capraesque

I grew up with the movies featured today and have had them nearly memorized for years. I loved what Prof. Ament had to say about Judy playing the piano in For Me and My Gal--and I didn't know she wasn't a trained dancer! Wow! That makes "Ballin' A Jack" even more impressive! This title number has just the right energy, it's one of those perfect pieces of musical moviedom. It has never gotten old or seemed anything other than electric! Easter Parade has also been a personal favorite for a long time. I'm from Michigan, and Irving Berlin's "I Want To Go Back To Michigan" is practically my an

I thought so too! It's establishing a film language like prose narratives: first person elements that help us see from the character's point of view and establish sympathy.

So what strikes me about these clips and this discussion is the idea that the American movie musical is so different than any other art form. The American stage musical was different than Gilbert and Sullivan. The American movies spoke vernacular. So Nelson and Eddy, very much like Ginger and Fred, have to cover both the "classy" upscale cultural values embodied in (for Nelson and Eddy--and Deanna Durbin) operetta and operatic style singing. And yet, they have to appeal to the common man because these are movies, and movies are the art form of the working class. They're not opera. Anyone