Thoroughly Modern Millie

[TheMadKiwi]

Just a head's up in today's lecture notes: it mentions Thoroughly Modern Millie being a Broadway musical adaptation like many other 1960s film musicals. It was actually an original film musical. The Broadway show didn't come until 2002. 

As much as I enjoy the film, I much prefer the stage version. The plot is more streamlined with a more cause-and-effect narrative. The film has all kinds of random detours that contribute nothing, like the Jewish wedding for characters we don't even know. The show's new songs are fantastic while still keeping the two best ones from the film: the title song and "Jimmy." 

That said, I'm still dying to own the film on Blu-ray and don't know what's the hold up with Universal. It can use a new restoration as the DVD's master is a little rough.

I also have to admit that in the same lecture, I find it funny how the 2000s are labeled under "Broadway Slowed Down its Flow to Hollywood." Yeah, it can't compare to the 30s-60s, but I'd say it's comparable to the 70s and certainly more steady than the 80s and 90s. Broadway-to-film adaptations the notes missed for that decade are Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, The Producers, Once, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Nine. The 2010s have given us Rock of Ages, Jersey Boys, Annie, and The Last Five Years. As for upcoming musicals, The Grinch and Mulan won't be musicals, and In the Heights isn't coming till 2020. 

[BlueMoods]

I love TMM. I loved the stupid campiness, because it was deliberate, not a movie that was supposed to be good but turned out stupid and campy in spite of itself. I've never seen it on stage but I saw a crap-quality video clip that someone took when it was on Broadway. I wasn't impressed but maybe I would have liked it more had the clip been better quality.

But I too, never understood the point of the Jewish wedding. The other scenes and numbers had at least some connection to the plot and characters.  Whose bright idea was it to throw in a random scene that had no bearing on anything?

[lpetiti]

I always felt the Jewish wedding was to showcase Julie Andrews singing, nothing more.

[Whipsnade]

A great movie with loads of laughs, good songs, and a wonderful cast. Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Beatrice Lillie, Carol Channing, John Gavin, and James Fox. Also the running gag of the elevator dance, but I never have understood what the Jewish wedding scene added. 

[miki]

I remember the film "Thoroughly Modern Millie".  It was a cool film.