The Movie Musical!

by Jeanine Basinger

Irresistible and authoritative, The Movie Musical! is an in-depth look at the singing, dancing, happy-making world of Hollywood musicals, beautifully illustrated in color and black-and-white--an essential text for anyone who's ever laughed, cried, or sung along at the movies.

Leading film historian Jeanine Basinger reveals, with her trademark wit and zest, the whole story of the Hollywood musical--in the most telling, most incisive, most detailed, most gorgeously illustrated book of her long and remarkable career.
From Fred Astaire, whom she adores, to La La Land, which she deplores, Basinger examines a dazzling array of stars, strategies, talents, and innovations in the history of musical cinema. Whether analyzing a classic Gene Kelly routine, relishing a Nelson-Jeanette operetta, or touting a dynamic hip hop number (in the underrated Idlewild), she is a canny and charismatic guide to the many ways that song and dance have been seen--and heard--on film.
With extensive portraits of everyone from Al Jolson, the Jazz Singer; to Doris Day, whose iconic sunniness has overshadowed her dramatic talents; from Deanna Durbin, that lovable teen-star of the '30s and '40s; to Shirley T. and Judy G.; from Bing to Frank to Elvis; from Ann Miller to Ann-Margret; from Disney to Chicago . . . focusing on many beloved, iconic films (Top Hat; Singin' in the Rain; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Sound of Music) as well as unduly obscure gems (Eddie Cantor's Whoopee!; Murder at the Vanities; Sun Valley Serenade; One from the Heart), this book is astute, informative, and pure pleasure to read.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, History, Film, Media Tie In, Audiobook, Adult

636 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2019

About the author

Jeanine Basinger holds a BS and MS from South Dakota State University. She is a film historian, professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan University and curator and founder of The Cinema Archives at Wesleyan University. In addition, she is a trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute, a member of the Steering Committee of the National Center for Film and Video Preservation, and one of the Board of Advisors for the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers.

She has appeared in several movie-related documentaries and completed audio commentaries on about a dozen classic films.

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the coffee table book I was expecting. It’s a text heavy book. There were photos, some B & W and some color, but not nearly enough for my taste.

Like the author, I grew up on and loved musicals, but not the early ones she did.

In 1964, during the summer living in NYC I saw about 30 of them. Great ones! Most with their original casts. (Hello Dolly, Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, Here’s Love, among them) and I love many earlier and later ones too. My first musical/play was in the summer of 1962 at a partially outside tent theater and it was Bye Bye Birdie and I loved it. Some of the last musicals I saw, a few years ago, I also loved: Beautiful, The Book of Mormon, from seeing it in 1972 Pippin is a favorite, and my very favorite movie (I love the play album too) is The Sound of Music. I guess it makes sense for this book to have a main focus on early musicals.

There were times I was tempted to skim or to even return it unfinished, but I’m glad that I persisted and stuck with it. Approximately half way through the book musicals and stars with which I’ve been familiar for a long time, and many I’ve enjoyed and some that are favorites. It’s still not what I’d hoped for re finding all the musicals that have meant so much to me and it’s more text heavy and less photograph heavy that I would have preferred but I did enjoy it. However; I did not agree much of the time with the author’s opinions about musicals regarding them changing over time and many more recent musicals I enjoyed are not included. Some very recent productions are included but so many over the past several decades are left out, ones important to me. I guess those included were meant to be a smattering of the total. I would have appreciated and expected a more comprehensive treatment. I do appreciate how the author addressed some social issues and how they related with the making of musicals. Very few of the missing ones/scenes I noticed as missing were mentioned in the Acknowledgments section. Even though I did not love this book I will be recommending it to at least a couple of people (not on Goodreads) but recommend it only with great interest in the history of English/NYC musical theater and Hollywood musicals movies, and are okay with an incomplete history, and those who can enjoy reading it in one place if they read the hardcover edition. It’s large and heavy and not something I was willing to carry with me to read when I was away from home.

From me, only 2-1/2 stars, rounded up, but that’s mostly because I had high expectations and different expectations. For the right reader, I think it’s a good book.

Contents:
Introduction
I About Musicals
II Origins: The Arrival of Sound
III 1933: A Musical Year
IV Stars and Strategies
V The Musical as an Art Form
VI The Death of the Musical
VII Epitaph
VIII Final Number
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index

[carrietracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The brightly colored cover featuring Gene Kelly sells a book full of all of the joy of the musical. What lurks beneath is a dense text that feels academic in tone rather than accessible and seems bogged down in minutiae and technical competency.

Rather than delve into famed musical classics (or their beloved stars) or unearthing hidden gems to be tracked down, Basinger follows the exact progression of the musical, devoting sometimes 4-5 pages to an obscure musical, requiring a full play-by-play retelling since it is unknown to most readers while at the same time just not, ever once, even mentioning in passing the existence of something like Brigadoon. (Okay fine, using the index, I can see Basinger did in fact mention Brigadoon. It is listed in a literal list of musicals and never again.)

I've been an avid musical watcher my whole life. I've seen more than most casual fans due to my father's background in film and extensive video collection as well as hours spent in front of TCM. I've seen the full complement of Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald vehicles. I'm no casual fan. And yet time and again I was left either on the outside of things I'd never heard of or frustrated at the way space was divided between "stars". Sonia Henje receives exactly as many pages as Astaire/Rogers. While I am willing to cede that the ice musical is a very different creature, I just can't justify that division. While Hayworth's dancing skill was made much of (not sure why? does Basinger think we don't believe Hayworth could dance?) Ann Miller is mentioned in passing at best, and poor Cyd Charisse only when ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. But while Hayworth's grooming into a star (a process that involved changing everything about her that read as ethnic) isn't even mentioned, we get a 4 page write up on how a British skating champion couldn't quite be groomed into a second coming of Henje. WHY?

