Gigi (1958)

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115  min – view video trailer

Director: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Leslie Caron, Maurice chevalier, Louis Jordan

Genres: Comedy, Musical, Romance

IMDB 6.9 / Amazon 4.2 / MRQE 69% / Tomatometer 74%

Oscars: nominated for 9, won 9 (Best Picture, Director, Art, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Music Song, Music Scoring, Writing)

Ranked #145 Greatest Movies Through 1960

Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship, but it may not stay platonic for long. IMDB 6.9 rating from over 8,308 users

Winner of nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, this charming musical stars Leslie Caron as a young woman in early 1900s Paris whose grandmother and aunt groom her for the family tradition of being a well-cared-for courtesan. Caron upsets their plans when she and intended paramour Louis Jourdan fall in love.  Amazon 4.2 stars from over 168 users

Weaving in and out of the story is Maurice Chevalier as an aging boulevardier who, years earlier, had been in love with Gingold’s character. Chevalier gets most of the best Lerner & Loewe tunes, including Thank Heaven for Little Girls, I’m Glad I’m Not Young Any More, and his matchless duet with Gingold, I Remember it Well. Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 74% Audience 74%

MRQE  69% from over 44 reviews

Madison Public Library

Funny Face (1957)

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103 min – view video trailer

Director: Stanley Donen
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson

Genres: Comedy, Musical, Romance

IMDB 7.0 / Amazon 4.3 / Tomatometer 84%

Oscars: nominated for 4, Won 0

Ranked #184 Greatest Movies Through 1960

An impromptu fashion shoot at a book store brings about a new fashion model discovery in the shop clerk. IMDB 7.0 rating from over 12,970 users

This filmed version of the 1927 George Gershwin Broadway musical Funny Face utilizes the play’s original star, Fred Astaire, and several of the original tunes, then goes merrily off on its own. Astaire is cast as as fashion photographer Dick Avery who is sent out by his female boss Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) to find a “new face”. Amazon 4.3 stars from over 223 users

It doesn’t take Dick long to discover Jo (Audrey Hepburn, who does her own singing), an owlish Greenwich Village bookstore clerk. Acting as Pygmalion to Jo’s Galatea, Dick whisks the wide-eyed girl off to Paris and transforms her into the fashion world’s hottest model. Along the way, he falls in love with Jo, and works overtime to wean her away from such phony-baloney intellectuals as Professor Emile Flostre. Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 84% Audience 82%

MRQE 54% from over 53 reviews – Madison Public Library

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6VLdVrVQGQ]

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

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103 min – G – view video trailer

Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
Starring: Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds

Genres: Comedy, Musical, Romance

IMDB 8.4 / Amazon 4.6 / MRQE 94% / Decent Films A+

Oscars won 0 of 2: nominated: Best Supporting Actress (Jean Hagen), Best Music (Lennie Hayton)

Ranked #9 Greatest Movies Through 1960, in 32 of 41 best movies lists, a Zagat Top Movie

A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound. IMDB 8.4 from over 76,611 users

It’s not only a great song-and-dance piece starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and a sprightly Debbie Reynolds; it’s also an affectionately funny insider spoof about the film industry’s uneasy transition from silent pictures to “talkies. Amazon 4.6 stars from over 402 users

People who say they don’t like musicals should watch Singin’ in the Rain, and find out how sweet eating one’s words can be. People who say they do like musicals already know and love Singin’ in the Rain — otherwise they have no business saying they love musicals. Sure, Fred and Ginger did more technically proficient dancing in Top Hat and Swing Time; and the Busby Berkeley extravaganzas, like Footlight Parade, had more spectacular set pieces. But Singin’ in the Rain is quite simply the greatest musical of all time, and more: It transcends its genre, becoming one of the most joyous, delightful, satisfying, feel-good motion picture experiences ever… Bottom line: If you like movies, Singin’ in the Rain is for you. Read full Decent Films review (rated A+, Superior artistic-entertainment for Kids & Up)

MRQE 94% with over 81 review links

Madison Public Library

A Night at the Opera (1935) Marx Brothers

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96 min – rated G – view video trailer

Director: Sam Wood
Starring: Marx Brothers, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones

Genres: Comedy, Music, Musical

IMDB 8.0 / Amazon 4.7 / Decent Films A+

Oscars: none

Ranked #57 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies. IMDB rating: 8.0 from over 17,140 users

Absolutely one of the most hilarious movies ever made, this classic farce featuring the outrageous genius of the Marx Brothers is a chance to see some of their best bits woven together seamlessly in a story of high society, matchmaking, and chaos. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 71 users

MRQE links to over 39 reviews

Madison Public Library

Top Hat (1935)

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101 min – view video trailer

Director: Mark Sandrich
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton

Genres: Comedy, Musical, Romance

IMDB 7.8 / Amazon 4.6 / Decent Films A

Oscars: nominated for 4, won 0: nominated: Best Picture, Best Music, Best Art, Best Dance

Ranked #63 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace’s hotel. IMDB rating: 7.8 from over 8,038 users

Perhaps the best remembered of the 10 Astaire/Rogers musicals, Top Hat has it all: Art Deco elegance, a wonderfully addled storyline, loopy support from skilled farceurs and the incomparable chemistry of the two leads cheek-to-cheeking to Irving Berlin’s finest film score. Amazon 4.6 stars from over 66 users

The quintessential Fred-and-Ginger vehicle, Top Hat features some of the most glorious, memorable dance sequences ever filmed. The Irving Berlin score includes perhaps the duo’s best-known number, “Cheek to Cheek,” as well as Astaire’s signature solo number, “Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails.” Read full Decent Films review: rated A, Superb artistic-entertainment for Teens & Up

MRQE – over 45 reviews linked

Madison Public Library

Duck Soup (1933)

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68 min – view video trailer

Director: Leo McCarey
Starring: Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico)

Genres: Comedy, Musical

IMDB 8.0 / Amazon 4.5 / MRQE 85% / Decent Films A+

Oscars: none

Ranked #48 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale. IMDB 8.0 ranking from over 34,252 users

For those new to the Marx Brothers, this is the perfect introduction to Groucho, Chico, and Harpo (and even Zeppo), three of the funniest men to ever grace the screen.  Amazon 4.5 stars from over 117 users

Probably the greatest and funniest film from one of the cinema’s funniest acts, Duck Soup is as absurdly nonsensical as comedy can be and still be about something. A satire of Fascism, Mussolini-style dictatorship, and the banality of war, the Marx Brothers’ masterpiece is best remembered for Groucho’s blistering throwaway witticisms, a classic broken-mirror scene with Harpo posing as Groucho’s reflection, and a surreal slapstick hat-switching sequence. Read full Decent Films review (rated A+ , Superior artistic-entertainment for Kids & Up)

MRQE 85% from over 57 reviews

Madison Public Library