While musicals are making a popular comeback in modern cinema, the golden age for Hollywood musicals may have been the mid-20th century. From about the 1930s to the 1960s, Hollywood produced a slew of instant favorites that are still enjoyed today, from the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classics of the 1930s to the big-budget epics of the 1960s. , like The sound of music and the music man. If you look back at each decade, you’ll see award-winning photos and crowd-pleasing classics.
The golden age for Hollywood musicals probably reached its gleaming, sparkly peak in the 1950s. The 1950s were an important period for Hollywood. During this ten-year period, color films became more and more popular, and in the music world it could be said that Rodgers and Hammersteinowned the decade and had composed many successful scores in the 1950s, such as: Show boat (1951), Carousel (1956), and Cinderella (1957), as well as several others.
In addition to the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, there were plenty of wonderful musicals, including: The Band Wagon, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, An American in Paris, Carmen Jones, There’s No Business Like Show Businessand gigi. Here are some of the best musicals that rocked this decade.
8 Pacific Ocean
Based on James A. Michener’s 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Stories of the South Pacific, Pacific Ocean is a musical composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein and follows two different love stories between an American nurse and a French plantation owner, as well as a United States Navy lieutenant and a Tonkinese woman. Although the musical has bright and happy moments, it is set during a dark and uncertain time in the world, during the Second World War. In addition, the story sends a strong message of racism, which was progressive for the time.
7 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is about, you guessed it, seven brides who end up marrying seven brothers. This 1954 western musical is about a clan of seven brothers, the Pontipees, who are all looking for brides but have no idea how to behave properly in front of women.
After Adam Pontipee meets and marries Milly, she teaches the clan how to behave properly to attract ladies. This musical has everything you could wish for: song, dance, romance times seven and epic fistfights typical of western movies. It’s simply one of the most colorful movies ever made, featuring some of the most exciting dance choreographies of the decade.
6 Brigadoon
Brigadoon, Brigadoon, blooming under a sable air. Brigadoon, Brigadoon, that’s where my heart lies forever.” Brigadoon is a Scottish city like no other. That’s because this enchanted village only appears once every 100 years. When American Travelers Discover Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) brigade, Tommy soon falls in love with the beautiful Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse). Now Tommy must decide if he’s willing to give up everything he knows to stay within the magical realm of the city limits and live there forever.. Brigadoon has all the charms of traditional Scottish dance and song.
5 Boys and dolls
Boys and dolls is about two boys (hence the name), gambler Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) and his friend Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando), and about two women (or “dolls”), Nathan’s betrothed Adelaide (Vivian Blaine) and the virtuous Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons). Needing $1,000 to host a big craps game, Nathan bets Sky that he can’t get the devout head of the Save-a-Soul Mission, Sarah, to go on a date with him. Sky manages to ask Sarah out and eventually win her heart. Meanwhile, Nathan’s longtime fiancée Adelaide grows impatient and wants to get married. Both couples eventually tie the knot, and the rest is music history. It’s a delightful, vibrantly colorful film based on a classic play.
4 The king and me
Compiled by Rodgers and Hammerstein, The king and me is loosely based on the true story of Anna Leonowens, who was governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. The story follows Anna (Deborah Kerr), a British schoolteacher hired by the King of Siam (Yul Brynner) to educate his children and help “modernize” the country according to his wishes.
Anna teaches the children and the many wives of the king English, proverbs and songs. However, she also teaches the king a few things she didn’t expect, including the true meaning of love and sacrifice. It’s possible to be ideologically dated and contains ‘yellowface’, but it is a visually stunning, moving and Oscar-winning film with rousing music.
3 Oklahoma
Get ready for some hoedown action with Oklahoma, the beloved family musical by the world famous duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. In this 1955 musical western, lovable cowboy Curly McLain (Gordon MacRae) tries to woo the girl who caught his eye, Laurey Williams (Shirley Jones).
Curly isn’t the only one vying for Laurey’s heart, though. She has also caught the eye of the lonely and strange farmhand, Jud Fry (Rod Steiger). A lot of shenanigans ensue before the love triangle finally works out and the story ends happily ever after, as befits a musical romance.
2 The Pajama Game
Things are not going well at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The workers are rapidly making pajamas and are overworked and underpaid. That is why they demand a wage increase of seven and a half cents per hour. However, the company president refuses to give a raise and hires Sid Sorokin (John Raitt) as the new Superintendent to keep the workers under control.
Sid meets the beautiful and tough Katherine “Babe” Williams (Doris Day), who leads the case for the raise, and the couple fall in love, despite their opposing views. Do the employees get their pay rise? Are Babe and Sid Overcoming Their Differences? Does the story end happily ever after? All questions that are answered in the surprisingly progressive, wonderfully colorful and fantastically acted The Pajama Game.
1 Singing in the rain
“I’m singing in the rain. Just singing in the rain. What a wonderful feeling. I’m happy again.” There aren’t many people who wouldn’t recognize this classic tune. Singing in the rain is a masterful, cinematically significant love story between famed silent movie star Don Lockwood (the great Gene Kelly) and aspiring young actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). Through their relationship and professional struggle, the film explores the relationship between sound and image in cinema, and the history of the medium itself.
This 1952 musical is action packed (literally) with songs like ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’, ‘Good Morning’ and of course ‘Singin’ in the Rain’. Full of heart, laughter and romance, this musical will make everyone as happy as Gene Kelly when he sings in the rain: “Let the stormy clouds chase, everyone of the place. Come on the rain, I’ve got a smile on my face. I walk down the path with a happy chorus. Just sing, sing in the rain.”