The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

I initially saw Les Misérables when it was in the theater because the Russell Crowe fangirl in me wouldn't allow me to ignore it. I went in totally expecting to hate it, but was pleasantly surprised. Despite my hatred for musicals, it's somehow still held up on repeat viewings and I had it at #11 on my ballot.

Here's what I wrote when I rewatched it for the countdown:
I haven't seen Meet Me In St. Louis.

My Ballot:
2. Charlotte's Web (#79)
4. Stingray Sam (#46)
6. Walk the Line (#95)
11. Les Misérables (#34)
12. Corpse Bride (#61)
15. The Jungle Book (#63)
20. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (#66)
21. Alice in Wonderland (#48)
23. Sing Street (#40)
25. Joe's Apartment (One Pointer)

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Les Miserables is my favourite musical... just not my favourite musical movie. I had it at #6.

I really love the musical. It took time to grow on me, but I really think it rewards repeat viewings/listenings. As well as the story of Jean Valjean, there is a whole ensemble cast of characters with their own stories of love and honour or dishonour, sacrifice and redemption. (I would do my top 5 deaths in Les Mis, but you know, spoilers). It's a serious and sweeping story, if a little unbalanced narratively at times. And the music is fantastic. Alongside the bangers (including Do You Hear the People Sing?, Bring Him Home, On My Own and, of course, One Day More) the repeating instrumental and narrative-singing themes are really excellent.

Of course all this is there in the film version and I've watched it many times and could watch it again many more. I could reel off the cast list down to some of the most obscure characters. There are also some really nice touches such as blink and you'll miss it nods to the novel and casting some of the original West End cast in small roles.

But a couple of the film-making decisions stop it from being quite a top-tier movie. Mainly the live singing and the close-ups. It's like Tom Hooper didn't trust the music. In trying to make it 'more emotional' it actually detracts from the musical power of some of the songs. I regularly listen to Les Mis cast recordings.... but never the movie soundtrack version. And the constant close-ups make it seem smaller when it should be expansive.


Meet Me In St. Louis was one of the very last cuts from my list.

I liked Meet Me in St. Louis and had it on my short list. On hindsight, I could've included it at the bottom of my list, but I decided to give those spaces to some less popular musicals, even if I didn't fully love them. Still, I knew it would show up.

I haven't seen Le Miserables...


SEEN: 20/68
MY BALLOT: 7/25

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Les Mis was my 11. Count me among those who went for it. Feels like it only has two camps.

Don’t remember a thing about Meet Me In St Louis, which seems odd for a Garland musical.

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Letterboxd

#JusticeForHamilton

Yahoo, once again! One of today's reveals was on my ballot and I bet you can guess which one


I had at #16. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).

So ideally, to me, songs feel really engrained in the world of the movie AND they are songs you'll remember two days later.

I agree that Phantom does not pass the "singing in my car" test (and it did not make my personal ballot). But I really loved the way that the music was a part of the story and the characterization in the film.

I don't remember Meet Me in St. Louis, but according to my records I at least liked it a little.

Les Miserables was on my watchlist but I didn't get to it.

Huh, I could have sworn that I've seen Les Misérables, but I can't find any record of having done so. Then again, that was the year my son was born and I spent half of it crazed from sleep deprivation, so who knows? Well, I didn't vote for it either way.

I liked Meet Me in St. Louis, but it did not make the cut.

I had Les Miserables at 8 and Meet Me in St. Louis at 21!

Les Miserables*

But otherwise, same old same old for me.

I haven't seen Le Mis either. I wouldn't object to watching it, but the story and musical has never been a draw for me.

Meet Me In St. Louis is delightful and a sweet film. It's not my favorite of the Judy Garland pairings with Vincent Minnelli and it didn't make my list. A previous entry, Easter Parade showed up on both this list and my list, and I had one more Garland and Minnelli pairing on my list that I would be shocked if it shows up. Meet Me in St. Louis is a beautiful film and certainly would be an essential viewing for anyone who even moderately calls themselves a fan of musicals. "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" are wonderful standards.

My issues are mostly nitpicky, and I've responded to them in an earlier post that I think was in this thread. My first was the Halloween scene with Margaret O'Brien drags on a bit too much and feels awkwardly inserted and messes with the pacing a bit as the story sidetracks away from Judy Garland's character for about 10 minutes or so. The film does have a great female cast led by Garland of course, but O'Brien is so good and would certainly show up on a very VERY short list of all time memorable and wonderful child performances in film. Marjorie Main, who plays the same character in every film she is in, is simply magnetic on film and chews the scenery, but she's such a force you can't help but enjoy her. Mary Astor I really liked to in these types of roles, especially since my introduction to her was in the noir The Maltese Falcon.

