Monday, March 20 | 7 Films
During the early 1930s, musicals were still a fairly new genre, and with studios welcoming sound, Hollywood naturally tapped into Broadway for material creating the backstage musical. In this genre, the plot surrounds a musical production.
Hollywood was well equipped to whisk a Depression-era generation away from their grim realities, offering audiences a sleek, sophisticated and sparkling respite from their troubles. With the success of Warner Bros. The Jazz Singer (1927), as the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue, studios scrambled, converting to sound, quickly releasing their suddenly obsolete silent films.
The new medium of sound had its challenges. Microphones that exaggerated speech needed to be strategically placed and cameras were housed in soundproof booths, barring their movement. By 1930, audiences were saturated with Hollywood's exploitation of sound and its flawed capabilities. However, sound advanced fairly quickly, exactly on schedule for an innovative choreographer and former drill instructor, Busby Berkeley, who maximized the camera's movement. Berkeley stunned audiences with his bevy of beauties, kaleidoscopic overhead shots and glamorized sets.
Kicking off the list for Academy Award nominated and winning Backstage Musicals, is Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935).
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)
The second film within its series, MGM’s Broadway Melody of 1936, boasts the industry's advances in cinematography and sound. Starring Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor, June Knight and Jack Benny, a financier agrees to back a show in exchange for the lead role, while a Broadway columnist frames the producer.
As with most films, the nominations for MGM’s Broadway Melody of 1936 were an impressive combination of factors. Dave Gould’s choreography, easily mistaken for Busby Berkeley’s handiwork, for which he won the Oscar for Best Dance Direction, incorporated lavishly glittering sets, crisp cinematography and an amusing plot, courtesy of Tony Award-winning playwright and theater director Moss Hart.
Broadway Melody’s most obvious advantage is Eleanor Powell, whose captivating ability and effervescent personality were instrumental in rescuing a fledgling MGM.
Gould was nominated for two Oscars in the category of “Best Dance Direction,” winning an additional Oscar in the same category for Folies Bergere de Paris (1935).
In addition to his Oscar for Broadway Melody of 1936 in the category of Best Writing, Original Story Hart received a nomination in the category of Best Writing, Screenplay for Gentleman's Agreement (1947).
GOLD DIGGERS of 1933 (1933)
After the fated success of Warner Bros The Jazz Singer and the beginning of The Great Depression, by 1929 studios converted to sound. Initially rudimentary at best, sound quickly advanced, solving the majority of its technical issues by the early nineteen-thirties.
Starring Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, Warner Bros. Gold Diggers of 1933’s (1933) opening number “We're in the Money” and closing number “My Forgotten Man” spoke directly to the significance of The Depression. The first coming to a harsh conclusion as creditors shut down a show, mid-rehearsal, and the latter an ode to discarded American soldiers who served in WWI.
Gold Diggers of 1933 would be multi-award-winning sound engineer Nathan Levinson's second Oscar win of the same year in the category of Best Sound Recording.
42nd STREET (1933)
Nominated for Best Sound Recording and Best Picture, Warner Bros. 42nd Street (1933) faithful endurance remains an essential film of the backstage musical genre.
Helping to usher in the fantastically stylized musical world of the 1930s, a Broadway star breaks her ankle and is replaced by an ingenue. Choreographed by Busby Berkeley, the advent of pre-recorded sound would allow Berkeley to artistically free the camera, creating psychedelic-like imagery, still impressive to modern audiences, and a welcome change for moviegoers of the time.
42nd Street appropriately became the quintessential backstage musical, still performed 90 years after its film debut. It reinvigorated the musical genre, spurring the trend of backstage musicals which included films like Warner Bros. Dames (1934), the Gold Diggers series and MGM’s Broadway Melody series.
Multi-award-winning sound engineer Nathan Levinson had a wealth of material with which to flex his engineering acumen, as choreographer Busby Berkeley was afforded additional money for his signature fantasy sequences.
Although Levinson may not be widely known, he was critical in bringing sound to American audiences with such films as Don Juan (1926), the first feature-length film with sound effects and a synchronized musical score, The Jazz Singer, the first film with synchronized dialogue, albeit only a few lines, as well as Gold Diggers of 1933.
