1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,480 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:04,010 Commons license. 3 00:00:04,010 --> 00:00:06,340 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 4 00:00:06,340 --> 00:00:10,690 continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,690 --> 00:00:13,320 To make a donation or view additional materials 6 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,035 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 7 00:00:17,035 --> 00:00:17,660 at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:25,764 --> 00:00:27,430 DAVID THORBURN: One of the ways to think 9 00:00:27,430 --> 00:00:30,310 about the American musical, generally, 10 00:00:30,310 --> 00:00:33,910 is to recognize that it's a distinctive, maybe even 11 00:00:33,910 --> 00:00:40,520 a unique American form and with the Western movie, the two most 12 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:43,390 distinctive contributions that Hollywood has made 13 00:00:43,390 --> 00:00:46,020 to the art of movie making. 14 00:00:46,020 --> 00:00:48,630 Listen to this entry on musicals, the very beginning 15 00:00:48,630 --> 00:00:52,520 of the entry on musicals from The Oxford Companion to Film. 16 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:54,250 "The history of the screen musical 17 00:00:54,250 --> 00:00:57,600 is essentially that of the American musical. 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:00:59,750 The outstanding examples of the genre 19 00:00:59,750 --> 00:01:02,980 have been made in Hollywood, and only the American industry 20 00:01:02,980 --> 00:01:05,250 has consistently produced musicals 21 00:01:05,250 --> 00:01:11,240 throughout the sound era." 22 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:13,000 The book was published in the early '70s, 23 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:17,090 just as Hollywood movies were undergoing the transformation 24 00:01:17,090 --> 00:01:19,230 I've alluded to. 25 00:01:19,230 --> 00:01:21,460 "Indeed with the Western, the musical 26 00:01:21,460 --> 00:01:25,420 could be claimed as Hollywood's outstanding contribution 27 00:01:25,420 --> 00:01:27,800 to the history of cinema." 28 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:29,450 So that's a good context for thinking 29 00:01:29,450 --> 00:01:32,140 both about the Westerns we'll be talking about in the next two 30 00:01:32,140 --> 00:01:35,848 weeks and about the musicals we're thinking about this week. 31 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:41,310 Perhaps before we go any further, 32 00:01:41,310 --> 00:01:45,310 it would be useful for me to give a very quick talk 33 00:01:45,310 --> 00:01:47,210 about the problem of definition because there 34 00:01:47,210 --> 00:01:50,040 is music in almost all films. 35 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:54,290 How do we distinguish a musical, a true musical, 36 00:01:54,290 --> 00:01:56,170 from a film that contains music? 37 00:01:56,170 --> 00:01:59,180 And the simplest answer is also the most obvious one. 38 00:01:59,180 --> 00:02:01,810 We would embrace a definition, I think, 39 00:02:01,810 --> 00:02:05,850 that would say that a film in which song and dance are 40 00:02:05,850 --> 00:02:10,440 so essential that to remove them would leave virtually nothing 41 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:12,304 means you're watching a musical. 42 00:02:12,304 --> 00:02:13,720 And that would distinguish it then 43 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:15,430 from many, many films in which musical 44 00:02:15,430 --> 00:02:18,350 elements may be present, even musical performances 45 00:02:18,350 --> 00:02:21,390 may be present, but they are not at the very essence 46 00:02:21,390 --> 00:02:22,520 of what the film is. 47 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:28,390 And the film is not entirely dependent upon those elements. 48 00:02:28,390 --> 00:02:30,870 So a simple, straightforward definition. 49 00:02:30,870 --> 00:02:35,930 One way we can measure the significance, the centrality, 50 00:02:35,930 --> 00:02:38,540 of the musical and also of the Western, 51 00:02:38,540 --> 00:02:42,020 because the numbers are somewhat similar for the Western-- 52 00:02:42,020 --> 00:02:44,510 the centrality of the musical to the studio system 53 00:02:44,510 --> 00:02:46,210 is to look at the numbers. 54 00:02:46,210 --> 00:02:54,140 And between 1927 and 1947, just over 900 musical films, 55 00:02:54,140 --> 00:02:54,640 were made. 56 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:58,460 That's approximately 48 films a year. 57 00:02:58,460 --> 00:03:02,000 That's roughly 10% of the total production 58 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,681 of movies during that period were musicals. 59 00:03:05,681 --> 00:03:07,430 And one of the things it shows, of course, 60 00:03:07,430 --> 00:03:09,740 is how steady the audience for musicals 61 00:03:09,740 --> 00:03:14,500 were, how stable the system became relatively quickly, 62 00:03:14,500 --> 00:03:19,680 allowing for the elaboration and repetition of the fuller 63 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:23,650 exploration of this particular genre of movie. 64 00:03:23,650 --> 00:03:26,170 And you can recognize the decline, too. 65 00:03:26,170 --> 00:03:28,580 There are people who would argue that the musical, 66 00:03:28,580 --> 00:03:31,400 in its exuberance, and the American musical especially, 67 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:34,960 in its exuberance and optimism, represented essentially 68 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:36,520 a pre-war value. 69 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,290 And there are people who say, well, after the war, 70 00:03:39,290 --> 00:03:41,230 the musical began to decline. 71 00:03:41,230 --> 00:03:43,750 There are other explanations for why the musical began 72 00:03:43,750 --> 00:03:45,820 its decline, and the primary one is 73 00:03:45,820 --> 00:03:47,310 the one I've already implied. 74 00:03:47,310 --> 00:03:49,100 The studio system was breaking down, 75 00:03:49,100 --> 00:03:51,670 and the captive audience of millions and millions 76 00:03:51,670 --> 00:03:55,380 of people who went to the movies every week was disappearing. 77 00:03:55,380 --> 00:03:59,810 But in the period between 1949 and 1958, 78 00:03:59,810 --> 00:04:03,390 a much briefer period, only 23 films a year were made. 79 00:04:03,390 --> 00:04:06,201 They were still a significant proportion of the Hollywood 80 00:04:06,201 --> 00:04:07,700 output, but you can understand-- you 81 00:04:07,700 --> 00:04:09,600 can see the tremendous decline. 82 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,960 And then in the period between '59 and 1980, only seven 83 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:16,120 films that could be named musicals a year. 84 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:19,399 The genre is virtually-- not exactly extinct, 85 00:04:19,399 --> 00:04:20,920 but it's now a specialty item. 86 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:23,520 And musicals continued to be made, 87 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:27,510 but they are hardly part of the regular fare of moviegoers. 