[favourite Busby Berkeley production number]

The Waltz Of The Shadows from Gold Diggers of 1933 (neon violins)

The Words Are in My Heart from Gold Diggers of 1935 (pianos)

and

Pettin' In The Park from Gold Diggers of 1933

[BEST ONE LINERS FROM A MUSICAL MOTION PICTURE]

I would suggest taking a look at quotes from Fred-Ginger movies. An example:

 

From The Gay Divorcee

Fred Astaire: [after crashing into Ginger's car] Hello, hello! I've been looking for you!

[the decline of the musical]

I saw one of those "most romantic movies" lists the other day and it got me thinking about the realism issue, since not even one of the classic musicals was mentioned, while recent romantic comedies were represented with a number of titles (pretty woman, when harry met sally, groundhog day etc.) Don't get me wrong I love these movies, but come on! Which contemporary movie can beat Fred singing "They Can't Take That Away From Me" to Ginger or Judy Garland turning the lights off with Tom Drake in Meet Me In St. Louis or Gene Kelly dancing and singing in the rain after Debbie Reynolds' kiss... (I will stop here but the list goes on and on)

New movies are considered to be better because they have more elaborate and more realistic scripts. Ironically, romantism is supposed to be unrealistic.

So, in conclusion, yes I believe the obsession with realism hurt musicals.

 

But people were happy with carbon copy scripts until 50s. What changed after that? (almost all fred-ginger movies were box office hits and they all go around the same thing. also parts from one musical would reappear in the next musical (e.g. turning off lights scene from meet me in st louis has a sister in "In The Good Old Summertime"))

 

I think it is TV. Until then movies used to provide the "escape". With depressions and wars and everything people just wanted to watch things that are simply fun and entertaining. When TV came along, it started to provide the escape and cinema became a higher art form (like theater). People started to expect more from it and simple scripts didn't cut it anymore.