If you're looking for the hidden gems, the movie facts and insider gossip, the camera tricks and choreography secrets, the casting decisions that changed fate, you'll find few to none of them here. A brief paragraph makes mention of women sometimes having multiple similar dresses made for a dance number so that it flowed properly at different points in the scene. I would have loved to read more about that. I learned that at some point, someone clearly lacking some common sense, was set to cast Howard Keel, wooden thing that he was in the Gene Kelly role from Singin' in the Rain. But overall, you're not going to get any of that good stuff here.

Basinger's attention to racism in this very white genre is haphazard at best. At times she quickly mentions a blackface number is racist, but doesn't seem to feel the need to offer the same for shows featuring white people playing "Indian" or for a white woman in "mulatto" makeup. Often these racist numbers are just discussed, business as usual, expecting perhaps that the one time mention of "racist" would work as a group disclaimer? I don't know. She also has a small section at the end where she's almost ghettoized all the contributions of Black musicians, artists and dancers that she "wishes we'd seen more from". Jeanine, we KNOW why we didn't see more from them. BECAUSE RACISM. She should have just called it out. If she's not a scholar in this area, I DO NOT GIVE A DAMN. She works at Wesleyan University. I am fairly certain she has access to a colleague who could have provided her some handily phrased quotes to walk her through it*. Why did these pages at the end have to serve as a catch-all for Black entertainers? Why was the book structured in such a way that it couldn't have been addressed THROUGHOUT. It was frustrating at best.

*In re-reading my review it sounds as though I'm asking POC, especially Black people, to do Basinger's work for her, and I really do NOT want to give that impression. My feeling is that white authors, when dealing in issues of race/racism which they are unqualified or under qualified to handle, should consult with experts and pay them duly for their time, expertise and contribution and should further cite and thank whomever they have consulted with. Black people should not be asked for free labor in assisting white people understand or write about racism.

Another issue: the photos are largely black and white - with some rare color shots, which are mostly spent on VERY modern things (Disney's Lion King/Frozen/Snow White). I know color is expensive. So why burn it on images that everyone can envision in color? Why not use some extra color shots on the glorious technicolor costuming/sets. Almost no time is spent on costumes/lighting/design overall so I guess it wasn't a priority to showcase it in the photos either.

And of course, there's just...I didn't agree with her on a lot. In the places she does make judgment on the quality of a singer/show/etc, it sometimes just rubbed me the wrong way. She calls the costuming in On the Town hideous (I fantasized about those brightly colored petticoats for years! I love them!) She called Brando's singing in Guys and Dolls not just inept but calamitous (look, he couldn't sing and I promise, I've never once cared). She says the Young Girls of Rochefort (a delightful French romp) falls flat.

I don't NEED to agree with an author's opinion, but I want you to imagine yourself in a lecture hall where someone is droning on at length about things you are not particularly interested or invested in. And then BAM! they mention something you know! Something you know and like! You perk up! You will not actually fall asleep in class today! And then what they have to say is that what you like is kinda crap. Go back to sleep. Nod off. You don't need to endure 5 pages devoted entirely to the Strauss biopic The Great Waltz just so you can eventually learn that they wanted Cary Grant for the Rex Harrison part in My Fair Lady.

ETA: I've heard from my father that my grandmother very much enjoyed this book. My grandmother is nearly 96 years old and was completely obsessed with movies/musicals when she was young, and is especially well versed in things that came out in the 40s or earlier. She's a voracious reader, the kind of person who routinely sat through double features and absolutely would have known even minor things that you or I never could have seen because they are no longer readily available. So, if you've got a lot of free time and a background like hers, feel free to ignore my take on things.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE musicals and jumped into reading this with great relish that slowly dwindled over the 24 loooong hours I spent listening to this Audible lol.

It's difficult to give this an accurate rating. It's fantastically well-researched and thorough, and also very boring and wordy. It reads more like a college textbook than a behind-the-scenes account of your favorite old musicals.

The Movie Musical! is not written chronologically and certain topics are greatly detailed, like early film history and how the musical genre began, while others are rushed or skipped entirely. Even so, it's detailed and educational, and I appreciated how many technical aspects Jeanine Basinger drew attention to that are so easy for me to forget when watching older movies. She explains different camera angles, points out how scenes are lit and the way they are cut to perfectly highlight a star's unique assets and capabilities, how and why many versions of a single costume must be made (skirts were weighted at various amounts to get the right amount of "swing" for the shot, depending on if it was dialogue, dance, closeup, etc.) and so many more.

The middle section, "Stars & Strategies," is hefty. If you don't care for a particular star, it's quite a slog, but I really enjoyed learning more about some of my favorites, especially Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Michael Kidd, Bob Fosse, and Jerome Robbins.

I wish I had taken more notes along the way because there are far too many details to absorb in the first read. It will be a wonderful resource to refer back to over the years, though it would be nice if it were organized better.

