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Musical

Musical

The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but some musical films (e.g.Down Argentine Way) simply plop the songs in as unrelated "specialties" - as with...
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An American in Paris

An American in Paris is a 1951 MGM musical film inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition by George Gershwin. Starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, and Oscar Levant, the film is set in Paris, and was directed by Vincente Minnelli from a script by...

Initial release date:

  • 1951

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 113 min (67.8 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 2,723,903 (US$)

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

Chicago

Chicago is a 2002 American film adaptation of the satirical stage musical Chicago, the film explores the themes of 'celebrity' and 'scandal' in Jazz age Chicago. Directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, and adapted for film by screenwriter Bill...

Initial release date:

  • 2002

Directed by:

Rating:

PG-13 (USA)

Runtime:

  • 113 min (67.8 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 45,000,000 (US$)

West Side Story

West Side Story is a 1961 American film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, which itself was adapted from Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard...

Initial release date:

  • 1961

Runtime:

  • 152 min (91.2 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 6,000,000 (US$)

Produced by:

The Pajama Game

The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7-1/2 Cents by Richard Bissell. It features a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where worker demands for a seven-and-a-half cents raise are...

Initial release date:

  • 1957

Directed by:

42nd Street

42nd Street is a 1933 American Warner Bros. musical film directed by Lloyd Bacon with choreography by Busby Berkeley. The songs were written by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics), and the script was written by Rian James and James Seymour,...

Initial release date:

  • 1933

Runtime:

  • 89 min (53 hs )

Estimated budget:

A Chorus Line

A Chorus Line is a 1985 American musical film directed by Richard Attenborough, starring Michael Douglas. The screenplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the Tony Award-winning book of the 1975 stage production of the same name by James Kirkwood and...

Initial release date:

  • Dec 10, 1985

Directed by:

Rating:

PG-13 (USA)

Runtime:

  • 112 min (67.2 hs )

Screenplay by:

The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera is a 2004 film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical of the same name. Directed by Joel Schumacher, the film was also produced and co-written by Lloyd Webber. The Phantom of the Opera stars Gerard Butler in the...

Initial release date:

  • Dec 22, 2004

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 143 min (85.8 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 70,000,000 (US$)

Produced by:

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a 1953 film adaptation of the 1949 stage musical, released by 20th Century Fox, directed by Howard Hawks and starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, with Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan, Taylor Holmes, and...

Initial release date:

  • 1953

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 91 min (55 hs )

Produced by:

The King and I

The King and I is a musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. The plot comes from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became school teacher to the children of King Mongkut of...

A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born is a 1976 rock music film telling the story of a young woman, played by Barbra Streisand who enters show business, and meets and falls in love with an established male star, played by Kris Kristofferson, only to find her career...

Initial release date:

  • Dec 17, 1976

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 140 min (84 hs )

A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born is a 1954 American musical film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay written by Moss Hart was an adaptation of the original 1937 film, which was based on the original screenplay by Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell....

Initial release date:

  • 1954

Directed by:

Produced by:

A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born is a 1937 romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and...

Initial release date:

  • Apr 20, 1937

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 111 min (66.6 hs )

Produced by:

Oliver!

Oliver! is a 1968 musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris. Both the film and play are based on the famous...

Initial release date:

  • Sep 26, 1968

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 153 min (91.8 hs )

The Little Shop of Horrors

The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. The...

Initial release date:

  • Sep 14, 1960

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 70 min (42 hs )

Estimated budget:

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

Gigi

Gigi is a 1958 American musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette. The film features songs with lyrics by Lerner; music by Frederick Loewe, arranged and...

Initial release date:

  • 1958

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 119 min (71.4 hs )

Produced by:

The Gay Divorcee

The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was based on the musical play Gay Divorce written by Dwight Taylor, Kenneth S. Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, with screenplay by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost...

Initial release date:

  • 1934

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 107 min (64.2 hs )

Produced by:

The Five Pennies

The Five Pennies was a semi-biographical 1959 film starring Danny Kaye as cornet player and bandleader Red Nichols. Other cast members included Barbara Bel Geddes, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Susan Gordon, and Tuesday Weld. The film...

Initial release date:

  • 1959

Directed by:

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

Bells Are Ringing

Bells Are Ringing is a 1960 romantic comedy-musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli. Based on the successful 1956 Broadway production of the same name by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jule Styne, it focused on Ella Peterson, who works in the...

Initial release date:

  • 1960

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 130 min (78 hs )

Produced by:

The Tales of Hoffmann

The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) is a British film adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann, written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company,...

Initial release date:

  • Apr 4, 1951

Runtime:

  • 128 min (76.8 hs )

Moon Over Miami

Moon Over Miami is a 1941 Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang, with Betty Grable and Don Ameche in leading roles and co-starring Robert Cummings, Carole Landis, Jack Haley, and Charlotte Greenwood. It was one of Haley's last appearances...