A versatile professional, Levinson was nominated twenty-three times by the Academy, with a total of four Oscars, which include an honorary award, two Oscars for technical achievement and an Oscar for the film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) in the category of Sound Recording.
EASTER PARADE (1948)
After a two-year retirement, MGM’s Easter Parade (1948) starring Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Ann Miller and Peter Lawford, is credited for Astaire’s return to the big screen, pairing him for the only time with triple-threat Judy Garland.
A vaudevillian star plucks a girl from an amateur chorus to replace his former partner and lover.
Punctuated with flawless performances, and the introduction of tap-dancing sensation Ann Miller in her first MGM film, Easter Parade is an exuberant spectacle.
Composers Johnny Green and Roger Edens had an ideal musical well to draw from that included plenty of jaunty numbers from preeminent composer Irving Berlin including “Stepping Out with My Baby”, “A Couple of Swells”, “When That Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’” and “Shakin the Blues Away.”
Green and Edens shared the Oscar in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture for Easter Parade. The film would be the first of five Oscar wins for Green and the first of three Oscar wins for Edens.
Conductor, composer, songwriter, pianist and band leader Johnny Green was the music director and executive of music for MGM from 1949-1958. Green is credited for MGM’s unique sound, by streamlining ornately lush orchestrations. Easter Parade was followed by multiple trophies including Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture for An American in Paris (1951) as well as West Side Story (1961).
Green was best known for his then controversial torch song, “Body and Soul.”
Three-time award-winning producer, songwriter, composer, arranger and musical supervisor, Roger Edens was an essential component of MGM’s “Freed Unit” responsible for the cultivation of musical talents, most famouslyJudy Garland.
In an interview appearing in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Adolph Green stated, “Arthur [Freed] had a real instinct about things, and he also had a most invaluable assistant in Roger Edens, his second-in-command. Roger was extremely important at MGM; he was just like Arthur's co-producer —his partner, really—and he was involved in every aspect of the Freed productions.”
Edens was nominated four times by the Academy for music-related categories, winning additional Oscars in the category of Best Scoring for a Musical Picture for Annie Get Your Gun (1950) and On the Town (1949).
KISS ME KATE (1953)
Cole Porter's most successful play, running for over 1000 consecutive performances, MGM’s Kiss Me Kate (1953) stars Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson and Ann Miller. A Broadway staple, Kiss Me Kate is a comedy full of high-spirited hijinks. A divorced couple whose embers still burn for each other play out their love/hate relationship on stage and off, while appropriately performing Shakespeare's “The Taming of the Shrew.”
Kiss Me Kate was released utilizing the somewhat novice medium of 3-D film in an attempt to lure audiences captured by the novelty of television back to movie theaters. Viewers will easily note select spaces where the medium was used, with items tossed at the camera. Kiss Me Kate also debuts the eclectic style of multi-award-winning choreographer Bob Fosse, for which he became synonymous.
Arranger, composer, pianist and conductor Andre Previn and arranger, composer and producer Saul Chaplin scored Kiss Me Kate with upbeat enlivening orchestrations evident in performances such as the energetic “Tom Dick or Harry”, the cheerfully bright “From This Moment On” and the airy “Wundabar.”
Previn’s musical acumen was staggering, with a total of over 50 overall nominations and 19 wins including Academy Awards, Grammys, Laurel Awards and a Kennedy Center Honor over the course of his illustrious career. Previn, who joined MGM at the ripe age of 17, was an accomplished jazz and classical musician, winning a total of four Oscars: two in the category of Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment for My Fair Lady (1964) and Irma La Douce (1963), and two in the category of Best Music, Scoring of Musical Picture for Porgy and Bess (1959) and Gigi (1958).
Chaplin, a self-taught pianist, was a composer for MGM. His Oscar wins include Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture for An American in Paris (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and West Side Story (1961).
The Band Wagon (1953)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s The Band Wagon (1953) is an explosion of Technicolor joy directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan. A mature film star past his prime, reluctantly paired with a young ballet dancer, returns to Broadway.
As with most Minnelli films, The Band Wagon’s visual composition is intricately executed. Labeled as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by The United States Registry of the Library of Congress, with its ever abiding theme “That's Entertainment” created especially for the film by composer and lyricist Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, The Band Wagon is considered one of MGM’s musical jewels.
