The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

I think tomorrow is the day for what I'm waiting for.

Top Hat is terrific stuff and there's not an Astaire film I've seen that I've disliked, but I only have a handful on my list with Fred, because I had to make room for others. Still, nice to see it make it.

I've only seen The Greatest Showman once but I enjoyed it and thought everyone did a fine job, especially Mr. Jackman. No vote.

Despite my love for Steve Martin, I've never seen Pennies From Heaven. It looks very entertaining and I will see it some day.

This is Spinal Tap is a favorite in my household and I think it's just brilliantly done. I love all the jokes and songs, especially "Stonehenge" and what happens during that number. One of the movie moments where I busted a but and it's never healed. Also, the running joke about losing drummers, including the one who died by choking on vomit, except it was someone else's vomit! Still, I didn't think of it as a musical either, despite all the music in it! So, for all four, no vote.

So far:
#1. On the Town #93 (list proper)
#6. Easter Parade #78 (list proper)
#10. Gigi #85 (list proper)
#12. Calamity Jane #84 (list proper)
#14. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers #71 (list proper)
#25. Neptune's Daughter (one-pointer).

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Spinal Tap is very funny but I did not consider it for this countdown.

I had Pennies from Heaven on my watchlist but didn't get to it. If I had known it was so dark, I would've made it a priority.

This is absolutely how I heard it in my head.

Oh, but I was wrong, somehow I missed Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.

Oh lord - two fantastic ballot-worthy movies I love that somehow weren't on my ballot! They perhaps should have been :

56. Pennies From Heaven (1981) - Okay, I'm impressed. Whoever had this on their ballot, you've impressed the hell out of me and I like you one hell of a lot (even more if I already like you one hell of a lot.) Somehow I failed to put this favourite on my ballot, despite the fact that Jessica Harper is in it, and despite the fact that the original 450-minute series written by Dennis Potter is one of the greatest works of art I've ever seen on a television screen. This cinematic adaptation was an infamous flop, and to be fair it did fail to live up to the glowing aura of the original (even though Dennis Potter wrote the adaptation as well.) It was a massive change of pace for Steve Martin, who was at the time still that wild and crazy guy only known for his comedic roles. But because I love the original so much, and because I was already a huge fan of Jessica Harper, I simply had to love this as well. It partly escaped my mind while compiling my ballot, but if I'd remembered it I may have questioned it's overall quality, and would definitely have considered it thrown away votes. There's no way I would have thought it would have made the countdown. I'm shocked, and I also feel a lot of joy that it has. Thank you! To those who voted for it - many, many thank yous.

55. This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - And here is another favourite film of mine that I didn't vote for. When it comes to a mockumentary like This Is Spinal Tap the "musical" label comes after a good half a dozen other labels have already been applied. As such this never came into consideration for me when I was getting right down to deciding how to vote. I know it's not a documentary, but still, anything like a doc wasn't going to make the definition. I'm not saying it shouldn't be here, I'm just explaining why I personally didn't end up voting for it - and at least this means that other musicals I love got votes that they may have needed. But yeah, this is one of the best comedies ever made, and it never fails to cheer me whenever I watch it. To those who voted for it, I salute you regardless of whether I see it as a musical or not.

Seen : 31/46

__________________

This Is Spın̈al Tap was #33 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1980s as well as #13 on the MoFo Top 100 Comedies.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Expected both of these to make the collective, but a bit disappointed they are so relatively low. No shocker, both were on my ballot...


Yes, This is Spın̈al Tap is brilliant and hysterical and endlessly influential and of course it featured prominently on my ballot. I had to place it somewhere so I settled on being a bit cheeky and placing it at number eleven. Had to be done. Did the other three of you MoFos who voted for it also slot it at eleven? I was going to put it at ten but of course I needed just a little bit more to push it over the edge. Like any great spoof of a musical style or genre, part of why this proto-mockumentary works so well is that the songs, while outrageously silly, are not much sillier than the sort of overly loud, self-serious, bloated Eurotrash garbage of some of the actual early '80s headbangers were yelling on arena stages to burned out teenagers. Yes indeed, poetry like "My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo, I love to sink her with my pink torpedo" seems just about right. The origin story of flower power cockney hippies to leather-clad, sex-fueled maniacs who don't realize the ride is ending is a joy to behold.


I consider Herbert Ross' Pennies from Heaven to be a bonafide masterpiece. You can read my full review on the site HERE, but suffice to say this dark, weird, sad, and beautiful cinematic concoction adapting Dennis Potter's TV mini-series has seeped deep into my soul. It is intellectually on point, satirically sharp, and dazzlingly produced. I have always summed it up as the Musical as psychotic episode, and when viewed through that prism it is easy to be amazed.

I had Pennies from Heaven third on my list, good for twenty-three of its seventy-five points.

That makes five of mine to show in the bottom fifty.

HOLDEN’S BALLOT
3. Pennies from Heaven (#56)
11. This is Spın̈al Tap (#55)
17. Amadeus (#97)
21. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (#69)
25. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (#74)

A framed poster of Pennies from Heaven actually hangs in my office, right next to where I am typing this response.

Next to a Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid poster too, no less, that is mostly hiding behind you. I gave Pennies From Heaven my number nine spot and actually rewatched it just this afternoon. Something I picked up that didn't resonate with me as much as seeing it in my 20s or even early 30s is how bad and awful I felt for the Jessica Harper character as the wife, when previously my sympathies largely were with the Bernadette Peters character. Not that it's a pissing contest, but it resonated differently, but it's been almost 10 years since I last watched it.

__________________
"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
Top 100 Films, clicky below

http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=26201

Truthfully, the Steve Martin character in Pennies From Heaven treats both ladies dreadfully.

He does, indeed. One of the many ways PFH subverts the Musical is by having the protagonist be a delusional creep. But ain't those songs pretty?

I love so much about this picture!

I STILL need to see Pennies from Heaven...

__________________

Any movie where Steve Martin gets his hands on a musical instrument is worth savoring, imho.

Top moment from This Is Spinal Tap...

__________________

I have never heard of Pennies from Heaven, and I've seen The Lonely Guy, which I assumed was Steve Martin's most obscure film. I'll have to check it out.


I didn't consider This is Spinal Tap to be a musical. I like it, but it wouldn't have quite made my list in any case.

"Likable characters are for cowards." - David Sedaris