88 00:04:27,510 --> 00:04:29,190 So we can think of the musical as one 89 00:04:29,190 --> 00:04:34,220 of the distinctive expressions of the Hollywood studio era. 90 00:04:34,220 --> 00:04:38,190 And in their optimism and in their-- maybe in even 91 00:04:38,190 --> 00:04:41,670 in their relative reluctance to engage directly 92 00:04:41,670 --> 00:04:43,700 with political and social questions, 93 00:04:43,700 --> 00:04:48,460 they express a certain value or a certain perspective 94 00:04:48,460 --> 00:04:52,790 that particularly illuminates the remarkable entertainment 95 00:04:52,790 --> 00:04:56,560 industry that Hollywood became. 96 00:04:56,560 --> 00:04:59,470 I want to just say a very few words about the dominant themes 97 00:04:59,470 --> 00:05:01,200 in these films. 98 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:04,960 They're what you might expect from this combination of music 99 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:06,210 and comedy. 100 00:05:06,210 --> 00:05:10,890 One recurring topic is the theme of show business. 101 00:05:10,890 --> 00:05:13,040 Many musical films have as their plot-- 102 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,600 there's a kind of subgenre of musical films devoted 103 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:18,970 to the question of putting on a show. 104 00:05:18,970 --> 00:05:22,680 And the drama of this subcategory of musicals 105 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,700 is you begin at the beginning with the cast being assembled, 106 00:05:26,700 --> 00:05:29,180 and you watch the difficulties, the internal 107 00:05:29,180 --> 00:05:31,410 and public difficulties, that the show 108 00:05:31,410 --> 00:05:33,320 has getting on the boards. 109 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:38,330 And one very common-- this is derived, in some sense, 110 00:05:38,330 --> 00:05:40,570 from forms of musical performance 111 00:05:40,570 --> 00:05:43,720 that existed on Broadway before they migrated 112 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:46,640 to Hollywood, before they were adopted and adapted 113 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:48,125 by Hollywood. 114 00:05:48,125 --> 00:05:50,670 And what's embedded in this show business theme, 115 00:05:50,670 --> 00:05:52,730 for example, are larger themes. 116 00:05:52,730 --> 00:05:54,610 And one of them is the theme of community. 117 00:05:54,610 --> 00:06:01,520 In other words, you'll see a very concrete and dramatic 118 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:04,490 articulation or dramatization of these principles 119 00:06:04,490 --> 00:06:07,090 in Singin' in the Rain this evening. 120 00:06:07,090 --> 00:06:10,540 All of the themes I'm talking about now you will find, 121 00:06:10,540 --> 00:06:15,610 I think, expressed, dramatized with great authority and wit 122 00:06:15,610 --> 00:06:17,590 in Singin' in the Rain. 123 00:06:17,590 --> 00:06:20,046 So the idea is that this putting on of a show 124 00:06:20,046 --> 00:06:22,670 means that you have a community of people who have to get along 125 00:06:22,670 --> 00:06:26,510 together, and what is discovered in the tensions and problems 126 00:06:26,510 --> 00:06:27,550 that begin to develop? 127 00:06:27,550 --> 00:06:29,650 There are things that have to do, 128 00:06:29,650 --> 00:06:33,200 if we jump down in my categories to the next one, 129 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,980 not to high culture popular but to the next one, to class 130 00:06:35,980 --> 00:06:38,510 or position-- you can see that, in some sense, 131 00:06:38,510 --> 00:06:42,940 the theme of community leads also then, at least implicitly, 132 00:06:42,940 --> 00:06:47,820 into an interest in the relative questions of hierarchy, 133 00:06:47,820 --> 00:06:50,800 as against questions of talent. 134 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:53,070 In other words, I'm the important singer, 135 00:06:53,070 --> 00:06:55,970 but my understudy has the better voice. 136 00:06:55,970 --> 00:06:57,142 What's the tension there? 137 00:06:57,142 --> 00:06:58,350 What's going to happen there? 138 00:06:58,350 --> 00:07:01,610 And you'll see how this theme, with wonderful comic energy, 139 00:07:01,610 --> 00:07:04,370 plays itself out in Singin' in the Rain. 140 00:07:04,370 --> 00:07:07,320 But what I want you to recognize as embedded in that theme 141 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:09,430 is what we-- not only in what I'm calling 142 00:07:09,430 --> 00:07:12,230 the theme of community, or the theme of class, 143 00:07:12,230 --> 00:07:16,710 social class or social hierarchy or social position, 144 00:07:16,710 --> 00:07:19,750 and the tension between individual talent 145 00:07:19,750 --> 00:07:23,260 and social position, which repeatedly expresses itself, 146 00:07:23,260 --> 00:07:26,600 at least implicitly, in these music-- what does this say? 147 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:28,630 That the musicals do have, at some level, 148 00:07:28,630 --> 00:07:32,340 a kind of implicit political subject matter, 149 00:07:32,340 --> 00:07:34,510 that they're often about democracy 150 00:07:34,510 --> 00:07:36,080 or about how to get along. 151 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:40,350 And in fact, during the most recent crisis 152 00:07:40,350 --> 00:07:43,045 of partisan disagreement in Congress, 153 00:07:43,045 --> 00:07:45,670 I was thinking, gee, if I could send them a couple of musicals, 154 00:07:45,670 --> 00:07:47,110 and if they pay attention to them, 155 00:07:47,110 --> 00:07:49,020 maybe they could get along, too. 156 00:07:49,020 --> 00:07:51,640 Probably too hopeful an idea. 157 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:56,240 But there is a political dimension to the drama, 158 00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:58,870 even to the confined drama of putting on a show, 159 00:07:58,870 --> 00:08:03,520 that some very good musicals bring to the surface. 160 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:05,390 Another central theme is the one I 161 00:08:05,390 --> 00:08:07,820 skipped over-- the conflict, often a tension 162 00:08:07,820 --> 00:08:10,700 or a conflict between high and popular culture, 163 00:08:10,700 --> 00:08:12,530 with Hollywood and the musical film 164 00:08:12,530 --> 00:08:15,900 almost always standing on the side of the popular as 165 00:08:15,900 --> 00:08:21,990 against the moribund and pretentiously sclerotic, 166 00:08:21,990 --> 00:08:24,970 old-fashioned older forms. 167 00:08:24,970 --> 00:08:27,610 And they often create a kind of cartoon of the older forms 168 00:08:27,610 --> 00:08:29,540 in order to celebrate their own energy. 