When you start to watch a musical made in 1954, starring Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds, with the same songwriters as Meet Me in St. Louis, you might think you have a pretty solid concept of what’s to come before you’ve even hit play. But that’s not quite the case with Athena, a film that seems to actively avoid many of this era’s favorite …
I’m delighted to be heading to the TCM Film Festival once again this year, marking my third official trip to the fest—and second year with all the access that a coveted Classic pass provides! This year’s theme is “History According to Hollywood,” which, at another festival, might mean a drab selection of biopics and well-regarded but tiresome dramas. Not TCM …
Lots of great, rare stuff on TCM this month, thanks to Sunday night spotlight on roadshow musicals, and a salute to the musicals of Star-of-the-Month Ann Sothern. Friday March 6 6:00am / Flying High (1931) Oddball inventor Bert Lahr comes up with a new aerocopter flying machine… now he just has to figure out how to …
Short and sweet this month, though not for any lack of musicals—within a span of about a week alone, you can catch An American in Paris, Funny Girl, or Fame on TCM! The flip side is that the “rarities” are a little scarcer for my purposes here, due to the annual Oscar history celebration. Happily, that means most of …
Royal Wedding has an astoundingly formidable pedigree within the world of classic musicals: it boasts two featured dance numbers in That’s Entertainment, a cast that includes Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, and Peter Lawford, and a director (Stanley Donen) who was smack dab between directing On the Town and Singin’ in the Rain when he worked …
Welcome to December, y’all! It’s been quiet here for the past couple months, but I think things have settled down a bit for me, so I should be around more starting now… with hopefully some fun stuff coming on the horizon. I can never miss one of my rare musical posts though, and TCM has some fun stuff …