[Susan Liston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book about movies by this author I've read.** Like her other book, this contains a ton of information, but it's almost like you are reading a transcript of a talk. Full of editorial comment so everything is heavily colored by her opinion. Which makes it probably less dry and more readable then just the facts, ma'am, but you are getting a slanted view if its something you aren't familiar with yourself. Also, not a coffee table book, so it's text and not photo oriented.

**I had forgotten about her penchant for footnotes! Footnotes, footnotes, footnotes! Teeny weeny print footnotes, that could have been incorporated into the text.

[Doris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author obviously loves her musicals, and she's occasionally humorous, but this is mostly a little too clinical. And the musicals she chooses to discuss at length seem rather arbitrary to me.

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic is a great one, but deserved a better account.

The publisher made a huge, heavy book that's more intended to sit on a coffee table than actually be read. They should have been nicer to us and put it out in two smaller volumes.

The author is an academic and, I would venture, very pleased with herself, constantly going on about which celebrities she has talked to in person and which shows she has seen in person. It gets a little tiring.

Some films get very skimpy treatment and the index has problems.

The point of the book should be insights and understanding, but they're not as good and as frequent as one would would expect. Many remarks are rather obvious or simply unsubstantiated opinions.

[Riegs · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author devoted about 15-20 pages of to Al Jolson, and provided less than a few sentences about the blackface.

She later on devoted about 3-5 pages to the "lost" African American musicals, like The Wiz.

Does this woman really have no research about the Harlem Renaissance, tap dancing, or any of the blatantly stolen African American dance and music styles that permeate the musical as an art form????

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent overview of the genre of the Hollywood musical by the always interesting and expert Basinger. She begins with an attempt at definition, what a musical is and what it is not (i.e. it's not just a movie with some songs in it). Then she talks about the earliest musicals as they arose in the aftermath of the move to sound, as early makers of sound films tested the boundaries of what sound could do (I think a brief consideration of non-film influences on the development of the musical, such as musical theatre, revues, vaudeville, and minstrel shows, would have been useful here, though this is already a long book and I get why why she doesn't venture there--but doing so would have enabled her to make more sense of things like musical blackface, which she doesn't have much to say about beyond acknowledging that they are nasty). Chapter 3 focusses on the crucial year of 1933, as the musical came of age as an important genre. The next chapter is by far the longest, and might better have been split into two chapters. The first half looks at particular stars of the musical, stars like All Jolson, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, and Elvis Presley, whose stardom both shaped and reflected the form of the musical in its different stages, female stars like Doris Day and Deanna Durbin, one-off oddities like Esther Williams and Sonia Henie, stage stars whose stardom didn't quite transfer to film like Ethel Merman, musical pairings like Astaire and Rogers, Garland and Rooney, MacDonald and Eddy; the second half of this very long chapter looks at particular types of the musical and what they reveal about the business and practical shaping influences on the genre--musical biopics, B musicals, opera and operetta, adaptations and remakes, and the distinctive musical territories staked out by major studios. The final chapters concern what happened to musicals as some of their creators started thinking of them as not just another product category but as art (Gene Kelly is central to this story), the decline of the musical as a significant genre of moviemaking, particularly as the business changed and the studio system collapsed, and finally the continuing attempts to make musicals that speak to modern audiences and incorporate new musical forms and influences (she's a little hard on some of these, repeatedly dismissing later musicals as not doing anything really new or groundbreaking with the form, but that seems an unnecessarily high bar to set--not every film needs to break new ground--sometimes it's enough to be really good at what it's doing).

Obviously there are gaps and omissions and debatable choices here, films that readers might wish she included, performers they wish she had spent more or less time on, topics that cry out for more critical examination (like race, to which she pays too little attention). Omissions and gaps and disagreements are inevitable in a book this big and ambitious. But what's here is really, really good. Her discussions sent me repeatedly to Youtube to remind myself of particular musical scenes, and she's given me lots to think about when the next musical comes up on TCM. I love books that make me feel smarter and more informed about interesting things, and this book amply fulfilled that need.

[Zellizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, so while I love a good academic take on musicals, I have some Issues with this one. (First off, it looks like it should be one of those light, breezy coffee table books full of pictures, when it's really quite dense and academic, but I recognize that the design and marketing might be out of the author's hands.)

It has the troubles that all academic analysis of musicals does- namely, that everyone (including me!) has preferences in regards to their musical tastes, and there will naturally be musicals skipped over or lingered on based on these preferences, and it's really impossible to do a comprehensive look at the history of musicals (even limiting your thesis to movie musicals as this author does) unless you've got almost a thousand pages, and even then someone will likely come out of the woodwork to say you've ignored their favorite underrated obscure musical that actually broke major ground in the genre. A lot of academic histories of musicals often seem to be excuses for authors to wax rhapsodic over their favorite underrated gems (to be fair, I would probably do the same) while breezing over the history-making shows they don't care for as much, to the detriment of the work as a whole, as some iconic musicals are given barely a sentence while shows that I've never heard of have dance numbers recounted in painstaking detail (including camera angles, costumes, ensemble reactions, etc.) for paragraphs or pages. Which is not interesting if you've seen the movie she's talking about (yes, I would rather be watching Fred Astaire in Top Hat than trying to read you describe the appeal of Fred Astaire in Top Hat by going through the titular number in minute detail), and even less so if you haven't, as she gives you very little reason to care if you've never heard of X movie or performer, making some sections a major slog.