169 00:08:29,540 --> 00:08:32,690 But this tension is a recurring one in musicals, 170 00:08:32,690 --> 00:08:35,289 and you'll see versions of these themes 171 00:08:35,289 --> 00:08:40,190 in both the musicals that are on our roster for this evening. 172 00:08:40,190 --> 00:08:42,340 Finally, implicit in what I've been saying 173 00:08:42,340 --> 00:08:45,600 is the theme of convention and restraint 174 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:49,980 versus spontaneity, energy, what we think of as "the natural." 175 00:08:49,980 --> 00:08:51,610 And I'll say more about this tonight 176 00:08:51,610 --> 00:08:53,740 when we talk about the dance sequences in Singin' 177 00:08:53,740 --> 00:08:54,470 in the Rain. 178 00:08:54,470 --> 00:08:56,550 But at the moment, just let me emphasize 179 00:08:56,550 --> 00:08:59,040 the extent to which this principle of a kind of conflict 180 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:02,320 between what is handed down, what is conventional, 181 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,260 what is expected and what is dictated 182 00:09:06,260 --> 00:09:10,770 by your spontaneous needs, desires, a sense of joy 183 00:09:10,770 --> 00:09:14,920 is a constant source of tension and energy 184 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:18,450 in many, many musicals and is one 185 00:09:18,450 --> 00:09:21,120 of the central organizing principles of Singin' 186 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:21,830 in the Rain. 187 00:09:21,830 --> 00:09:23,520 And we'll come back to that tonight 188 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:27,090 when I talk more fully about that film. 189 00:09:27,090 --> 00:09:28,990 Well, what I'd like to do with the time 190 00:09:28,990 --> 00:09:31,710 I have left is try to illustrate in a certain way two 191 00:09:31,710 --> 00:09:33,110 different things. 192 00:09:33,110 --> 00:09:37,380 And they're partly in conflict, and therefore, in some sense, 193 00:09:37,380 --> 00:09:41,660 I'm simplifying, but it's an intellectually justifiable 194 00:09:41,660 --> 00:09:42,930 simplification. 195 00:09:42,930 --> 00:09:45,180 What I want to do simultaneously is give you 196 00:09:45,180 --> 00:09:48,310 a kind of brief sense of the history of the musical 197 00:09:48,310 --> 00:09:51,080 but also a sense of the different flavors 198 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,590 within the broad category of the musical that might be possible. 199 00:09:54,590 --> 00:09:58,050 This is obviously an impossible task in 30 minutes or so, 200 00:09:58,050 --> 00:09:59,850 but we're going to accomplish it anyway 201 00:09:59,850 --> 00:10:05,530 in a very reduced and crystallized way, I think. 202 00:10:05,530 --> 00:10:09,400 As you might imagine, the central impetus for the musical 203 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:13,120 occurred technologically with the advent of sound. 204 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,920 As soon as sound became possible, people were thinking, 205 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:18,780 ah, we can sing in the movies. 206 00:10:18,780 --> 00:10:20,680 Music is going to be important in the movies. 207 00:10:20,680 --> 00:10:23,460 And of course, that was in fact the case. 208 00:10:23,460 --> 00:10:27,590 The very first sound film, The Jazz Singer, was about singing. 209 00:10:27,590 --> 00:10:29,960 It had ten interpolated songs in it 210 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:32,030 and only two lines of dialogue. 211 00:10:32,030 --> 00:10:36,780 In it, Al Jolson, the famous blackface performer, 212 00:10:36,780 --> 00:10:40,740 played a performer in blackface, a Jew actually, a white man, 213 00:10:40,740 --> 00:10:46,780 who played a black, most famously, on stage. 214 00:10:46,780 --> 00:10:49,620 In this particular film, he plays a religious 215 00:10:49,620 --> 00:10:52,220 family's-- the son of a religious family, 216 00:10:52,220 --> 00:10:56,310 of a Jewish family, who wants to sing jazz, 217 00:10:56,310 --> 00:10:58,510 not to be a cantor in the synagogue. 218 00:10:58,510 --> 00:11:00,070 And his father's very angry at him 219 00:11:00,070 --> 00:11:02,520 because he thinks he's betraying-- and can you 220 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,100 see embedded there is the theme of, in a certain sense, 221 00:11:05,100 --> 00:11:07,900 high religious culture versus popular culture? 222 00:11:07,900 --> 00:11:10,830 In the very first film that interpolated music, 223 00:11:10,830 --> 00:11:12,930 that theme is already present. 224 00:11:12,930 --> 00:11:18,620 And in 1928, Jolson again appeared 225 00:11:18,620 --> 00:11:23,260 in a film called The Singing Fool that made a great success. 226 00:11:23,260 --> 00:11:27,310 And what then followed in 1929 were a whole series 227 00:11:27,310 --> 00:11:30,640 of musical films, of films that incorporated music, 228 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:34,440 including, in 1929, a film called The Broadway Melody 229 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:36,350 of 1929. 230 00:11:36,350 --> 00:11:38,660 And it contained a backstage story, 231 00:11:38,660 --> 00:11:40,160 like the one I've already described, 232 00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:43,590 about two sisters from vaudeville who tried to reach 233 00:11:43,590 --> 00:11:45,750 Broadway and star on Broadway. 234 00:11:45,750 --> 00:11:47,780 And therefore, the putting on of a show 235 00:11:47,780 --> 00:11:50,010 is one of the implicit subjects. 236 00:11:50,010 --> 00:11:53,080 But this form of early musical was 237 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:55,750 derived from Broadway in a very direct way. 238 00:11:55,750 --> 00:12:00,022 And it often did not have a coherent plot. 239 00:12:00,022 --> 00:12:05,340 It often involved a series of singing and dancing numbers 240 00:12:05,340 --> 00:12:08,950 interspersed with comic dialogue of some kind-- literally 241 00:12:08,950 --> 00:12:11,370 a revue, not a play. 242 00:12:11,370 --> 00:12:13,730 And then some versions of the revue 243 00:12:13,730 --> 00:12:20,520 began to have more systematic plots, animated, I think, 244 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:24,050 generated by this theme of putting on a play. 245 00:12:24,050 --> 00:12:28,460 And The Broadway Melody of 1929 was an astonishing success. 246 00:12:28,460 --> 00:12:32,290 It was partly because it was the most fully success-- most fully 247 00:12:32,290 --> 00:12:34,370 musicalized film up to that time. 248 00:12:34,370 --> 00:12:39,980 And it was so popular, it was-- incidentally, the songs written 249 00:12:39,980 --> 00:12:43,420 for it were written by Herb Nacio Brown and Arthur 250 00:12:43,420 --> 00:12:46,570 Freed, the two people who are at the center of Singin' 251 00:12:46,570 --> 00:12:47,130 in the Rain. 252 00:12:47,130 --> 00:12:50,060 Nacio Brown's songs are in Singin' in the Rain, 253 00:12:50,060 --> 00:12:52,960 and Arthur Freed, of course, is the great executive producer 254 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,660 responsible for more of the great musicals in the Hollywood 255 00:12:55,660 --> 00:12:58,530 era than any other figure. 