Minnelli, the former costume designer and art director for Radio City Music Hall, had an extensive theater background and was ideal in collaboration with the musical-comedy team, playwrights and lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who were also New York theater veterans.
Band Wagon was nominated in the category of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay for Comden and Green. They lent their witty dialogue, fast-paced banter and clever lyrics to numerous films including Singin’ in the Rain (1952), On the Town (1949), Auntie Mame (1958) and The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).
With a partnership that spanned over 60-years, the longest pairing in the history of Broadway to date, Comden and Green received an additional nomination of the same category for It’s Always Fair Weather (1955).
Little is known about costumer Mary Ann Nyberg, nominated in the category of Best Costume Design, Color for The Band Wagon. Nyberg’s biography reflects only five films. Her Hollywood career seems to have lasted a few short years, yet Nyberg’s portfolio is extraordinarily impressive with the films Lili (1953), Carmen Jones (1954), A Star Is Born (1954) and The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).
In the two-disc special edition of the film, both Cyd Charisse and Nanette Fabray sang Nyberg’s praises, impressed with her stunning costuming evident throughout the film and her ability to magically whittle the perfect waist.
Nyberg earned an additional nomination of the same category for A Star Is Born (1954) which was shared with fellow costumers Jean Louis and Irene Sharaff.
At the age of eight, London born Adolph Deutsch, a piano prodigy, was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music. An accomplished musician, Deutsch’s Hollywood career began with Warner Bros. studio.
Nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture for The Band Wagon, Deutsch was as adept at scoring lush musicals as he was scoring film noir, a perfect complement for the elegance of “Dancing in the Dark,” to the sometimes sinewy and at other times bold and brassy delivery of “Girl Hunt Ballet.”
Deutsch founded the Screen Composers Association, acting as its president for five years, and was additionally nominated in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture for Show Boat (1951), which was shared with composer Conrad Salinger. He won a total of three Oscars in the same category for the films Oklahoma! (1955), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), shared with Saul Chaplin, and Annie Get Your Gun (1950) shared with Roger Edens.
GYPSY (1962)
Warner Brothers’ Gypsy (1962) is the ultimate musical about the ultimate stage mother, starring Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Ann Jillian and Karl Malden. With over 130 films to his credit, during the 1920s the multi-Oscar winning cinematographer Harry Stradling A.S.C., apprenticed alongside his uncle Walter Stradling, cinematographer for Mary Pickford. Known for their lighting techniques, said to minimize wrinkles, Stradling garnered the attention of top Hollywood actresses, including Barbra Streisand, who filmed with both Stradling Sr. and his son Stradling Jr. Whether black-and-white or Technicolor, Harry Stradling, Sr.’s artistic eye was impeccable. Ironically, according to cinematographer George Spiro Dibie, Stradling Sr. was colorblind. “It shows you if you are good in black-and-white, you are the best in color…” Dibie stated in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation.
Gypsy was one of 14 Oscar nominations for the acclaimed cinematographer. Stradling Sr. would win Best Cinematography, Black-and-White for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and Best Cinematography, Color for My Fair Lady (1964).
Multi-award-winning costume designer Orry-Kelly’s Hollywood career spanned over three decades. Kelly, known to create the illusion of perfection, strategically added accents, beading and padding to create an hourglass figure for a naturally linear Natalie Wood. For the film, he received a nomination for Best Costume Design, Color. Kelly would won a total of three Oscars: Best Costume Design, Black-and-White for Some Like It Hot (1959), Best Costume Design for Les Girls (1957) and Best Costume Design, Color for an American in Paris (1951), which he shared with designers Walter Plunkett and Irene Sharaff.
Nominated for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment, composer and arranger Frank Perkins served as arranger, music supervisor and conductor on the film Gypsy. With a commanding opening of its overture reminiscent of a Cecil B. DeMille production, Broadway belting arrangements like “Everything Coming Up Roses” and the child-like simplicity of “Let Me Entertain You” which takes on a significantly different meaning by the end of the film, Perkins’ orchestrations remain, without apology, fittingly within the Pit.
Perkins' career with Warner Bros. spanned over 20 years. He is best known for his torch song “Stars Fell on Alabama.