But a bigger problem, I think, is the uncritical glorification of early movie musicals, where not even lip service is paid to the notion that American musicals, in particular, were influenced by minstrelsy in both their infancy and beyond. Think of White Christmas' millstone of "I'd rather see a minstrel show than any other kind of show!", Holiday Inn's plot-important blackface number, or even the author of this book's beloved Swing Time- though it's one of the better Astaire/Rogers films when judged by its dancing and plot, there is also a not-insignificant blackface number that is conspicuously only referred to as a "tribute to tap dancer Bill Robinson" and "questionable ... but done with sincerity and respect for his talent" among the drooling recounting of Rogers' lavish outfits and Astaire's charisma. I'm not saying you have to bash or unequivocally renounce all early musicals as unforgivably problematic, but at least an acknowledgement that the racism was there would be nice (do not mention The Jazz Singer without at least a few caveats, IMO- later mention is made of its star Al Jolson being mostly remembered for his blackface numbers in the mainstream, but this is portrayed as a tragedy that the legacy of such a talented actor is tainted... by his signature act, and, while shocking to modern audiences, it's okay-ish because one time his movie character had a Black best friend and in another film he did a blackface number with Cab Calloway for an all-Black nightclub audience). 

A book that does much better in this regard is Broadway: The American Musical by Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor, though it does have its flaws, albeit less egregious than this book (mainly that by defining musicals as a primarily American genre, it downplays the influence of the West End on theater and therefore glosses over the incredibly dominant megamusicals of the 1980s- the 80s were defined more by Lloyd Webber than Sondheim, much to the consternation of the pretentious and academic among us).

I could also say something about the author's uncritical glorification of the objectification of women in early musicals (which she herself seems to participate in- glowingly writing of scandalous Ziegfeld dancers wearing "nearly nothing" or describing the sensuous nature of various dresses), and how, while she does somewhat recognize that the purpose of these outfits was often because "sex sells" and men often went to Ziegfeld to see pretty legs, not talented performers, she doesn't seem to realize that it wasn't an act of liberation that caused women to be dressed like that- it was the male gaze. It wasn't the free choice of a 'liberated woman' to be sexy- it was the choice of thirsty male producers to cater to the lowest common denominator and treat women as pretty objects to be put on display as prizes for their heroes (and vicarious male viewers) to win. I'm honestly surprised that the author is a woman- she talks about Astaire's charisma and talent, but Ginger Rogers is reduced to a pretty dress with legs much of the time. Men's talent is rhapsodized, and even if they're only mentioned in passing, it's as 'a great singer', while women are primarily characterized as "pretty" "tiny" "sexy" or "plump", their talents playing second fiddle to their looks and wardrobe. And don't even get me started on her ridiculous argument that duets were a way to imply sex under the Hays Code... (Or her tendency to proclaim her dislike of certain performers without giving much reason for it- 'a dancer, not a singer' or 'her acting is flat' is the most you get sometimes, and then sneaking in little slights and jabs at them- I noticed it most with Cyd Charisse and Vera-Ellen, but it also happened to some extent with Danny Kaye, Carol Burnett, and others.)

It also suffers under the assumption that all readers are experts in musical theater, and throws out references without context like candy. Sure, *I* know who Lina Lamont is without explanation, but what about the reader who hasn't seen Singin' in the Rain in over a decade or, horror of horrors, is only familiar with parodic references to its title number and the vague image of Gene Kelly with an umbrella that is featured on the cover of this book? Stop referencing movies like Gold Diggers of 1933 as if everyone knows what it is- I've barely heard of it, and I've seen quite a few Ginger Rogers movies!

I think the author would've been happier just writing about pre-1945 musicals- the 50s and 60s are glossed over (West Side Story maybe gets a page or two, as does Funny Girl- and both the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins are panned for no good reason other than author preference), the 80s and beyond are treated mostly with passing contempt (although she does like Frozen, which I was surprised by), with special vitriol reserved for La La Land, supposedly the epitome of modern musical failure (I shudder to think what the author might think about The Greatest Showman). According to her the movie musical is dead, and we are hopeless failures compared to the greatness of Astaire, Garland, etc., a bygone era of splendor we can never hope to reclaim- which is quite depressing! If you just prefer classic musicals, say so! No one is forcing you to write about modern musicals. 

True, movie musicals have lost their way more often since the supposed glory days of the studio system, and adaptations can be hit or miss (the films of Cats, Les Miserables, and the Phantom of the Opera were definite misses- I think Phantom wasn't even mentioned in this book?), but there's still good stuff coming out, and proshots are happening now more than ever. I could easily see a glorious renaissance for the movie musical, if we continue along the path set out by Matilda the Musical, Wicked Part 1, Encanto, Moana, and so on. (Even lesser quality films like Wonka still seem to be a step in the right direction, and show that audience appetite for musicals isn't dead yet- and, come to think of it, she never mentioned Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory at all.) Either way, it just seems wrong to conclude your book, a supposed celebration of the movie musical as a genre, with the idea that the movie musical is hopelessly dead because there are no Fred Astaires around anymore, nor monopolistic studios to churn out a million light, escapist films starring him. I, for one, say long live the movie musical!