As great as the female characters and cast are, I can't help but think the film does lag a bit when it comes to their male counterparts. Sure the father was fine, but other than that, they seemed to be paper thin. The love interest of Garland... can't think of his name, is passable, but just kind of there and bland, so when Garland is pining for him, it isn't as powerful as what it could be. And while I do love the "Merry Christmas" song and sequence at the end, especially when O'Brien goes on her rampage, how it all pans out with the father deciding suddenly not to move to New York for his new job, it all feels... just a bit sudden, forced, contrived, and dare I say it does somehow rub me the wrong way that the film does move into dangerous, DANGEROUS dime-a-dozen paint by numbers Hallmark Christmas movie territory. Obviously this was decades before Hallmark Christmas Movies were unleashed like a great plague or giant kraken on to the world, but still.

I put Meet Me in St. Louis in the B-range for grading/evaluating. Still, sooo much better than some of the entries here that have appeared.

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Got 2 right on prediction list let's keep it up , I'm sure there's more surprises to come

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It's wild that Les Miserables made the cut today, because I was just on Instagram and there was a movie site that was showing a short clip and it was the Oscars where Hugh Jackman pulled Anne Hathaway out of the crowd and they sang, so I started thinking of the movie. Then I immediately came here and here's their movie making the grade! I really enjoyed the film when it came out but I never considered it for my list.

Meet Me in St. Louis is #8 on my ballot. I love this movie and I'm onboard with @Citizen Rules from his review concerning Judy and Margaret owning the movie. Judy is lovely and in fine voice, and Margaret as little sister Tootie steals the movie for me, with her twisted way of playing. From burying her dolls to "killing" people on Halloween, to throwing a dummy on the trolley track, she's one sick-but-sweet little gal! My favorite shot is her stunned little face walking back from the neighbor's house after she's "killed" him by throwing flour in his face and saying, "I hate you!" Then the other kids branding her a hero. Something so funny I never expected from this musical. Oh yeah, the songs are great, too!

So far:
#1. On the Town #93 (list proper)
#6. Easter Parade #78 (list proper)
#8. Meet Me in St. Louis #33 (list proper)
#10. Gigi #85 (list proper)
#12. Calamity Jane #84 (list proper)
#14. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers #71 (list proper)
#18. The Muppet Movie #45 (list proper)
#25. Neptune's Daughter (one-pointer)

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

I'm afraid Les Miserable never worked for me in any form, but it might have to do with it being so popular and unavoidable when I was young.


The good are far too good. and hopelessly tragic. The bad are too outrageously bad, and everything is so UNFAIR to the heroes. It just feels immature and shallow to me. I had the same problem with Oliver, and Man of La Mancha. At least Oliver wasn't taken nearly as seriously.


I've never seen Meet Me in St. Louis.

Les Miserables was one of my favorite films growing up, but it's been way too long since I've seen it, so it didn't make my ballot. Not sure how it would hold up now.

Meet Me in St. Louis was #16 on my ballot.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

4. The Burden
6. Inside Llewyn Davis
7. The Young Girls of Rochefort
8. Top Hat
12. Duck Soup
16. Meet Me in St. Louis

I have seen and liked both, but neither made my ballot.

Seen:66/68

34. Les Misérables (2012) - On Letterboxd I've sorted all 349 Academy Award Best Picture-nominated films I've watched in order of most to least favourite, and Les Misérables comes in at #348. Hey! At least it didn't snag bottom spot - that was reserved for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. It's ironic when you're Australian and two of your least favourite actors are Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe, but that's just the start of a list of annoyances and things that didn't mix well with me to the point where I really didn't enjoy this version of Les Misérables when I watched it (don't get me started on how long it runs and lingers on for.) I had no idea that this many people liked it as much as this. Obviously not on my ballot.

33. Meet Me in St Louis (1944) - I watched this one very recently (I think the countdown had already started!) and enjoyed it a whole hell of a lot. On Letterboxd (and here) I wrote : "I don't have the words to describe how sweet and warm this colourful, endlessly engaging musical is - a mood enhancer no matter how dark your feelings may be. Judy Garland really sparkles as one of eight Smith family members (not including the maid) we encounter here through the seasons in 1903 - the year preceding the St Louis World's Fair. Here I found where "The Trolley Song" comes from, along with "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which I read once had very depressing lyrics ("Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past.") If I love the music and the visuals, you can pretty much do anything and I'll enjoy watching it - so once sucked in I was ripe to put my cynicism and jaded mindset to one side and enjoy an old fashioned celebration of family, tradition and music. Beautiful set decoration and production design. Beautiful costumes. When you get it right, it doesn't matter how hokey you might otherwise sound - it simply feels more genuine and heartfelt." I hadn't seen it while compiling my ballot, and who knows, it might have had a chance of making it.

Seen : 44/68

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