Musical remakes...

[therealfuster]

 

which ones are your favorites, and in which ones do you find the music intrusive and non-conducive to the storyline and entertainment?

 

Personally I like Bob Fosse's take on Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria" in the film "Sweet Charity" with Shirley MacLaine. Both films are fully realized, and have their own distinct merits and can stand on their own as entities.

 

I also love Fosse's "Cabaret" developed from the stories by Christopher Isherwood, and the play, "I Am a Camera" by noted writer John Van Druten [who wrote "Bell, Book and Candle"]. "Cabaret" is a welcome companion piece to its ancestor on film, "I Am a Camera" [from the mid-1950's] which starred Julie Harris as Sally Bowles, along with Lawrence Harvey, Shelley Winters and Anton Diffring [the sine qua non representation of Nazis on film!]. There is music in the original take of these Isherwood stories, but not in the sense of a full blown musical like "Cabaret". If you ever get a chance to see the original film, look for a bit with a young Patrick McGoohan [aka Number 6 of "The Prisoner" fame].

 

On the other hand, personally I do not like "Living It Up", the film in which Jerry Lewis is the male counterpart to Carole Lombard's "expiring" Hazel Flagg from the film, "Nothing Sacred". There was nothing sacred being done, when this film was ransacked for a musical storyline for Martin and Lewis [in my most snide opinion] but it is a pleasant diversion I guess.

 

So...name your faves and not so faves in the musical remake genre, if you so wish.

 

[edgedrv]

Although not great, LIVING IT UP is probably one of Martin & Lewis's best films. The one thing the film did do was to retain several of the songs from the B'way musical remake HAZEL FLAGG.

[therealfuster]

I must just not have enough French heritage in me, having only had some relatives from Alsace-Lorraine, to truly appreciate that film, "Living It Up".

 

I do like Jerry best in "The Nutty Professor" and "Sailor Beware" with Dean, but I would have given Jer an Oscar for his Mr. Hyde-like role in "The King of Comedy" in which he was superb!

 

Thanks for your contribution to the topic!