[Russell Sanders · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I finished Jeanine Basinger’s The Movie Musical!, my first thought was “that’s a big chunk of my life I’ll never get back.” I was so excited when I first saw the book online. The cover picture of Gene Kelly with umbrellas was inviting. It portrayed the joy I feel when I watch a movie musical. I thought I would be able to have a good wallow in movie musical land with this book. I expected a fairly chronological look at film musicals, with descriptions and anecdotes and “how it was made” stories complete with beautiful stills from the films. Well, this book is chockful of stills. The rest? Not so much. Basinger, I think, is supposed to be a movie historian, but she comes across more as a film critic. The book is one long—very, very long; five-hundred-ninety-five pages long—opinion column. Yes, I learned a bit about her topic, but mostly, I had to wade through endless analysis of dances from start to finish. And hear her continually tell us over and over about the genres of movie musicals (the biopic, the backstage story, the common man singing for no reason, etc.) and how each film she decides to analyze fits into the categories. The chronology? It doesn’t exist, for she chooses a pastiche of famous players who played themselves in all their films or actors whom musicals were built around or adaptations of Broadway shows (which she apparently doesn’t particularly like because she talks very little about them—negating another reason I wanted her book: to expound on all my favorite Broadway shows that have made it to film.) Her design of the book is such that just when I thought I had come to a topic I would enjoy, she veers off. Towards the end of the book, she starts a chapter about the end of movie musicals and suddenly she is talking about three predominantly Black movie musicals made in the last decade or so but not after she must have had an “oops” moment, for she then goes back to a lengthy discussion all the way back to the first Black performers in films, as if to say, “Okay, I forgot to talk about them, so now’s as good a time as any.” Yes, I learned a bit of history, but instead of reveling in the film descriptions, I got irritated and felt like I didn’t want another opinion of hers why the film I loved so much was a bad film or an uninteresting film or a so-so film. I’ve read countless books on Broadway musical history and always came away with new insights and bits of history that stayed with me. Very little in this book is with me now, ten minutes after I finished reading it. Film historians may like the book. Others might like to thumb through and look at the pictures. But I will give her credit for this: one of my favorite film musicals is “Love Me or Leave Me.” As many times as I’ve seen it (six or more) I never realized that each song chosen reflects how the main character is feeling at the time or what she is experiencing at the time. That revelation makes me, a semi-intelligent film watcher, look bad, but I’m glad I know that now. The next time I see the movie, the songs will mean more to me. So, thank you, Jeanine Basinger for that insight.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the rare 5-star non-fiction book, it's practically perfect and a joy to read from start to finish (even if I don't agree with her re Moulin Rouge and New York, New York, which I loved and hated, and she hated and loved). It's primarily text, but with a sprinkling of photos throughout as required (which is ideal for this subject, rather than (a) mostly pictures, (b) no pictures, or (c) a strange motley set of pictures in the middle of the book, not where they ought to be). Her tone is warm, witty, welcoming, and thoughful. It's easy to read—but she certainly knows her subject.

I was riveted for all of its 600-ish pages. If you're hoping for a coffee table book that you don't have to read, this isn't it.

It's hard to write about music (I thought Bob Stanley's Yeah Yeah Yeah was particularly successful) in a way that evokes the music, and it's equally hard to write about movies in a way that conjures them up, but she manages to do both. You get a feeling of what watching Follow the Fleet would feel like, to pick one she spent some time detailing. That's tricky stuff.

One thing she did particularly well was her organization of the material. Rather than going encyclopedically (alphabetically, or perhaps chronologically), she organized her thoughts into sections, so this was less of a scattershot "here's a film, here's another film," and very much more a considered discussion of all aspects: the Star Vehicle, Musical Genres (e.g. biopics), the Musical as Art, etc. You will walk away with a vastly enlarged watchlist--there are (apparently) many less than legendary musicals out there that nonetheless contain a dazzling sequence directed by Vincent Minelli, or an unforgettable performance by Lena Horne, etc. I will happily sit throught the rest of the relatively short film in order to appreciate the gems as they come.

And if you haven't seen Moulin Rouge, don't let her talk you out of it! It's one of my personal top ten films, along with The Little Mermaid, All About Eve, All That Jazz, Spirited Away, and others.

But you shouldn't really judge a book based on whether the author's taste is the same as yours. I didn't mark her down for dissing Moulin Rouge, and I didn't mark her up for disliking La La Land (which I hated, mostly for all the reasons she articulated better than I could have). I like hearing her opinions, but you'll never get an author who gives opinions on subjective matters like Art and have them match yours 100%, not unless they are dealing with a very small set of subjects (e.g. "which Die Hard film is best"). Certainly given the entire history of musicals, we can forgive one another for occasionally liking or disliking the wrong film ;-)

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s)