256 00:12:58,530 --> 00:13:01,670 So they begin even that early, at the very earliest 257 00:13:01,670 --> 00:13:04,640 stages of the medium's history. 258 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:09,980 And so then Broadway Melody was so popular and so successful 259 00:13:09,980 --> 00:13:12,740 that in 1930, 70 new musicals were 260 00:13:12,740 --> 00:13:15,190 produced, mostly in imitation. 261 00:13:15,190 --> 00:13:19,360 And the film won an Oscar for Best Film. 262 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:23,040 So it immediately established musical films, 263 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:26,010 films with music, song, and singing and dancing in them 264 00:13:26,010 --> 00:13:27,970 as a central category. 265 00:13:27,970 --> 00:13:32,190 Most early musicals were revues of this sort, very early ones. 266 00:13:32,190 --> 00:13:34,480 They combined-- they used Broadway, Hollywood, 267 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:37,780 vaudeville, and radio stars, incorporated them 268 00:13:37,780 --> 00:13:41,670 in lavish musical numbers interspersed with sketches. 269 00:13:41,670 --> 00:13:44,800 And again, they were not necessarily coherent plots, 270 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:46,730 and most of them didn't even attempt 271 00:13:46,730 --> 00:13:48,490 to present a coherent plot. 272 00:13:48,490 --> 00:13:51,990 This kind of film, more coherently plotted, 273 00:13:51,990 --> 00:13:54,140 remained a subcategory of musicals 274 00:13:54,140 --> 00:13:56,470 all the way through the history of musicals. 275 00:13:56,470 --> 00:14:00,920 And that's why I want to qualify the idea that I'm giving you 276 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:01,460 a history. 277 00:14:01,460 --> 00:14:03,450 I am giving you a kind of history, 278 00:14:03,450 --> 00:14:05,540 but it's a complicated history because the forms 279 00:14:05,540 --> 00:14:06,956 I'm talking about don't completely 280 00:14:06,956 --> 00:14:10,250 disappear and get supplanted by the more advanced forms. 281 00:14:10,250 --> 00:14:12,340 They live together simultaneously. 282 00:14:12,340 --> 00:14:14,710 And the question of whether one is a more advanced form 283 00:14:14,710 --> 00:14:16,950 than another might be debatable, although I think 284 00:14:16,950 --> 00:14:19,310 there are distinctions, as you'll see, that do 285 00:14:19,310 --> 00:14:22,030 suggest that there's a kind of progression, an increasing 286 00:14:22,030 --> 00:14:24,140 understanding of what it would mean 287 00:14:24,140 --> 00:14:28,290 to make a musical film that was truly coherent, 288 00:14:28,290 --> 00:14:32,160 that wasn't simply presenting us with the joy of song 289 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:36,380 and dance in a way unconnected to story or character. 290 00:14:39,170 --> 00:14:41,310 But it remained a subcategory. 291 00:14:41,310 --> 00:14:45,570 This revue remained a subcategory 292 00:14:45,570 --> 00:14:49,720 of musical films all the way through the history 293 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:51,380 of the form. 294 00:14:51,380 --> 00:14:54,551 And in 1946, one of the most remarkable versions of this 295 00:14:54,551 --> 00:14:55,050 was made. 296 00:14:55,050 --> 00:14:56,800 It was called Ziegfeld Follies. 297 00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:58,790 And again, it was based on-- it was 298 00:14:58,790 --> 00:15:02,900 a film about-- a nostalgic film about a Broadway phenomenon, 299 00:15:02,900 --> 00:15:05,849 but it was a fully integrated film. 300 00:15:05,849 --> 00:15:07,890 --of a form that was popular in the United States 301 00:15:07,890 --> 00:15:12,330 but even much more popular in Europe-- the stage operetta. 302 00:15:12,330 --> 00:15:13,550 It wasn't a full opera. 303 00:15:13,550 --> 00:15:17,250 It was often a kind of smaller comic drama that 304 00:15:17,250 --> 00:15:18,642 involves singing and dancing. 305 00:15:18,642 --> 00:15:21,100 And they were called operettas because they were understood 306 00:15:21,100 --> 00:15:24,770 to be smaller versions of opera, more amusing, less demanding 307 00:15:24,770 --> 00:15:28,870 versions of opera, I suppose, less pretentious and tragic 308 00:15:28,870 --> 00:15:30,290 versions of opera. 309 00:15:30,290 --> 00:15:33,020 And there were a number of European directors 310 00:15:33,020 --> 00:15:40,270 who, when they immigrated to the United States, 311 00:15:40,270 --> 00:15:42,950 brought their distinctive feel to the making 312 00:15:42,950 --> 00:15:43,960 of early musicals. 313 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,730 And some of the most powerful, artistically 314 00:15:46,730 --> 00:15:49,350 powerful early musicals fell into the category 315 00:15:49,350 --> 00:15:51,640 not of the revue but of the operetta. 316 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:57,550 And I want to show you one version of such a film 317 00:15:57,550 --> 00:16:02,040 now, one of my favorite passages from the great director Rouben 318 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:09,590 Mamoulian in 1932, a scene from Love Me Tonight, made in 1932. 319 00:16:09,590 --> 00:16:10,690 It's a long sequence. 320 00:16:10,690 --> 00:16:14,270 I may have to skip some of it, but let me set it up for you. 321 00:16:14,270 --> 00:16:17,762 In this film, Maurice Chevalier, whose English 322 00:16:17,762 --> 00:16:20,220 is so terrible that you'll have trouble understanding him-- 323 00:16:20,220 --> 00:16:23,090 his French accent is so deep at this point. 324 00:16:23,090 --> 00:16:25,660 He became much better at English because, as some of you, 325 00:16:25,660 --> 00:16:27,610 I hope, realize, he became a great star 326 00:16:27,610 --> 00:16:30,140 in the English-speaking world as well as in France. 327 00:16:30,140 --> 00:16:33,520 But in this film-- this is one of his earliest films, 328 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:38,154 if not his first English film, and he plays, 329 00:16:38,154 --> 00:16:39,570 even though he's very well-dressed 330 00:16:39,570 --> 00:16:42,200 here-- he plays a working man, a middle class-- a tailor. 331 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:43,730 He plays a tailor. 332 00:16:43,730 --> 00:16:45,800 And he owns a tailor shop in Paris. 333 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:50,810 And in this opening scene, one of the men that he-- one 334 00:16:50,810 --> 00:16:55,140 of the aristocrats whose clothing he makes 335 00:16:55,140 --> 00:16:57,580 comes in to be fitted out for his wedding outfit, 336 00:16:57,580 --> 00:16:59,990 and Maurice Chevalier does so. 337 00:16:59,990 --> 00:17:02,320 The plot of the film depends upon the fact 338 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:05,260 that Maurice Chevalier, this middle class tailor who's 339 00:17:05,260 --> 00:17:07,819 trying to make a living in Paris in his shop, 340 00:17:07,819 --> 00:17:11,900 is brought into the ambit of an aristocratic family, 341 00:17:11,900 --> 00:17:12,880 of a royal family. 