Films That Became Musicals
When not available to stream, most of the musicals are available to see at Lincoln Center’s Performing Arts Library…after the smoke clears. All on Amazon Prime.
The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Based on the Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo. Produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart play the star-crossed lovers who, while at odds working at the same shop don’t realize they’re falling in love as pen pals. Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz) is wonderful as proprietor, Hugo Matuschek. Told with all the innocence of the times.
Musical remake In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland and Van Johnson arrived in 1949 reflecting MGM’s luxe production values.
In 1963, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock gave us the charming She Loves Me (and Barbara Cook), never made as a film. Roundabout’s 2016 revival can, however, be viewed on Broadway HD.
Nora Ephron’s 1998 Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan film, You’ve Got Mail, (not a musical) is the story’s most recent incarnation.
Auntie Mame 1958 based on the Patrick Dennis novel and the play by Lawrence and Lee. Directed by Morton DaCosta. Starring Rosalind Russel in a thoroughly enjoyable turn. When Patrick is orphaned in 1928, the boy is sent to live with his eccentric, flamboyant, hedonistic Auntie Mame in New York City. Her credo: “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!” Still in short pants, he learns to mix drinks, see that actress Vera Charles has a pillow under her head when she passes out at one of his aunt’s extravagant, bohemian parties, and is sent to a free thinking nudist school. Mame and Patrick learn to love one another.
Bank trustee, Dwight Babcock, aims to see that the boy has a conservative upbringing. When Mame loses all her money in the Crash, the boy is sent away to a posh boarding school. Every job the lady tries turns disastrous, but on one, she meets wealthy suitor, Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside. Meanwhile, Patrick turns into a snobby bigot whose impending marriage to a like minded girl must be stopped. A literary sycophant is dealt with. Mame sends naïve, Plain Jane assistant Agnes Gooch, out into the world “to live”- for which there are consequences. A happy ending ties things up neatly.
Jerry Herman’s exuberant Mame opened on Broadway in 1966 with Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur. It was, and continues to be, a smash all over the world.
Lili 1953 based on a short story and treatment titled “The Seven Souls of Clement O’Reilly” written by Paul Gallico, which in turn was based upon “The Man Who Hated People,” a short story by Gallico. Directed by Charles Walters. Featuring Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrar as the mismatched couple, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Kurt Kazner. A lovely film, understated and tender.
When young Lili becomes an orphan, she arrives in a strange town with a letter of introduction to a baker and finds he’s deceased. Lost and alone, the pretty provincial is approached by circus performer and womanizer, Marco the Magnificent, who secures her a waitress job, but she’s fired for watching the show. Once again adrift, she’s contemplating suicide when puppeteer Paul Berthalet engages her with his characters, Carrot Top, the fox Reynardo, vain ballerina, Marguerite, and cowardly giant, Golo. Lili responds to the puppets as if real, enchanting those who, wandering by, are compelled to watch sweet interaction.
Paul hires Lili for his show, which will be improvised going forward, but is consistently unkind to her. Once a dancer, now limping from a war injury, he’s bitter and self-pitying, except when speaking through the puppets. Lili pines after Marco unaware he’s secretly married.
The act becomes a circus highlight. Visiting producers want to take it to larger venues, but having gained a sense of self, hurt and angry at her treatment, Lili leaves. In a fantasy sequence (yes, it’s dated, but so what?) the puppets send Lili back to the arms of Paul, who loves the girl.
Carnival, with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill, opened on Broadway in 1961. Directed by Gower Champion. Featuring Anna Maria Alberghetti and Jerry Orbach. Never made into a film.
Sunset Boulevard 1950 Directed and Co Written (with Charles Brackett) by Billy Wilder. Truly a classic. Struggling writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) is drawn into the mad web (and decaying mansion) of once famous, silent film star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson.) The elderly Desmond lives with one foot in her glorious past and one in plans for a comeback she thinks Joe’s writing will facilitate. Tragedy ensues, but it’s the journey that compels. Erich Von Stroheim plays devoted butler, Max von Mayerling with characterization that is periodically satirized with recognition.
The 1993 musical is written by Don Black/Christopher Hampton and Andrew Lloyd Weber. No film of this.
The Producers 1967 Written and Directed by Mel Brooks (directorial debut.) Starring Zero Mosel and Gene Wilder at their comic/manic best. Aging, has-been producer Max Bialystock cons love-starved women into investing in plays that will never be produced. When tightly wound tax accountant (prone to hysterics), Leopold Bloom explains to Max that he owes a great deal of money, he also unwittingly notes a producer can make more on a flop than a hit.
Max pounces on the idea and seduces Leo out of his bland life into becoming his partner. The two search out and mount Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolph and Eva at Berchtesgarden sure it will go down like the Hindenburg. One cannot however, underestimate people’s bad taste. Things don’t happen as planned. Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
Brooks’ 2001 musical version (adapted with Thomas Meehan) starred Nathan Lane and Michael Broderick. No film.
The Philadelphia Story 1940 Directed by George Cukor. Based on the Broadway play by Philip Barry. Mainline Philadelphia heiress, Tracy Lord (Hepburn), is a spoiled, judgmental young woman. Divorced from yacht designer, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) because he didn’t live up to her standards, she’s on the verge of marrying businessman, George Kittredge (John Howard). Media is banned from the estate. Nonetheless, reporter and photographer, Macaulay “Mike” Connor (James Stewart) and Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), are smuggled in under false pretenses and threat of blackmail.
Dexter, welcomed by the rest of the family, tells Tracy she’s making a terrible mistake. Also invited, much to the incipient bride’s chagrin, is the potential reason for blackmail. Her father, Mr. Lord, having had an affair is forgiven by his wife, but not his daughter. Both George and Mike want to keep Tracy on a pedestal, but after a drunken night of less than perfect behavior, she realizes her true soulmate. Of course. Witty, upscale dialogue. After Hepburn starred in the Philip Barry play, she purchased the rights and controlled the film.
The 1956 musical film High Society with music and lyrics by Cole Porter was Directed by Charles Walters. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm feature in the sophisticated romp.
The Little Shop of Horrors 1960 Directed by Roger Corman. On Skid Row, schlubby floral assistant, Seymour Krelborn (Jonathan Haze) finds a discarded plant and nurses it back to health. The shop’s owner, Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles) and its second employee Audrey Fulquard (Jackie Joseph) are astonished at the plant’s growth. Having named it after Audrey with whom he’s besotted, Seymour takes good care of the greenery, even when he discovers its health is dependent on fresh blood.
First feedings are manageable, but Audrey gobbles up whole bodies as she grows to fill the now famous shop. Seymour never actually intends to kill anyone, but…Meanwhile the girl Audrey tries to distance herself from a sadistic, abuser boyfriend. The plant wins. This is a case of less is more. Economy and macabre humor are adroit.
Alan Menken/Howard Ashman’s 1982 doo-wop/Motown/rock musical version starred Lee Wilkof and Ellen Greene. The musical was made into a 1986 Frank Oz film with Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, and a gleefully evil Steve Martin as Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend.
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