[Michael Berens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not read any other of professor Basinger's books, but based on the titles on the back of the dust jacket, it's clear that she has put a lifetime of studying movies--how they are made, what makes one a success or not, what makes a performer a star or not, etc.--into this massive but by no means exhaustive study of the American movie musical. This is film history, not film criticism or pop culture studies. Professor Basinger steers clear of picking favorites or top 10 lists and such, although she clearly admires some movies and performers more than others. For an academic and a semi-academic book, her writing is clear and accessible, although her phrasing can get repetitive at times. My mother loved musicals, especially the big hit Broadway musicals of the 50s and 60s, and I grew up listening to them--as well as "The Wizard of Oz" and "Peter Pan" and Disney musicals--and singing those songs. Later I discovered the great film musicals as well. Personally, I appreciated professor Basinger's insights into the genre and its various permutations and performances. The book for me was not so much nostalgia as a new way of looking at these films. I found myself going repeatedly to You Tube to watch again some musical number she describes in great detail and see nuances I had never noticed before. Yes, the book is long and a bit dense in parts. Still, I was sad to say goodbye when I came to the end.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive and well-researched history of movie musicals. Rather than tackle the subject chronologically the structure was more thematic. By bundling the topic by subject - dancers, duos, studios, etc. - certain figures showed up repeatedly (the author really likes Fred Astaire). Others were barely mentioned, I would have liked more on the Nicolas Brothers, for example. The contributions of Disney and other animated films are mentioned briefly, almost an afterthought. While she was scrupulous about documenting her sources with footnotes I wish the book had included an index.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may end up being my favorite book I read in 2020 (although it's a 2019 publishing date). I wish I could give this 10 stars! It's so well written. Jeanine Basinger is a storehouse of knowledge. She obviously loves movie musicals; her adoration and respect for them rings like bell after bell throughout the book. She is occasionally pointed, often hilariously so. She has her dislikes and her likes, which is also obvious. Did I mention it's well written? This author knows how to work a pen. Not just about musicals and films, but about music, and especially dance. I watched clips of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or Gene Kelly on You Tube (or in Singin' in the Rain, which we re-watched specifically because of this book) with a new, more appreciative eye because of Basinger. By the end of The Movie Musical! I was having trouble putting it down. Basinger made me want to watch so many musicals, in addition to digging through Wikipedia to learn more about various films, actors, actresses and composers. Don't let the heft of this book fool you into not wanting to read it (it's a heavy tome). It looks suspiciously like a text book, but Basinger is far from dry and pedantic. Here is a beautiful passage and excellent example of her love of film and understanding of film's power (just one of many): "Astaire and Rogers were the promise that movies made to ordinary viewers: inside you, behind your looks, there is something else, something desirable and special and eternal. Like Fred and Ginger." Big contented SIGH.

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating. I love musicals. I love the behind the scenes stories of musicals. I felt for certain that this would be a surefire winner.

Unfortunately, Basinger reveals her profession as an academic many a time. She set out to make a book on an extremely large subject, the movie musical, particularly as an American film concept. She spends far too much time in my opinion quibbling over definitions without succinctly presenting her own, although you can catch her meaning.

I have to admit I had hoped for more background of either the creation or reception of the films, or the lives of their stars. But the is much more a step by step chronicle of the Hollywood pumping out stars and musicals.

Where Basinger does shine, AND SHE DOES, is when she takes the time to describe plots and scenes from movies that clearly caught her attention. Her descriptions of Love Parade especially stand out to me. Sadly, these moments are too few to make the 600 page tome worth it.

This book could have been greatly improved by an editor willing to hack and slash away at long paragraphs that could have been a few sentences, or axing whole chapters that could have been a short foreword.

[Cook Memorial Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 2019 staff favorite recommended by Jenn and Becky. Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore...

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a year to get through this bit by bit, but worth it for those fond of classic Hollywood musicals. Direct interpretations of style and plot and pieces of information that average movie goer wouldn't know. For instance, I had the answer for why all those skirts the dancer would wear would look normal before the dance and turn into something with swaths more fabric during it. Different costumes for different parts of the dance!

[Sarah Fowler Wolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like a book written to be the text for a specific college class (not to be confused with an authoritative textbook) rather than a wide-market nonfiction book. It lacks an engaging voice, or really anything particularly noteworthy other than some odd critiques.

[D.G. Driver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, I finally finished this book. It was a 24 hour audiobook, and it took so many commutes back and forth to get through it. Okay, I have a lot of feelings about this book, and I could write a whole essay. I'll just try sticking to a couple points, though. First of all, I am a movie musical fanatic - old and new. I love them, even the ones people hate. I can't help it. When people sing and dance in movies, I'm so excited about it. I got this audiobook when I saw it in the two for one audible sale and thought it might be a fun break from novels for a bit. Well... it was super interesting but not really that fun. I'm giving it 3 stars for being very thorough and because the narrator was awesome. It was hard to believe she wasn't the author herself; she even mastered the slightly cynical tone of the professor's wording.

Things I liked about this book: It was thorough and researched. It's very heavy on the beginnings of musical movie history. I learned a lot about how the genre started, along with how talkies began. I learned more about movies from the 1930s than I ever knew before. My interest in movie musicals really kicks into gear with the colorful MGM and Warner Bros movies of the 40s and 50s. Due to the fact that I was listening and not reading or seeing any pictures, I did appreciate the author's intense descriptions of certain dances or scenes from the movies. It was quite impressive, actually. I could picture them vividly in my head.

I didn't like a number of things. She spends way too much time on early movies. It was halfway through the book before she even moved on to the 1940s. The book goes rapidly downhill in the final third when she reaches the 1960s. She doesn't seem to have enough time to get everything in. Also the book goes back and forth in time a lot and focuses on some minor movies and lesser stars and doesn't give some major stars or films much time. It's really redundant, making the same points about certain themes of musicals such as "people who sing for a living verses people who sing as they live" over and over again. She makes some half-hearted attempts to address racism in Hollywood, particularly in the early years, but it does often seem like an afterthought - like someone told her she should add it. In the final third of the book she seems to be making a point that musicals have died or aren't good anymore. She fails to mention a lot of musicals from the 70s onward as though they don't exist and dismisses some really good ones as nothing special. She even spends time talking about some movies that I don't even consider to be musicals. She also is super critical of movies that are greatly loved for no good reason (all the Rogers and Hammerstein movies, the 1951 Showboat, La La Land, Moulin Rouge for example), and she praises movies that I have never heard of. She seems to have a point in the end that there are no new, innovative musicals anymore, so why bother? This wasn't exactly the take I expected from a book that has an exclamation mark in the title.

