The clear difficulty of identifying the definitive movie musicals is separating the musical itself from the film version. The Phantom of the Opera is, without a doubt, a top ten definitive stage musical. Movie musical? Not so much. Drawing a clear line between the two is what makes this list a little trickier. For this segment of the list, we have musicals that have no stage version, two Best Picture winners, a Palme d’Or winner, and a few musicals that may stretch the term a bit.
courtesy of writeonnewjersey.com
20. Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Signature Song: “Jailhouse Rock” (http://youtu.be/HZJTgYzf9FE)
It brought “The King” to the big screen for the first time in a film about a man in prison who learns to express himself through music, rather than violence (he’s in prison for manslaughter). Vince (Elvis Presley) accidentally kills a drunk in...
courtesy of writeonnewjersey.com
20. Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Signature Song: “Jailhouse Rock” (http://youtu.be/HZJTgYzf9FE)
It brought “The King” to the big screen for the first time in a film about a man in prison who learns to express himself through music, rather than violence (he’s in prison for manslaughter). Vince (Elvis Presley) accidentally kills a drunk in...
- 5/19/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
(Brian De Palma, 15, Arrow, 1974)
In 1974, after a decade making low-budget, semi-underground movies, Brian De Palma thought he was about to enter the big time when 20th Century Fox paid $2m for this wild satire on indulgent rock musicians and the corrupt industry that exploited them. Basically it's a transposition of The Phantom of the Opera to the modern pop world, where an evil impresario, Swan (the diminutive, baby-faced composer Paul Williams,, who also wrote the songs), steals a pretentious rock cantata from Winslow Leach, its naive author, and frames him on drugs charge.
After he's been disfigured by a record-pressing machine, Winslow returns to seek revenge by haunting Swan's theatre, the Paradise. The piece also draws on Goethe's Faust, Wilde's Dorian Gray and Edgar Allan Poe, and refers to movies ranging from Psycho (the shower scene is reprised using a plunger) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
But De Palma...
In 1974, after a decade making low-budget, semi-underground movies, Brian De Palma thought he was about to enter the big time when 20th Century Fox paid $2m for this wild satire on indulgent rock musicians and the corrupt industry that exploited them. Basically it's a transposition of The Phantom of the Opera to the modern pop world, where an evil impresario, Swan (the diminutive, baby-faced composer Paul Williams,, who also wrote the songs), steals a pretentious rock cantata from Winslow Leach, its naive author, and frames him on drugs charge.
After he's been disfigured by a record-pressing machine, Winslow returns to seek revenge by haunting Swan's theatre, the Paradise. The piece also draws on Goethe's Faust, Wilde's Dorian Gray and Edgar Allan Poe, and refers to movies ranging from Psycho (the shower scene is reprised using a plunger) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
But De Palma...
- 3/9/2014
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
One of the greats has left us, and we'd be remiss to not mention the passing of Oscar winner Maximilian Schell this morning (Feb. 1, 2014) at the age of 83 in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. He didn't dabble in the horror genre often, but when he did, it was memorable.
Per the AP via ABC News, Schell's agent, Patricia Baumbauer, said Saturday he died overnight at a hospital in the Austrian city of Innsbruck following a "sudden illness."
Austrian-born Schell won his Best Actor Oscar in 1962 for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and also appeared in such genre fare as Deep Impact, The Black Hole, John Carpenter's Vampires, The Vampyre Wars, Darkness, House of the Sleeping Beauties, The Eighteenth Angel, and 1983 TV movie "The Phantom of the Opera," in which he played The Phantom opposite Jane Seymour and Michael York.
Despite being type-cast for numerous Nazi-era films, Schell's acting performances in the mid-1970s won him renewed popular acclaim,...
Per the AP via ABC News, Schell's agent, Patricia Baumbauer, said Saturday he died overnight at a hospital in the Austrian city of Innsbruck following a "sudden illness."
Austrian-born Schell won his Best Actor Oscar in 1962 for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and also appeared in such genre fare as Deep Impact, The Black Hole, John Carpenter's Vampires, The Vampyre Wars, Darkness, House of the Sleeping Beauties, The Eighteenth Angel, and 1983 TV movie "The Phantom of the Opera," in which he played The Phantom opposite Jane Seymour and Michael York.
Despite being type-cast for numerous Nazi-era films, Schell's acting performances in the mid-1970s won him renewed popular acclaim,...
- 2/1/2014
- by Debi Moore
- DreadCentral.com
Producers announced today that Ryan Silverman Passion, The Phantom of the Opera and Hannah Elless Godspell, Mamma Mia will star as Richard Collier and Elise McKenna in Portland Center Stage's Pcs upcoming world-premiere production of the new musical Somewhere in Time, based on the novel by renowned author Richard Matheson I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come and the subsequent hit film starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer.
- 2/21/2013
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Producers announced today that Ryan Silverman Passion, The Phantom of the Opera and Hannah Elless Godspell, Mamma Mia will star as Richard Collier and Elise McKenna in Portland Center Stage's Pcs upcoming world-premiere production of the new musical Somewhere in Time, based on the novel by renowned author Richard Matheson I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come and the subsequent hit film starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer.
- 2/21/2013
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
It’s Brian De Palma’s 1974 musical take on The Phantom Of The Opera, and it’s quite odd. But as Jeff explains, Phantom Of The Paradise is also rather good…
From Rod Serling’s moody opening monologue, right to the end credit sequence repackaging the entire film into a music video, it’s clear there’s a passionate vision behind Brian De Palma’s Phantom Of The Paradise. Here’s an example of a creative team able to squeeze the muscle of the studio system to make something idiosyncratic, groovy, and just plain weird. It was the 1970s, after all. Now pushing 40, is Phantom merely an interesting relic of an era, or does it stand the test of time?
This 1974 film takes the plot from Phantom Of The Opera and the Faust legend and churns them together into a unique brew. Failed singer-songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) signs a...
From Rod Serling’s moody opening monologue, right to the end credit sequence repackaging the entire film into a music video, it’s clear there’s a passionate vision behind Brian De Palma’s Phantom Of The Paradise. Here’s an example of a creative team able to squeeze the muscle of the studio system to make something idiosyncratic, groovy, and just plain weird. It was the 1970s, after all. Now pushing 40, is Phantom merely an interesting relic of an era, or does it stand the test of time?
This 1974 film takes the plot from Phantom Of The Opera and the Faust legend and churns them together into a unique brew. Failed singer-songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) signs a...
- 11/21/2011
- Den of Geek
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