342 00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:16,400 And because there is an aristocrat 343 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,780 for whom Maurice Chevalier has made a great many suits who 344 00:17:20,780 --> 00:17:23,859 owes him money, and Maurice chases him 345 00:17:23,859 --> 00:17:26,640 to his castle in the country, trying to find, 346 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:31,450 trying to recover his money, and romantic entanglements ensue. 347 00:17:31,450 --> 00:17:34,400 And the larger part of the film actually involves a romance 348 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:39,300 across social class between this Parisian tailor 349 00:17:39,300 --> 00:17:41,600 and a princess played by Jeanette MacDonald, one 350 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:46,400 of the great musical stars of the studio era. 351 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:50,919 So here is a scene from very early in Love Me Tonight. 352 00:17:50,919 --> 00:17:51,916 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 353 00:17:51,916 --> 00:17:52,416 -All right. 354 00:17:52,416 --> 00:17:55,909 [WHISTLING] 355 00:17:57,406 --> 00:18:00,898 [MUSIC - FELIX MENDELSSOHN, "WEDDING MARCH"] 356 00:18:01,398 --> 00:18:04,597 -Maurice, it's beautiful. 357 00:18:04,597 --> 00:18:06,388 DAVID THORBURN: Can you make it any louder? 358 00:18:06,388 --> 00:18:07,384 Can you hear it? 359 00:18:07,384 --> 00:18:08,384 -You make a work of art. 360 00:18:08,384 --> 00:18:10,879 -Work of art for your sweetheart. 361 00:18:10,879 --> 00:18:13,374 -Oh, it's like poetry in a book. 362 00:18:13,374 --> 00:18:15,369 Oh, a beautiful large book. 363 00:18:15,869 --> 00:18:18,863 -[INAUDIBLE]. 364 00:18:18,863 --> 00:18:20,859 The romance of the season-- 365 00:18:20,859 --> 00:18:23,353 -So clear like wind. 366 00:18:23,353 --> 00:18:23,853 Oh, me. 367 00:18:23,853 --> 00:18:24,850 [LAUGHING] 368 00:18:24,850 --> 00:18:25,350 -Oh. 369 00:18:25,350 --> 00:18:26,847 Oh [INAUDIBLE]. 370 00:18:26,847 --> 00:18:28,344 -Oh, you're a magician. 371 00:18:28,344 --> 00:18:30,340 -Isn't it romantic? 372 00:18:30,340 --> 00:18:32,336 -(SINGING) My face is glowing. 373 00:18:32,336 --> 00:18:33,833 I'm energetic. 374 00:18:33,833 --> 00:18:37,326 The art of sewing I find poetic. 375 00:18:37,326 --> 00:18:40,320 My needle punctuates the rhythm of romance. 376 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:43,813 I don't give a stitch if I don't get rich. 377 00:18:43,813 --> 00:18:48,803 A custom tailor who has no custom is like a sailor. 378 00:18:48,803 --> 00:18:50,799 No one will trust him. 379 00:18:50,799 --> 00:18:53,793 But there is magic in the music of my shears. 380 00:18:53,793 --> 00:18:56,288 I shed no tears. 381 00:18:56,288 --> 00:18:59,282 Lend me your ears. 382 00:18:59,282 --> 00:19:01,777 Isn't it romantic? 383 00:19:01,777 --> 00:19:06,268 Soon I will have found some girl that I adore. 384 00:19:06,268 --> 00:19:08,264 Isn't it romantic? 385 00:19:08,264 --> 00:19:13,254 While I sit around, my love can scrub the floor. 386 00:19:13,254 --> 00:19:19,741 She'll kiss me every hour, or she'll get the sack. 387 00:19:19,741 --> 00:19:25,729 And when I take a shower, she can scrub my back. 388 00:19:25,729 --> 00:19:27,316 Isn't it romantic? 389 00:19:27,316 --> 00:19:31,972 On a moonlight night, she cook me onion soup. 390 00:19:31,972 --> 00:19:33,102 Kiddies are romantic-- 391 00:19:33,102 --> 00:19:35,060 DAVID THORBURN: Would you freeze it one second? 392 00:19:35,060 --> 00:19:36,099 Very quick observation. 393 00:19:36,099 --> 00:19:37,640 I can't interrupt too often because I 394 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:39,473 have a lot of clips to show you, and they're 395 00:19:39,473 --> 00:19:41,670 more important than my commentary. 396 00:19:41,670 --> 00:19:45,200 But let me remind you that even at this very early stage 397 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:47,050 in the history of the musical, look at 398 00:19:47,050 --> 00:19:51,640 how visually sophisticated Mamoulian, 399 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,350 and pay attention as the film, as the sequence goes on. 400 00:19:54,350 --> 00:19:56,820 But look at how he's working with the mirrors here 401 00:19:56,820 --> 00:19:59,429 and how it's doubling-- what it does 402 00:19:59,429 --> 00:20:01,220 to your sense of perspective and your sense 403 00:20:01,220 --> 00:20:02,650 of the environment of the shot. 404 00:20:02,650 --> 00:20:06,280 This is a visually sophisticated, very thoughtful, 405 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:09,667 artistically manipulated camera, and it's Mamoulian's work. 406 00:20:09,667 --> 00:20:11,500 So very early in the history of the musical, 407 00:20:11,500 --> 00:20:15,078 we're already getting visually subtle effects. 408 00:20:15,078 --> 00:20:18,072 -(SINGING)-- we'll have a troupe. 409 00:20:18,072 --> 00:20:21,066 We'll help the population. 410 00:20:21,066 --> 00:20:26,056 It's a duty that we owe to France. 411 00:20:26,056 --> 00:20:30,048 Isn't it romance? 412 00:20:30,048 --> 00:20:32,543 -Isn't it romantic? 413 00:20:32,543 --> 00:20:34,539 Da, da, da, da. 414 00:20:34,539 --> 00:20:36,535 A very catchy strain. 415 00:20:36,535 --> 00:20:39,030 Isn't it romantic? 416 00:20:39,030 --> 00:20:40,527 Da, da, da. 417 00:20:40,527 --> 00:20:44,020 Oh, I forgot my cane. 418 00:20:44,020 --> 00:20:47,014 Oh, thank you very much. 419 00:20:47,014 --> 00:20:50,008 -I better fix your tie. 420 00:20:50,008 --> 00:20:54,998 -Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da-- 421 00:20:54,998 --> 00:20:55,996 -Goodbye. 422 00:20:55,996 --> 00:20:57,493 Isn't it romantic? 423 00:20:57,493 --> 00:20:58,990 Da, da, da, da, da. 424 00:20:58,990 --> 00:20:59,988 -Taxi. 425 00:20:59,988 --> 00:21:01,984 -Oh no, I need some air. 426 00:21:01,984 --> 00:21:03,481 Isn't it romantic? 427 00:21:03,481 --> 00:21:08,471 --[WHISTLING] At last I've got a fare. 428 00:21:08,471 --> 00:21:09,469 -Railroad station! 429 00:21:09,469 --> 00:21:11,465 -[WHISTLING] 430 00:21:11,465 --> 00:21:12,463 -Not too fast. 431 00:21:12,463 --> 00:21:16,954 I hate to take a chance. 432 00:21:16,954 --> 00:21:20,447 -Isn't it romance? 433 00:21:20,447 --> 00:21:21,445 Isn't it romantic? 434 00:21:21,445 --> 00:21:22,443 [HONKING] 435 00:21:22,443 --> 00:21:25,936 --[WHISTLING] Drive around the town. 436 00:21:25,936 --> 00:21:27,433 -Isn't it romantic? 437 00:21:27,433 --> 00:21:28,431 [HONKING] 438 00:21:28,431 --> 00:21:32,423 -Da, da, da, da-- I think I'll take that down. 439 00:21:32,423 --> 00:21:35,916 -[WHISTLING] 440 00:21:38,411 --> 00:21:43,900 -A, B, A, G, F, E, D, C, C, A, B-flat. 441 00:21:43,900 --> 00:21:45,896 Isn't it romantic? 442 00:21:45,896 --> 00:21:47,892 Da, da, da, da. 443 00:21:47,892 --> 00:21:50,387 I like the noise as well. 444 00:21:50,387 --> 00:21:52,383 Isn't it romantic? 