Anyway, I learned stuff. I nodded my head a lot. I yelled at the narrator often.

[Mme Forte · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a coffee-table book with tons of images from classic movie musicals, this is not the book for you.

If you're looking for a book about the inner workings of movie musicals -- what makes them sublime, what makes them dreck, what makes the mechanism run smoothly (or not) -- then this is your book.

Basinger is a film scholar and a college professor, so she writes authoritatively on the subject. But this book, while scholarly, is very readable and accessible to the non-film historian. Basinger does use photos, but she also writes vivid descriptions of film scenes and plots, adding in a healthy dose of humor to keep things moving along. This book is literally too heavy to carry around, so I advise you to have a comfortable seat, get a beverage, and enjoy large chunks of it at home. I learned a boatload of interesting stuff about movie-making in general, musicals in particular, and the why and how of the importance of the movie musical.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping this doorstop of a book would be the be-all and end-all of movie musical books. I came away sorely disappointed. Basinger's structure isn't quite chronological, it's sort of thematic, as she covers what she sees as important ideas and movements in the musical genre. She skips around, sometimes developing interesting ideas that she abandons before she plumbs their depths. Her writing style is generally strong, though an editor needed to weed out repetition: if she calls a musical "colorful," she uses that same word two more times a paragraph or two later. She spends only one paragraph of West Side Story, a musical she sees as important, but spends many more paragraphs on One from the Heart and The Last Waltz (which, great as it is, I don't think of as a musical--she spends some time on documentaries which hardly belong to the genre even as she defines it). Interesting insights abound, but because the books feels like a mess, most of them didn't stick with me.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading about movie musicals, and I learned a lot about the making of movie musicals and their history in this book. It was sometimes hard to follow when Basinger is describing the plot of and specific scenes from movies without having seen them before. And I appreciated the conversational tone of the book, although sometimes it's hard to distinguish between fact and the author's opinion or analysis.

[Mari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly opinionated - as I suppose is to be suspected from a critic, writing a history - but very detailed, if somewhat hard to follow at times. I'm not sure I really get the author's plan in the layout of the book, but if you can follow along, to a decent degree, it is certainly thorough.

[Brenden Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like the book's subject, "The Movie Musical!" by Jeanine Basinger isn't for everyone.

Basinger's comprehensive history of the genre takes 24 hours to listen to, and spans every important development of the musical from the dawn of sound film to "A Star is Born" (2019). Along the way, Basinger dedicates ample attention to the great stars of the silver screen like Gene Kelly and Judy Garland as well as largely forgotten figures like ice skating musical queen Sonja Henie. Even the most ardent musical fan will feel that certain chapters just aren't for them, as the book covers every major trend of the musical from vaudeville to hip-hopera.

That being said, you can't help but appreciate Basinger's passion for and knowledge of the musical. Furthermore, her gifts as a historian and critic are on full display here. She expertly weaves biography, genre history, film criticism, and scene analysis together, dipping from one to another as she sees fit, always finding the best way to present a particular artist, era, or film.

As you might expect, the most exciting chapters of the book are those that feel the most relevant today. Basinger's comparative analysis of Bing Crosby and Elvis Presley is fascinating. Her breakdown of the Freed Unit is a masterful nuts and bolts breakdown of film logistics and technique. Her discussion of "Singin' in the Rain" is definitive. And her chronicle of the fall of the musical post-1970 giving rise to creative voices like Bob Fosse and Baz Lurhman is brilliant.

If you are a film nut or work in the entertainment industry, the more obscure sections of the text will also be worthwhile. You don't have to have seen a particular film to understand how audiences and creatives shape and reinvent genres. You don't need to know every obscure musical star of the 30s and 40s to appreciate that familiar trajectories of stars and directors as they come and go.

No, I don't think this is a book for the casual film fan or someone who doesn't love musicals. But, if you are a cinephile and/or a musical lover, this is an exhaustive, fulfilling read.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I can't give this marvelous compendium of movie musical history by Jeanine Basinger five stars is its physical presentation. It is nearly 600 pages of marvelous text and remarkable photos, but it is so heavy and awkward that it is literally hard to hold, at least for me. It is basically an encyclopedia of the subject, but the design includes extra-wide margins of white space. Had the text been set wider, or the margins reduced to a more normal size, the book could have lighter with fewer pages.

Despite that, it is still wonderful. The initial tribute to Fred Astaire, for example, is absolutely terrific, and he receives all the accolades he deserves in a later section. The profiles of Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and others are full of details. Ethel Merman comes alive with added dimension and there's a great analysis of why Broadway star Mary Martin never really made it in the movies. Doris Day's career receives much-deserved attention - it's often forgotten that she handled musical, comedic and dramatic roles well. Gene Kelly, too, gets five-star treatment, and An American in Paris has an extensive review.

Basinger covers the MGM era and its stars – Judy Garland, a legendary example – with an in-depth discussion. She does not give short shrift to more recent decades either, but devotes a long chapter to them. Barbra Streisand gets her due.

Basinger also covers the contemporary resurgence of musicals that have recently appeared – La La Land, The Greatest Showman and the most recent A Star Is Born – proving that the movie musical, in new variations, is still alive and kicking.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This may be my most unhinged book review to date. I love movie musicals. I didn't love this book. The audiobook at a whopping 24+ hours, and it took me over a month to read. There was an entire chapter that was the length of a regular audiobook (12+ hours).

