruining their respective movie versions.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 8:55pm

You can definitely add Sidney Lumet and "The Wiz" in there, as you have said.

With those three "masterpieces" carved from sure-fire, mega-hit shows with star directors, no wonder we had a cinematic drought after that for movie musicals.

It's been a painful, slow climb out of the mud.

Updated On: 9/22/05 at 08:55 PM

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 9:56am

A Matter of Time - the Minnelli debacle? It's gorgeous and ambitious, but I wouldn't really classify it as a musical, nor does IMDb.com. Or even intelligible, for that matter. Such a pity - if only Minnelli had been in his prime when shaping this material.

[bschneid76]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 10:19am

But Liza does sing to Kander and Ebb songs in the film. I guess I consider it a musical because it's Vincent Minnelli and it has that feel of a musical. Perhaps it was Minnelli's idea to make it a musical but the fact that the studios came in and ruined it didn't help either.

I love Annie and I am sticking to it! hehehe.

And MAME isn't a bad adaptation to the screen all of the songs except for How Young I Feel are in there, PLUS you have Jane Connell and Bea Arthur reprising their roles, and Robert Preston who is absolutly Brilliant in almost all he does. And Gene Saks who directed this on B-way did this as well. Do you think had Angela Lansbury had played MAME it wouldn't be considered a BOMB????????? I think not.

[cturtle]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 12:17pm

i saw MAME in the theatre, and the thing i remember most about it was how the focus BLURRED each time it got anywhere near lucille ball's face. what did they do? shoot her through linoleum??

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 12:21pm

If Angela had done the film, I think Gene Saks and his creative team could have concentrated on making a movie, rather than covering up Ms. Ball's shortcomings throughout. To me it's painful to watch.

But please take my opinions with a grain of salt... I'm the one who LOVES the '73 "Lost Horizon."



...Besides, I take your opinions with grains of salt.

(And a belt of whiskey!)

[Pippin]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 12:30pm

annie is a guilty pleasure of mine!!! I have loved it since I was tiny, and didn't realize it was based off a show. I think that since I had (and) have nothing to compare it too, that is the reason I love it. I have never seen a live production of it( and proud of the fact). I'm sorry, but it does not get any better than Carol Burnett as Hannigan. she is the funniest thing about that movie, in her terminal drunken stupor. I love the movie, and I don't care who knows it. and Ann Reinking is superb. I will say that I have seen the disney- fied remake, and it does not compare to my 1982 version of the movie, even if it does stay closer to the original stage show.

[Fiyero2]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 10:54pm

Annie is worth buying just for Varol Burnett.... she is by far the best mrs. Hannigan ever!!!!!!!!!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 11:15pm

HEY, let's nto forget Peters and Reinking, together with Carol Burnette, they are the only reason I can sit through the movie. It does bother me that they cut so many songs and replaced them with so many bad ones.