The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

Love Calamity Jane! My Dad told me about seeing it as a young man when it was released and he would always mention "Secret Love" as a great song by Doris Day. One day I got a multi-film TCM Classics DVD and Calamity Jane was on it so I finally watched it. My Dad steered me right. I loved the film, which, despite Howard Keel being her leading man, Doris totally stole. And "Secret Love" is a beautiful song, so sweetly sung by Day. Watch it often, and it made my list.

Had never heard of The Burden but it looks like something I'd like.

So far:
#1. On the Town
#10. Gigi
#12. Calamity Jane
#25. Neptune's Daughter (one-pointer)

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Gold Diggers of 1933 - I know the name and know it's a famous Busby Berkeley musical, but it's also one of those titles where I have no idea what it's actually about. I've never seen a Busby Berkeley musical. I guess I should some day just to give him a chance, but every five second clip of one of his musical always looks like it encapsulates a lot of what I'm not interested in for a musical.

Anastasia (1997) - Haven't seen. Not really interested in animated musicals from that era, tbh. Though, it is a Russian heroine, isn't it? Does it end tragically? Like, she throws herself from a bridge or something? That could interest me. I'm thinking of Anna Karenina, aren't I? Give me an American, animated musical of Anna Karenina that is faithful to the book both in terms of the literal events and the correct tone, and I'm in (I've never read any Tolstoy...)

Into the Woods (2014) - I actually didn't know the name Sondheim until Marriage Story came out and it was mentioned that Adam Driver and Noah Baumbach like his musicals, and that's why the characters in the movie sing songs from his musicals (or some explanation along those line). Then he died a few years later and career retrospectives were in the news and people talked about how his musicals were more melancholy than most Americans. I can't remember, but I thought I heard Into the Woods was a good stage musical, but the movie adaptation was not. It was enough to put the movie on my watchlist, but I never got around to actually watching it, so

Gigi (1958) - Minnelli, like Berkeley, is a famous musical director from whom I don't know if I've ever seen any of their musicals. But whenever I hear one of their movies described, sounds like something that isn't my type of movie. Also like Busby Berkeley.

Calamity Jane (1953) - One of those, "I can't remember if I ever head of this title or not, because the character's name is famous." I can't say I have much interest in seeing it.

The Burden (2017) - Damn. I totally forgot about this movie when constructing my possible ballot. I remember really digging it (honestly kind of forgot it was a musical and more remember it just have a melancholy vibe). Sorry I didn't think of this one, Tak!

Another couple I've seen :

84. Calamity Jane (1953) - I ended up watching this because of Doris Day, and how likeable she'd been in movies I'd seen like Pillow Talk and The Pajama Game. Turns out, my favourite aspect regarding Calamity Jane was the same. Here's what I wrote on Letterboxd : "Doris Day is a lot of fun and has such a bright aura around her in Calamity Jane - an electrifying presence that seems about to break through the screen and dance on through the 4th wall. Funny, with her superb singing and lively limber body to really energize the whole movie. The rest of the film is a pretty ordinary and unremarkable story about real-life frontier figure Martha "Calamity" Jane Canary. It was nominated for 3 Oscars, and won one for Best Song - "Secret Love". The occasional jab at "women" and how they behave is my only sour spot with the movie. Enjoyable bit of fluff - but no more than that." Not on my list. I wonder if any more Doris Day musicals are going to make it - I hope so.

83. The Burden (2017) - This was mentioned somewhere and it looked so weird and wonderful that I watched it immediately (short films are good for spontaneous watches) and really liked it. It never entered my mind as a film to put on my ballot, but I like the variety it adds to the list.

Seen : 12/18

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My top 25 are still in contention.

Seen neither, although I have seen parts of Calamity Jane as it's one of those films which might be on a Sunday afternoon or Easter Monday which my grandma might watch. Also, the kind of thing which might've been on in a friends house because his mother/grandma was watching it. Very much a mum's film back in the 80's during my childhood. But a musical Western? Me? Ummm.... No.

I've not heard of the other, but it's a short so I don't care.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

The Wall and Yellow Submarine?

I'm guessing that too, but in the reverse order.

My prediction is one of them will be The Color Purple (2023) as it's on the graphic for the first post so it's probably on the list, but I wouldn't expect it to be very high.

I would have thought Moulin Rouge and Blues Brothers would appear higher up, but can't think of any other "coloruful" films off the top of my head.

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La Vie En Rose
White Christmas

For anyone who watches and likes The Burden, the same filmmaker has a whole series. There's one set at a public pool that's really good. The others are not, to my recollection, musicals.

I haven't seen either one of those oddly enough. So far on this counting, only one of mine has shown up.

25. The Smiling Leuitenant

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

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