Initial release date:

  • 1941

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 91 min (55 hs )

The Happiest Millionaire

The Happiest Millionaire is a 1967 musical film, based upon the true story of Philadelphia millionaire Anthony J. Drexel Biddle. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Costume Design by Bill Thomas. The musical song score is by Robert and...

Initial release date:

  • Jun 23, 1967

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 144 min (86.4 hs )

Dames

Dames is a 1934 Warner Bros. musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright with dance numbers created by Busby Berkeley. The film stars Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, and Hugh Herbert. Production numbers and songs...

Initial release date:

  • 1934

Runtime:

  • 91 min (55 hs )

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

Oklahoma

Oklahoma (1979) is an independent 16mm film by James Benning, an instructor at the California Institute of the Arts.

Initial release date:

  • 1979

Camelot

Camelot is the 1967 film version of the successful musical of the same name. Richard Harris appears as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guenevere and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan. As in the original stage version, the...

Initial release date:

  • Oct 25, 1967

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 179 min (107 hs )

Produced by:

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical/fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank...

Initial release date:

  • 1939

Rating:

G (USA)

Runtime:

  • 101 min (60.6 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 2,777,000 (US$)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical film released in 1954. It was directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The script (by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley) is...

Initial release date:

  • 1954

Directed by:

Rating:

G (USA)

Runtime:

  • 102 min (61.2 hs )

Funny Girl

Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with...

Initial release date:

  • Sep 18, 1968

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 151 min (90.6 hs )

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

Funny Face

Funny Face is an American musical film released in 1957 in VistaVision Technicolor, with assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was written by Leonard Gershe and directed by Stanley Donen. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay...

Initial release date:

  • Feb 13, 1957

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 103 min (61.8 hs )

Produced by:

Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls is a 1955 musical film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine. The movie was made by the Samuel Goldwyn Company, released by MGM, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. The film...

Initial release date:

  • 1955

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 150 min (90 hs )

Produced by:

Evita

Evita is the 1996 film adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical based on the life of Eva Perón. It was directed by Alan Parker and starred Madonna, Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce. It was released on December 25, 1996 by...

Initial release date:

  • Dec 25, 1996

Directed by:

Rating:

PG (USA)

Runtime:

  • 134 min (80.4 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 55,000,000 (US$)

The Music Man

The Music Man is a 1962 film musical starring Robert Preston as Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as Marian Paroo. The film is based on the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name by Meredith Willson. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year and...

Initial release date:

  • Jun 19, 1962

Directed by:

Rating:

G (USA)

Runtime:

  • 151 min (90.6 hs )

Grease 2

Grease 2 is the 1982 sequel to the musical film Grease, which was itself based upon the musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Grease 2 was produced by Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch, who also...

Initial release date:

  • Jun 11, 1982

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 115 min (69 hs )

Screenplay by:

Grease

Grease is a 1978 American film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Jim Jacobs' and Warren Casey's musical, Grease. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, and Eve Arden. The film opens with an animated...

Initial release date:

  • 1978

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 110 min (66 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 6,000,000 (US$)

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and...

Initial release date:

  • Aug 27, 1964

Directed by:

Rating:

G (USA)

Runtime:

  • 140 min (84 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 6,000,000 (US$)

Produced by:

The Sound of Music

Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and...

Initial release date:

  • 1965

Directed by:

Rating:

G (USA)

Runtime:

  • 174 min (104 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 8,200,000 (US$)

Produced by:

Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls is a 2006 American musical film, directed by Bill Condon and jointly produced and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures. The film debuted in three special road show engagements beginning December 15, 2006, with a...

Initial release date:

  • Dec 9, 2006

Directed by:

Rating:

PG-13 (USA)

Runtime:

  • 131 min (78.6 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 75,000,000 (US$)

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 adventure film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. Set in 1937 Mississippi during the Great Depression,...

Initial release date:

  • 2000

Runtime:

  • 106 min (63.6 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 26,000,000 (US$)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 British musical comedy film that parodies science fiction and B-movie Horror films. Still in limited release 34 years after its premiere, it has the longest-running theatrical release in film history. It...

Initial release date:

  • 1975

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 100 min (60 hs )

Estimated budget:

  • 5,000,000 (US$)

Steamboat Willie

Steamboat Willie (1928) is an animated cartoon released on November 18, 1928. It was the Third Mickey Mouse cartoon, behind Plane Crazy (Released six months earlier) and The Gallopin' Gaucho (Made earlier, but released after). It was the first...

Initial release date:

  • 1928

Runtime:

  • 7.75 min (4.65 hs )

The Threepenny Opera

The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper) is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century...

The Great Ziegfeld

The Great Ziegfeld (1936) is a musical film produced by MGM. Although the film is a fictionalized biography of Florenz Ziegfeld from his show business beginnings to his death, it showcases a series of spectacular musical productions. The film...

Initial release date:

  • Apr 8, 1936

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 176 min (106 hs )

Screenplay by:

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is an American musical film/comedy motion picture released in 1929. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of the earliest ventures into the talkie format. Produced by Harry Rapf and directed by Chuck...