445 00:21:52,383 --> 00:21:55,876 [SINGING CONTINUES] 446 00:22:05,357 --> 00:22:08,850 Isn't it romance? 447 00:22:08,850 --> 00:22:11,345 Isn't it romantic? 448 00:22:11,345 --> 00:22:14,838 [SINGING CONTINUES] 449 00:23:08,730 --> 00:23:11,724 -Isn't it romance? 450 00:23:21,704 --> 00:23:24,404 -Isn't it romantic? 451 00:23:24,404 --> 00:23:26,195 DAVID THORBURN: That's Jeannette MacDonald. 452 00:23:26,195 --> 00:23:30,602 -Music in the night, a dream that can be heard. 453 00:23:30,602 --> 00:23:31,185 [END PLAYBACK] 454 00:23:31,185 --> 00:23:31,710 DAVID THORBURN: OK. 455 00:23:31,710 --> 00:23:32,890 Can we have the lights also? 456 00:23:32,890 --> 00:23:33,390 Thank you. 457 00:23:33,390 --> 00:23:34,850 All right. 458 00:23:34,850 --> 00:23:37,460 I hope you enjoyed that lovely sequence. 459 00:23:37,460 --> 00:23:40,850 That device is called a "pass-along song." 460 00:23:40,850 --> 00:23:43,140 I've written it on the board. 461 00:23:43,140 --> 00:23:45,360 And I won't say more about how witty 462 00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:48,100 and wonderful the film is, except to suggest 463 00:23:48,100 --> 00:23:51,910 that apart from its wonderfully amusing and witty qualities, 464 00:23:51,910 --> 00:23:55,050 I hope you implicitly recognized why I took the time 465 00:23:55,050 --> 00:23:58,600 to describe the plot to you because what does the music do? 466 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:03,150 What does this song do in this early part of the film? 467 00:24:03,150 --> 00:24:04,640 It predicts the plot. 468 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:06,200 It predicts the story. 469 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,480 It carries the story into the countryside to the very castle 470 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:14,280 where the plot will take Maurice from Paris later in the story. 471 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:15,720 And not only that. 472 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,660 What is dramatized by the way in which this song moved 473 00:24:18,660 --> 00:24:24,010 from tailor to aristocratic well-dressed man to composer, 474 00:24:24,010 --> 00:24:30,170 artist to cab driver to soldier to gypsy to Princess Jeanette? 475 00:24:30,170 --> 00:24:34,350 And also that it covers physical territory as well as-- it 476 00:24:34,350 --> 00:24:35,550 crosses social barriers. 477 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:40,240 It crosses particular social classes. 478 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,000 It crosses differences of gender. 479 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,210 It crosses ethnic difficult-- what does it say about music? 480 00:24:46,210 --> 00:24:47,630 Music creates community. 481 00:24:47,630 --> 00:24:48,980 Music is democratic. 482 00:24:48,980 --> 00:24:51,390 Music can overcome barriers, which 483 00:24:51,390 --> 00:24:55,170 is going to be ultimately the message of the film itself. 484 00:24:55,170 --> 00:24:59,100 So it's an immensely subtle, crystallized moment 485 00:24:59,100 --> 00:25:00,640 in the film, and it has all kinds 486 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,250 of powerful thematic implications for later 487 00:25:03,250 --> 00:25:05,550 in the film, apart from the fact that it's 488 00:25:05,550 --> 00:25:08,990 a wonderfully rich introduction to the primary character 489 00:25:08,990 --> 00:25:10,870 and to the joys of music. 490 00:25:10,870 --> 00:25:15,370 Reality is, however, that until the advent in something 491 00:25:15,370 --> 00:25:22,780 like 1933 of work by Busby Berkeley, 492 00:25:22,780 --> 00:25:25,980 the great choreographer and director working, 493 00:25:25,980 --> 00:25:29,630 at this stage, primarily for the Warner Brothers Studio 494 00:25:29,630 --> 00:25:33,760 did we begin to see forms of the movie, forms of film, 495 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:39,910 forms of cinema that were uniquely adapted to the nature 496 00:25:39,910 --> 00:25:41,310 of music itself. 497 00:25:41,310 --> 00:25:48,110 That is to say, Busby Berkeley became a legend in Hollywood 498 00:25:48,110 --> 00:25:52,070 for the immense extravagance and elaborateness 499 00:25:52,070 --> 00:25:55,730 of his dance numbers and of his production numbers. 500 00:25:55,730 --> 00:25:57,850 They were an elaboration of something 501 00:25:57,850 --> 00:26:00,620 that was popular in the Broadway theater 502 00:26:00,620 --> 00:26:03,340 before the advent of movies. 503 00:26:03,340 --> 00:26:06,040 But what Berkeley did was take this tendency of the Broadway 504 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,340 theater and cinematize it in a certain way. 505 00:26:09,340 --> 00:26:13,370 And we can get some sense of what Berkeley 506 00:26:13,370 --> 00:26:15,230 was like, what Berkeley's work is like, 507 00:26:15,230 --> 00:26:18,970 by talking about the way in which he created a new attitude 508 00:26:18,970 --> 00:26:20,500 toward film spaces. 509 00:26:20,500 --> 00:26:23,910 He loved to create receding arches and doorways and even 510 00:26:23,910 --> 00:26:26,450 waterfalls and to destroy what we 511 00:26:26,450 --> 00:26:31,000 might call "theatrical space" by exploring the camera's powers 512 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,190 coupled with the power of editing, the power of editing 513 00:26:34,190 --> 00:26:37,220 now linked to rhythms of music. 514 00:26:37,220 --> 00:26:40,510 So he created, essentially, a choreography for the camera. 515 00:26:40,510 --> 00:26:44,380 No seated audience could have had the views and experiences 516 00:26:44,380 --> 00:26:46,100 that the Busby Berkeley production 517 00:26:46,100 --> 00:26:49,630 numbers began to provide. 518 00:26:49,630 --> 00:26:51,830 And there's a moment in Singin' in the Rain tonight 519 00:26:51,830 --> 00:26:55,799 that explicitly recalls this tradition of the musical. 520 00:26:55,799 --> 00:26:57,840 There's a moment in which a character in the film 521 00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,320 has a megaphone, and the front of the megaphone 522 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:04,530 dissolves into a circle of costumed dancers 523 00:27:04,530 --> 00:27:06,450 in a sequence called "Beautiful Girls." 524 00:27:06,450 --> 00:27:08,060 That's the name of the number. 525 00:27:08,060 --> 00:27:11,800 And that whole number is an homage to this Busby Berkeley 526 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:12,590 tradition. 527 00:27:12,590 --> 00:27:15,230 Well, there were certain disadvantages 528 00:27:15,230 --> 00:27:16,560 to the Berkeley strategy. 529 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:20,720 One of them was that especially in the extremity with which he 530 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,090 began to pursue his expressive aims, 531 00:27:24,090 --> 00:27:27,820 he began to sort of dematerialize his women. 