Feed me Seymour...... Loved the opening musical number in "Little Shop of Horrors"
The best tap dancing musical on film is "Broadway Melody of 1940" with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. This will never be topped.
Also like Leonard Bernstein's music in "On The Town" (1940) and those New York City shots were great thanks to director Stanley Donan, Gene Kelly and cinematographer Harold Rosson. The three of them teamed up again three years later to do "Singin' in the Rain"...my head is bowing now.
Musical lovers: TCM in their special screenings this month "31 Days of Oscar" is running the following musicals:
All in March 2003:
3/14 SOUTH PACIFIC
3/16 SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS
3/16 GUYS AND DOLLS
3/20 AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
3/20 SHALL WE DANCE?
3/20 THE BAND WAGON
3/20 42ND STREET
3/21 GIGI
3/22 THE MERRY WIDOW
3/25 NIGHT AND DAY
3/25 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY
3/25 LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING
3/25 THREE LITTLE WORDS
3/25 ROYAL WEDDING
(Turner Classic Movies - a cable channel)
Thanks - thought maybe couzz meant TMC. Figures old Ted would find a way to rip off a competitor.
Couzz,
...I think Ms. Powell is the best female tapper ever. So in my mind, Ginger is sweet, but Eleanor is his best tap partner, and Legs...I mean..Cyd Charise is is his best partner for the "perty" stuff. I guess that sorta' makes "Broadway..", and "Singin'..", two of my favorite musicals. Of course, the "That's Entertainment" series makes me drool. I don't know if they count, but hey, who needs a plot in a musical anyway? :wink:
cjhsa;
Ted Turner had TCM years before the TMC was born. You can thank Turner for inventing one of the first 24 hour movie channels. I believe (if I am remembering correctly) AMC (American Movie Classics) was the first to do so and Turner was the second.
If so then my bad. But I'm not so sure.
Wasn't Ted pretty much innovative in general?What with the 24 hour news and all.
Booman:
I agree with you on Cyd Charise--absolutely incredible legs and she knew how to use them. The dance number in the nightclub with Fred Astaire where she is wearing the green outfit (I think is was "The Band Wagon) is sublime.
As far as the "That's Entertianment" series--I am a moth to a flame.
When they run the documentary "That's Dancing"....hold the phones.
I'm not sure which came first, TCM or TMC. Those who can receive them usually know the difference. For one thing, TMC is a premium channel and TCM, at least in my area, is a basic digital channel.
Ted Turner is an adventurous spirit and a media innovator. He does not like to take no for an answer. He did not used to be known as "the mouth of the South " for nothing. He's done the work of three men and more.
Turner did invent the first super station (TBS) broadcasting to cable systems nationwide by a means of satellite and later worldwide in many languages. Booman you are right--Turner soon after launched CNN (Cable New Network) with the first 24 hour news station. I believe AMC (American Movie Classics) came around that time as well. So we can thank him for bringing us all those great classic movies.
By the way Turner is one of the few billionaires who is generous with his wealth. He has a great sense of responsibility and supports environmental causes plus he donated $1 billion to the United Nations.
Turner Classic Movies is one of the few Great things on television. Turner probably did start it to compete with AMC (American Movie Classics), but its a good thing - AMC is now crap - commercials every ten minutes, crappy movies, and repetition of the same movies over and over and over again. Chinatown has probably been on 30 times this year. TCM shows movies uninterrupted, widescreen, uncut, and uncensored. And they show a good number of foreign films and documentaries too.
If you are talking about The Movie Channel when you say TMC, that has been around for awhile, and I don't think it has anything to do with Turner. Its in the same league as HBO and Showtime, and has always been a premium movie channel like them.
Since we are talking about TCM and Ted Turner I became curious about the timeline of his stations and when they were launched.
1979--TBS (Turner bought an Atlanta TV station in 1968 and developed into TBS) (Turner Broadcasting System)
1981--CNN (Cable News Network)
1986--Turner buys MGM/UA Studios
1988--TNT (Turner Network Television)
1992--Cartoon Network
1994--TCM (Turner Classic Movies)
Two of the film related companies he owns are:
New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment.
Turner obviously loves films.
And news;....I guess we can forgive him for that "colorization" thing huh?
Yea, thats a bit of an inconsistency. Thanks for the timeline couzz.
Thank the film community and movie fans for protesting
when Turner began to color films. I don't know how many he actually colored but I am grateful he stopped as I am sure many of you are.
The apparent inconsistency of Turner is possibly due to the fact that he is sincere about wanting to preserve films but is not a true cineast. Nothing wrong with that.
Cineast huh? Okay I'll take your word for it. I'm not even going to check to see if that's a word.
The Best Musicals of all time
My top 10 musicals of all time are
1...Carousel
2...Oklahoma
3...Singing in the rain
4...There`s no business like show business
6...Seven brides for seven bothers
7...Annie get your gun
8...Deep in my heart
9...White Christmas
10.The king and I
Why wasn`t Anne Miller and Vere-Ellen included in the best dancer list, these two ladies could hold their own with any of the male dancers on the list.
