Hollywood Musicals - Movie Review Example

Hollywood Musicals s affilitiation Hollywood Musicals From mid 1920s to early 1940s, Hollywood was saturated by musical films. This was partly because it was the ‘in-thing’ back then and also due to the success of the first motion pictures that incorporated music in their acts. While others ran short of expectations, others were instant hits, raking millions of dollars for the cast (Bucholtz, 2011). Some of the best musical films include Rose of Washington Square, Sun Valley Serenade and Gold diggers of 1935.

Like most musical flicks, these three films mostly deal with issues of love and to some extent, a talented artist living in abject poverty, trying as much as he or she can to succeed. Rose of Washington Square is a musical film created in 1939. The setting is in New York and it features a musical icon Rose Sargent whose is struggling to keep her relationship amid the criminal activities of her husband, Barton DeWitt Clinton (Halbritter, 2006). Rose who is an entertainer in the Ziegfeld Follies falls for the charms of a con man and struggles as much as she can to keep him out of trouble.

In the process her career wanes away. Sun Valley Serenade on the other hand, is about a band that decides to acquire the assistance of a foreign singer. The cast includes Ted Scott who is the band pianist and Karen Benson, who is the foreign singer residing in Ellis Island (Dancyger, 2001). Ted falls in love with Karen and this upsets his girlfriend Vivian Dawn, the soloist of the band. Her departure prompts Karen to act as a substitute and she hits the golden mark. As its name suggests, Gold Diggers of 1935 is about that, people trying to milk away wealth from a stingy rich woman.

Dick Curtis, a struggling medical student is given a job to escort the daughter of a rich woman Mrs. Prentiss. He obliges, but eventually falls for Anne (the rich woman’s daughter) despite having a fiancee, Arline Davis. Anne’s brother on the other hand falls for Arline and marries her. Mrs. Prentiss organizes a charity show but she is unwilling to spend a lot, but the dance director she has hired wants to milk away her mone (Bucholtz, 2011)y. Despite their various plots, these movies have one thing in common: lots of music.

The most dominant theme in these movies is love. The music is used in these movies to bring out the emotions of actors and also to entertain viewers (Dancyger, 2001). Since the music and dances are part of the narrative, they remove the monotony of normal movies and also add more information on the current issues that the actors may be facing, giving viewers a clear picture of the actors emotions. For a musical flick to be successful, there are several components that have to be interwoven together to produce the perfect blend.

Apart from the story line or the normal script, musical films combine scripts with theatrical dances and songs. The dances should be well choreographed to blend in with songs and also for smooth transition from acting to dancing. The most important aspect of the songs is the lyrics (Dancyger, 2001). The choice of words for the songs should bring out the feelings of the actors. That is, if the actor is grieved, then the words should bring out the pain in him or her. To bring out the desired effect of the music to the viewers, is to use colorful, mind blowing locations, sceneries and backgrounds, which cannot be staged in a normal theatre.

Out of the three movies the one that actually caught my eye the most and had an impact on me is Sun Valley Serenade. Not only were the cast excellent, the movie also featured dances from The Nicholas brothers and the Glenn Miller orchestra. The song performed, Chattanooga Choo Choo got an Academy award nomination for best song. Furthermore, it was inducted in the Grammy Hall of fame (Bucholtz, 2011). Dances by the Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge are excellent and well choreographed. The Glenn Miller orchestra does not disappoint either.

The tune performed by Glenn Miller include Chattanooga Choo Choo, In the mood, I know why and Moon light serenade. Not only that, this movie is among the only two movies that this orchestra has ever acted. The icing on the cake is that the Nicholas brothers are considered to be the greatest tap dancers of all time. With such an A star cast, Sun Valley Serenade stands at the top of the pack. The most interesting thing about these movies is that the actors can actually sing and dance. It is very rare to get actors who can actually sing and dance.

Conversely, it is hard to get singers and dancers who are excellent actors (Real, 2003). For a musical movie to have high ratings from critics, it should have a good plot, accompanied by songs with beautiful lyrics, nicely choreographed dance moves and great transition from the plot to songs and vice versa. The sceneries and backgrounds should be colorful and lavish. References Bucholtz, M. (2011). Race and the re-embodied voice in Hollywood film, Language & Communication, Vol. 31, No. 3, 255-265. Real, M. (2003).

Hollywood, Culture and Influence of Hollywood, Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications,  329-338. Dancyger, K. (2001). Chapter 6 - The Hollywood Model, Global Scriptwriting, 91-102. Halbritter, B. (2006). Musical rhetoric in integrated-media composition, Computers and Composition, Vol. 23, No. 3, 317-334.