532 00:27:27,820 --> 00:27:29,370 He began to objectify them. 533 00:27:29,370 --> 00:27:32,280 And many of his films, many of his production numbers, 534 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:35,300 literally objectify parts of a woman's body, especially 535 00:27:35,300 --> 00:27:38,290 breasts and bottom and legs. 536 00:27:38,290 --> 00:27:44,180 And there's almost, in a certain sense, a kind of dehumanizing 537 00:27:44,180 --> 00:27:47,100 impulse in which the human figures, especially 538 00:27:47,100 --> 00:27:48,830 when he used-- he often would use cameras 539 00:27:48,830 --> 00:27:50,340 that would rise very high. 540 00:27:50,340 --> 00:27:53,000 He invented a shot called the "Berkeley top shot." 541 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,170 Often cut a hole in the ceiling of the places 542 00:27:55,170 --> 00:27:57,420 in which they were filming so he could move up higher. 543 00:27:57,420 --> 00:27:59,240 And he would film from so far above 544 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,330 that the individual lineaments of bodies would disappear, 545 00:28:02,330 --> 00:28:04,860 and only the patterns that they made appeared. 546 00:28:04,860 --> 00:28:10,820 What he anticipated was MTV and forms of expressive filmmaking 547 00:28:10,820 --> 00:28:13,540 that severs a musical experience, 548 00:28:13,540 --> 00:28:18,000 or an audiovisual experience animated by music, 549 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,586 driven by music, from subject, from plot, from story. 550 00:28:21,586 --> 00:28:22,960 In other words, there's something 551 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,270 in one sense very visionary about what 552 00:28:26,270 --> 00:28:27,360 Busby Berkeley was doing. 553 00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:29,610 But of course, he was doing this often in the middle-- 554 00:28:29,610 --> 00:28:31,660 always in the middle of films that 555 00:28:31,660 --> 00:28:33,260 had stories and characters. 556 00:28:33,260 --> 00:28:34,740 And one of the issues in his films 557 00:28:34,740 --> 00:28:37,620 were the production numbers were far more lavish, interesting, 558 00:28:37,620 --> 00:28:41,340 and witty and aesthetically energized 559 00:28:41,340 --> 00:28:43,020 than the stories that carried them. 560 00:28:43,020 --> 00:28:44,770 And in a certain sense, the stories 561 00:28:44,770 --> 00:28:50,040 were really the platform to generate 562 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:51,310 these kinds of performances. 563 00:28:51,310 --> 00:28:54,090 So the films were not as aesthetically coherent 564 00:28:54,090 --> 00:28:58,250 as one would like, but they were full of these astonishingly 565 00:28:58,250 --> 00:29:03,130 expressive musical numbers, audiovisual experiences. 566 00:29:03,130 --> 00:29:07,530 And let me just show you one that will give you 567 00:29:07,530 --> 00:29:16,870 a sense of his extravagance, of his extremism, 568 00:29:16,870 --> 00:29:19,620 in a certain sense, although that's part of the pleasure we 569 00:29:19,620 --> 00:29:21,140 take in how far he can go. 570 00:29:21,140 --> 00:29:24,330 There's something deeply camp, deeply campy 571 00:29:24,330 --> 00:29:27,480 about Busby Berkeley's choreography. 572 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,730 And he reveled, he reveled in these kinds of gestures. 573 00:29:30,730 --> 00:29:32,820 But here is one of the most famous 574 00:29:32,820 --> 00:29:35,810 of the-- although not by far the most extreme or ridiculous, 575 00:29:35,810 --> 00:29:39,230 of these kinds of gestures from a film Berkeley made 576 00:29:39,230 --> 00:29:42,142 in 1933 called 42nd Street. 577 00:29:42,142 --> 00:29:45,550 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 578 00:29:45,550 --> 00:29:48,030 -(SINGING) Say I know a bundle of humanity. 579 00:29:48,030 --> 00:29:50,014 She's about so high. 580 00:29:50,014 --> 00:29:54,974 And I'm just driven to insanity when she passes by. 581 00:29:54,974 --> 00:29:57,454 She's a snooty little cutie. 582 00:29:57,454 --> 00:29:59,940 She's been so hard to kiss. 583 00:29:59,940 --> 00:30:02,290 DAVID THORBURN: See how we started a theatrical space. 584 00:30:02,290 --> 00:30:05,157 -And then I'll tell her-- 585 00:30:05,157 --> 00:30:07,490 DAVID THORBURN: Dick Powell, one of the great performers 586 00:30:07,490 --> 00:30:10,700 of the studio era, both musical and stage. 587 00:30:10,700 --> 00:30:14,240 - --healthy, and you've got charms. 588 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:19,190 It'd really be a sin not to have you in my arms. 589 00:30:19,190 --> 00:30:23,645 I'm young, healthy, and so are you. 590 00:30:23,645 --> 00:30:27,605 When the moon is in the sky, tell me what am I to do? 591 00:30:27,605 --> 00:30:32,555 Say-- If I could hate ya, I'd keep away. 592 00:30:32,555 --> 00:30:34,535 But that ain't my nature. 593 00:30:34,535 --> 00:30:37,505 I'm full of vitamin A, say! 594 00:30:37,505 --> 00:30:41,510 I'm young and healthy, so let's be bold. 595 00:30:41,510 --> 00:30:46,504 In a year or two or three, maybe we will be too old. 596 00:30:46,504 --> 00:30:50,995 I'm young and healthy, and you've got charms. 597 00:30:50,995 --> 00:30:56,000 It'd really be a sin not to have you in my arms. 598 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,860 I'm young and healthy, and so are you. 599 00:30:59,860 --> 00:31:04,542 When the moon is in the sky, tell me what am I to do? 600 00:31:04,542 --> 00:31:08,440 If I could hate ya, I'd keep away. 601 00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:10,440 But that ain't my nature. 602 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:12,992 I'm full of vitamin A, say! 603 00:31:12,992 --> 00:31:17,320 I'm young and healthy, so let's be bold. 604 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:22,170 In a year or two or three, maybe we will be too old. 605 00:31:22,170 --> 00:31:26,445 -I'm young and healthy, and you've got charms. 606 00:31:26,445 --> 00:31:30,736 It would really be a sin not to have you in my arms, dadum. 607 00:31:30,736 --> 00:31:35,170 -I'm young and healthy, and so are you. 608 00:31:35,170 --> 00:31:39,640 When the moon is in the sky, tell me what am I to do? 609 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:43,592 -If I could hate you, honey, I'd keep away. 610 00:31:43,592 --> 00:31:45,568 But that ain't my nature. 611 00:31:45,568 --> 00:31:51,002 I'm full of vitamin A. Whoa-- I'm young and healthy, so let's 612 00:31:51,002 --> 00:31:52,484 be bold. 613 00:31:52,484 --> 00:31:55,942 In a year or two or three, maybe we will be too old. 614 00:32:56,183 --> 00:32:57,766 DAVID THORBURN: The Berkeley top shot. 615 00:32:57,766 --> 00:33:01,259 [MUSIC PLAYING] 616 00:33:14,233 --> 00:33:16,800 See how he's moved to a kind of abstraction here? 617 00:33:21,710 --> 00:33:26,129 -If I could hate ya, I'd keep away. 618 00:33:26,129 --> 00:33:27,602 But that ain't my nature. 