Initial release date:

  • 1929

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 116 min (69.6 hs )

Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers is a 1930 comedy film, in which mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding. The film was both a critical and commercial success upon initial...

Initial release date:

  • Aug 28, 1930

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 97 min (58 hs )

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 film starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young man, coming of age, whose weekend activities are visits to a local Brooklyn discothèque and Karen Lynn Gorney as his dance partner and eventual girlfriend. While in...

Initial release date:

  • 1977

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 118 min (70.8 hs )

Produced by:

State Fair

State Fair (1933) is a movie directed by Henry King and starring Janet Gaynor, Will Rogers, and Lew Ayres. The movie was based on a novel by Phil Stong. The film was remade twice, once in 1945 and again in 1962. In 1996 it was adapted for a Broadway...

Initial release date:

  • 1945

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 97 min (58 hs )

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

One Hour with You

One Hour with You is a 1932 film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was written by Samson Raphaelson and his assistant Sam Bellas from the Lothar Schmidt play Only a Dream, and was directed by George Cukor and Ernst Lubitsch. The...

Initial release date:

  • 1932

Runtime:

  • 80 min (48 hs )

Produced by:

The Smiling Lieutenant

The Smiling Lieutenant is a 1931 Paramount film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Made in the Pre-Code era, it was written by Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vajda, from the operetta Ein Walzertraum by Oscar Straus (libretto by Leopold...

Initial release date:

  • 1931

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 89 min (53 hs )

Song of the South

Song of the South is a feature film produced by Walt Disney, released on November 12, 1946, by RKO Radio Pictures and based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which...

Initial release date:

  • Nov 12, 1946

Rating:

G (USA)

Runtime:

  • 94 min (56 hs )

Produced by:

Flirtation Walk

Flirtation Walk is a 1934 black and white American musical romance about a soldier (Dick Powell) who falls in love with the general's daughter (Ruby Keeler), but her father ships her off before their relationship can blossom. The film was nominated...

Initial release date:

  • 1934

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 97 min (58 hs )

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

One Night of Love

One Night of Love is a 1934 musical romance, set in the opera world, starring Grace Moore and Tullio Carminati. It was written by James Gow, S.K. Lauren and Edmund H. North, from the story, Don't Fall in Love, by Charles Beahan and Dorothy Speare....

Initial release date:

  • Sep 5, 1934

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 83 min (50 hs )

Produced by:

The Broadway Melody

The Broadway Melody is a 1929 musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals...

Initial release date:

  • Feb 1, 1929

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 110 min (66 hs )

Estimated budget:

The Love Parade

The Love Parade is a 1929 musical comedy film. The plot concerns the romantic difficulties of Queen Louise of Sylvania (Jeanette MacDonald) and her new husband, Count Alfred (Maurice Chevalier). Though Count Alfred promises to be a docile husband at...

Initial release date:

  • 1929

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 107 min (64.2 hs )

Produced by:

Broadway Melody of 1936

Broadway Melody of 1936 is a musical film released by MGM in 1935, despite the title. It was a follow up of sorts to the successful The Broadway Melody, which had been released in 1929, although, beyond the title and some music, there is no story...

Initial release date:

  • Aug 25, 1935

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 101 min (60.6 hs )

Produced by:

Screenplay by:

Naughty Marietta

Naughty Marietta is a 1935 film based on the operetta of the same name by Victor Herbert: Jeanette MacDonald stars as a vivacious Princess who trades places with her maid Marietta in order to avoid an arranged marriage. Instead, she sails for New...

Initial release date:

  • 1935

Runtime:

  • 105 min (63 hs )

Screenplay by:

Top Hat

Top Hat is a 1935 screwball musical comedy in which Fred Astaire plays an American dancer named Jerry Travers, who comes to London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont ...

Initial release date:

  • 1935

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 101 min (60.6 hs )

Estimated budget:

Produced by:

Three Smart Girls

Three Smart Girls (1936) is a musical comedy film. The Craig sisters, played by Barbara Read, Nan Grey and Deanna Durbin in her first feature film role, travel to New York City to prevent their father from remarrying. They plot to bring their...

Initial release date:

  • 1936

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 84 min (50 hs )

Produced by:

One Hundred Men and a Girl

One Hundred Men and a Girl is a 1937 musical comedy film, written by Charles Kenyon, Bruce Manning and James Mulhauser from a story by Hanns Kräly and directed by Henry Koster. It was the first of two motion pictures featuring the famed orchestra...

Initial release date:

  • 1937

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 85 min (51 hs )

Four Daughters

Four Daughters is a 1938 musical drama film that tells the story of a happy musical family whose lives and loves are disrupted by the arrival of a cynical young composer who interjects himself into the daughters' romantic lives. It stars the Lane...

Initial release date:

  • 1938

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 90 min (54 hs )

All That Jazz

All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of the dancer, choreographer, and director's life and career. The film was...

Initial release date:

  • 1979

Directed by:

Runtime:

  • 123 min (73.8 hs )

Produced by:

The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner...

Initial release date:

  • 1927

Runtime:

  • 89 min (53 hs )

Produced by:

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