As a young film fan, I’d always considered myself “a person who likes musicals,” but it wasn’t until somewhat recently that I realized I’d been basing this conception more on having watched and enjoyed That’s Entertainment a few times in my formative years, rather than having watched and explored the actual musicals themselves.
And so began my musical curriculum, forged in the desire to expand my knowledge about these often uniquely cinematic excursions. I started out just picking random titles I’d heard of, but then I realized I already had a framework for a list of great musicals–That’s Entertainment, of course! So I’ve been using that a base, ticking through the various titles and having pretty good luck.
So far in 2013, I’ve watched (mostly for the first time):
- An American in Paris
- Anchors Aweigh
- Bye Bye Birdie
- Carmen Jones
- Flying Down to Rio
- Footlight Parade
- Gentlemen Marry Brunettes
- Gigi
- Girl Crazy
- Hit Parade of 1943
- It Happened in Brooklyn
- Jailhouse Rock
- Little Nellie Kelly
- Meet Me in St. Louis
- Road to Hong Kong
- Road to Morocco
- Road to Rio
- Road to Utopia
- Road to Zanzibar
- Royal Wedding
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
- Strike Up the Band
- Summer Stock
- Swing Time
- Take Me Out to the Ball Game
- The Band Wagon
- The Barkleys of Broadway
- The Gay Divorcee
- The Pirate
- You’ll Never Get Rich
- Ziegfield Follies
And more ever-coming. The “That’s Entertainment” tag is where I’ll keep updates of this ongoing journey, as I’m using the series as a starting place for my list of musicals… with the eventual aim to watch everything featured. Since I don’t want to limit myself to only MGM’s cream of the crop though, I’m also watching any/all rare musicals from TCM, and tracking down other films that look interesting.