With that type of length, you can imagine there was a lot of breadth and rather unbalanced depth. How are you going to spend at least one whole hour on Al Jolson and barely acknowledge the controversy around his black-face performances and then also relegate musicals like The Wiz and Dreamgirls to the small portion of an "Epitaph" chapter toward the end?

The book's style waffles between an academic approach to film and the author's deeply-held opinions on certain films/performers (this lady did NOT like La La Land). It proceeds somewhat chronologically but felt scattered about at the same time. It's like the author couldn't decide if she wanted to make this a timeline driven narrative or detail key themes.

In all that writing, she never really fully defines what constitutes a "Movie Musical". Somehow, we can several minutes spent on Fantasia recounting every sequence for the reader, but there's an aside that Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy barely counts as one. I think Stephen Sondheim and his Oscar for that film would disagree.

Here's the unhinged part. I don't judge a book by its cover metaphorically, but I had to know what this author looked like. Who was this woman who poured so much into this book and expostulated so hard on certain films and actors? I googled her, and she looks JUST like Ms. Darbus from High School Musical. You know what? With that in mind, all makes a whole a lot of sense.

[Sofia Sorrentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'M DONE!!! Good lord, that took waaaay too long.

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows how much I love movies, and how much I love musicals. I also love Gene Kelly, so just a glance at this cover would make you think I would adore this book.

Well....I didn't love it. It's pretty meandering and oddly structured, and while Basinger has a wonderful witty sense of humor, it only occasionally helps with lightening up the overall very dry, academic prose and long, slow digressions into analyzing say, a B-movie that absolutely no one remembers now and that made very little impact on musical history but clearly Basinger has a great affection for.

That's the real charm of this book; getting to look at musical history through the eyes not of the critics(who, as the book reminds us, miss the mark in their declarations oftentimes) but through the eyes of a super-fan - an academic one, yes, but still a fan who loves everything about movie musicals, and who has a wealth of knowledge on the subject that would astonish a lot of high-profile directors. I only wish that the reader was able to get as swept up in the product of that passion as she clearly was in the subject.

And really....there was no need for this to be almost 600 pages. Did all of that stuff about failed ice-skating vehicles really have to be in there? Really?

[Ed Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may not be the height of coolness to admit it, but I love musical theater and movie musicals. And you know who else does? Jeanine Basinger, and she also has the kind of encyclopedic knowledge and critical eye to produce a nearly comprehensive analysis of the form. She’s a professor of film at Wesleyan, and has watched, oh I don’t know, every musical ever made? This book is comprehensive, but is more than just a decade by decade review of the form. Basinger considers the films of Elvis Presley, Doris Day and Jeanette McDonald/Nelson Eddy, for example, rather than just the Judy Garlands and Fred Astaires (she rightly believes that he is the greatest of all musical stars, and I couldn’t agree more). In other words, she considers each work on its merits rather than its accepted place in the pantheon. She also argues that Singing in the Rain is perhaps the best American movie ever made, and I agree with that too. The only thing that could make this book better is to have the clips she describes actually imprinted into the book, which would make it … not a book. I am so inspired by this book and had such a great time reading it and watching musicals that Basinger uncovered for me that I am planning to teach a course in movie musicals based on this book. How I wish I was a Wesleyan student who could take her course!

Grade: A

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much a YMMV book: it's a 600 page doorstop and text-centric, not a heavily illustrated coffee table book. Basinger freely admits she's a musical fangirl and she's letting it fly here.
The book tackles the question of what makes a musical (e.g., Casablanca isn't one despite the role music plays in the story) and discusses what Basinger considers the key challenge: how do you make the audience believe that everyone just randomly bursts into song and dance? You can have all the songs performed in a nightclub, or have performers sing on their way home or establish it's the kind of fantasy where people just sing all the time (e.g., MGM's version of Oz). Then she looks at the development of sound, major musical stars, subgenres (B movie musicals, singing cowboy films) studio styles and the decline of the genre in recent years.
The biggest weakness is that the book needs more structure. It bounces from chronological history to a look at major stars to studios to subgenres to stars to history ... but I still enjoyed it and there's a ton of movies I want to see now.
Another weakness is that I think she's wrong on a couple of points ("You'll come back a star!" in 42nd Street is NOT cornball at all in context, for instance)>

[andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's to be expected that in a book on film this comprehensive each reader will find some sections interesting and others dull. Basinger's love for movies and musicals in particular comes through even when she is dealing in minutiae as in her discussion of the early 30's musicals that flooded the screen after the invention of "talkies". But once this is complete, the book takes off with her discussion of Fred Astaire's career and then myriad other performers, directors, composers and choreographers. Whether the review and analysis concerns movies the reader has seen or not, the anecdotal details are often fascinating. The narrative is replete with the author's personal critiques (she describes the 1951 movie version of Showboat as "having everything - except what counts: a heart and a soul").

What enhances the enjoyment of the read is having your phone or iPad at the ready so as to allow viewing on YouTube of some of the performances that are noted as important, whether it be Gene Kelly's dancing in An American in Paris, Garland singing The Man That Got Away in A Star is Born or many others.

The racism inherent in films over the decades is given little attention until the final section of the book in which Basinger laments what the world lost through the scant use of the talents of numerous African American performers.