We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
About The Movie
Product Description Irresistible and authoritative, The Movie Musical! is an in-depth look at the singing, dancing, happy-making world of Hollywood musicals, beautifully illustrated in color and black-and-white--an essential text for anyone who's ever laughed, cried, or sung along at the movies. Leading film historian Jeanine Basinger reveals, with her trademark wit and zest, the whole story of the Hollywood musical--in the most telling, most incisive, most detailed, most gorgeously illustrated book of her long and remarkable career. From Fred Astaire, whom she adores, to La La Land, which she deplores, Basinger examines a dazzling array of stars, strategies, talents, and innovations in the history of musical cinema. Whether analyzing a classic Gene Kelly routine, relishing a Nelson-Jeanette operetta, or touting a dynamic hip hop number (in the underrated Idlewild), she is a canny and charismatic guide to the many ways that song and dance have been seen--and heard--on film. With extensive portraits of everyone from Al Jolson, the Jazz Singer; to Doris Day, whose iconic sunniness has overshadowed her dramatic talents; from Deanna Durbin, that lovable teen-star of the '30s and '40s; to Shirley T. and Judy G.; from Bing to Frank to Elvis; from Ann Miller to Ann-Margret; from Disney to Chicago . . . focusing on many beloved, iconic films ( Top Hat; Singin' in the Rain; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Sound of Music) as well as unduly obscure gems (Eddie Cantor's Whoopee!; Murder at the Vanities; Sun Valley Serenade; One from the Heart), this book is astute, informative, and pure pleasure to read. Review "An in-depth look at the Hollywood musical ... lively and informative ... the author is the perfect guide ... movie buffs and film students alike will applaud this delightful and insightful work."--Library Journal (starred review) "A lively history ... an essential addition to any film lover's library."--Kirkus "Exhilarating ... informative and insightful ... monumental."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) About the Author JEANINE BASINGER is the founder of the department of film studies at Wesleyan University and the curator of the cinema archives there. She has written eleven other books on film, including I Do and I Don't; The Star Machine; A Woman's View; Silent Stars, winner of the William K. Everson Film History Award; Anthony Mann; The World War II Combat Film; and American Cinema: One Hundred Years of Filmmaking, the companion book for a ten-part PBS series. She lives in Middletown, CT, Madison, WI, and Brookings, SD. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. I About Musicals Musicals are deceptively hard to define. A film is not a musical just because someone gets up and sings a song . . . or steps up and does a little jig. No, just having a musical number in a movie does not make it a musical. Music can turn up anywhere. Sometimes gangsters go to nightclubs and a chorus line dances out, and after doing a little number to set the atmosphere they disappear or recede into the background. Street singers on the sidewalk can appear in horror films. Marching troops in a combat movie can be singing “Over There.” All through the 1941 version of the western Billy the Kid, a character named Pedro plays his guitar and sings, and when the leading lady (Mary Howard) has a birthday party, the entire cast sings. In Captains Courageous (1937), in which Spencer Tracy inexplicably plays a Portuguese fisherman (and even more inexplicably wins an Oscar for it), Tracy sings. The idea is that all Portuguese fishermen would naturally sing because . . . well, because they are Portuguese. Or maybe because they’re fishermen, since the whole crew sings chanties while they chop and prepare bait. Their boat is a musical universe, except that the film is not a musical, and neither is Billy the Kid. These films are using songs, but are not presenting music as performance. The musical moments are supposed to be ab