619 00:33:27,602 --> 00:33:30,057 I'm full of vitamin A, say! 620 00:33:30,057 --> 00:33:33,985 I'm young and healthy, so let's be bold. 621 00:33:33,985 --> 00:33:40,317 In a year or two or three, maybe we will be too old. 622 00:33:40,317 --> 00:33:40,900 [END PLAYBACK] 623 00:33:40,900 --> 00:33:41,610 DAVID THORBURN: You think there might 624 00:33:41,610 --> 00:33:44,310 be something almost grotesque about those final images? 625 00:33:44,310 --> 00:33:47,110 On the other hand, can you also see how 626 00:33:47,110 --> 00:33:50,850 in a system that is censored, in which women are not 627 00:33:50,850 --> 00:33:55,290 allowed to be seen on a bed without one foot 628 00:33:55,290 --> 00:33:58,320 at least on the floor, in which there 629 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,480 is a kind of sexual energy and a kind of testing 630 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:07,009 of boundaries running through this kind of display as well. 631 00:34:07,009 --> 00:34:08,550 We're running out of time, and I have 632 00:34:08,550 --> 00:34:10,469 another even more magnificent sequence 633 00:34:10,469 --> 00:34:14,310 to show you to finish out this attempt 634 00:34:14,310 --> 00:34:17,090 to give you at least a quick flavor of the varieties 635 00:34:17,090 --> 00:34:19,389 of experience available in the musical 636 00:34:19,389 --> 00:34:22,690 before we look at a fully integrated musical this evening 637 00:34:22,690 --> 00:34:23,889 with Singin' in the Rain. 638 00:34:23,889 --> 00:34:27,230 Let me say very quickly then, to jump to the bottom, 639 00:34:27,230 --> 00:34:31,550 the final aspect of this is what Arthur Freed and his cohorts 640 00:34:31,550 --> 00:34:35,960 articulated as the idea of a musical that would integrate 641 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:40,570 sufficiently music and dance with character and story 642 00:34:40,570 --> 00:34:42,070 in a way that would be coherent. 643 00:34:42,070 --> 00:34:45,530 And the musicals made under Arthur Freed's direction, often 644 00:34:45,530 --> 00:34:48,409 called the "Freed Unit" at MGM, tried 645 00:34:48,409 --> 00:34:50,550 to satisfy this criterion. 646 00:34:50,550 --> 00:34:52,929 They were, in many ways, more coherent 647 00:34:52,929 --> 00:34:55,630 in terms of the relation between the singing 648 00:34:55,630 --> 00:34:58,490 and the dancing and the story than these earlier forms 649 00:34:58,490 --> 00:35:00,940 were, although they were often less imaginatively 650 00:35:00,940 --> 00:35:04,660 expressive in some cases, although this is not true, 651 00:35:04,660 --> 00:35:08,180 I think, of Singin' in the Rain. 652 00:35:08,180 --> 00:35:11,330 But there is another stage to mention in this development 653 00:35:11,330 --> 00:35:13,700 or evolution, and it's one of the most important 654 00:35:13,700 --> 00:35:15,580 in the history of the Hollywood musical. 655 00:35:15,580 --> 00:35:17,880 And it has to do with the partnership between Fred 656 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,950 Astaire and Ginger Rogers, mostly at the RKO studios. 657 00:35:21,950 --> 00:35:27,800 They made nine films together between 1933 in 1939 at RKO. 658 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:29,600 And they introduced another element 659 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:33,490 into the musical film that is then, I think, 660 00:35:33,490 --> 00:35:38,720 incorporated in a certain degree in the so-called integrated 661 00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:39,910 musical of MGM. 662 00:35:39,910 --> 00:35:42,010 So my last example this afternoon 663 00:35:42,010 --> 00:35:45,650 comes from the great Astaire-Rogers 664 00:35:45,650 --> 00:35:47,280 musical, Top Hat. 665 00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:49,420 And let me set the stage for you. 666 00:35:49,420 --> 00:35:52,590 Get ready to show it because we're running out of time. 667 00:35:52,590 --> 00:35:55,460 The situation is this-- and it dramatizes even more 668 00:35:55,460 --> 00:35:59,120 fully the idea that there are potentially sexual tensions, 669 00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:03,940 sexual themes embedded in the experience of watching a song 670 00:36:03,940 --> 00:36:06,590 and dance musical. 671 00:36:06,590 --> 00:36:09,580 What the Astaire-Rogers musicals brought 672 00:36:09,580 --> 00:36:11,880 to the table that had not been there before 673 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:15,960 was, in some sense, a kind of psychological element. 674 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:18,900 Even though in the Astaire-Rogers films, 675 00:36:18,900 --> 00:36:20,390 the singing and dancing was still 676 00:36:20,390 --> 00:36:23,270 in some sense much more central to the film than the rest 677 00:36:23,270 --> 00:36:25,930 of the story, and the stories were often thin, what they did 678 00:36:25,930 --> 00:36:28,484 introduce was an individuation. 679 00:36:28,484 --> 00:36:29,900 In the Busby Berkeley numbers, you 680 00:36:29,900 --> 00:36:32,480 can see the women are-- all the characters in fact 681 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:36,500 are-- hard to differentiate from the backdrop 682 00:36:36,500 --> 00:36:37,390 or from the curtains. 683 00:36:37,390 --> 00:36:40,050 They are objectified in a certain way. 684 00:36:40,050 --> 00:36:41,890 Especially when he gets going, they 685 00:36:41,890 --> 00:36:44,070 become parts of an abstract pattern. 686 00:36:44,070 --> 00:36:48,270 In the Astaire-Rogers films, Astaire and Roger's characters 687 00:36:48,270 --> 00:36:50,330 are deeply, sharply individuated, 688 00:36:50,330 --> 00:36:52,560 and certain kinds of psychological themes 689 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:53,699 begin to enter in. 690 00:36:53,699 --> 00:36:55,240 In this clip you're going to see now, 691 00:36:55,240 --> 00:36:58,640 a fairly characteristic one and probably the single most famous 692 00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,770 dance number in the history of the studio era, 693 00:37:01,770 --> 00:37:05,660 a dance number based on the song "Cheek to Cheek," 694 00:37:05,660 --> 00:37:11,370 danced by Astaire and Rogers-- in this sequence, 695 00:37:11,370 --> 00:37:14,000 we are in a setting that's worth mentioning to you. 696 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:15,940 We're on board a cruise ship. 697 00:37:15,940 --> 00:37:17,660 Wealthy Americans are there. 698 00:37:17,660 --> 00:37:20,700 It's wealthy people, aristocrats. 699 00:37:20,700 --> 00:37:26,490 The Astaire and Rogers characters have met earlier, 700 00:37:26,490 --> 00:37:28,760 and they haven't really hit it off. 701 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,580 And the Rogers character, the woman, 702 00:37:31,580 --> 00:37:37,800 thinks that Fred Astaire is an immoral man, that he commits 703 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:39,390 infidelities against his wife. 704 00:37:39,390 --> 00:37:41,840 And she's under the mistaken impression 705 00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:44,800 that the woman he's with is his wife. 706 00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:46,840 So what happens in the sequence, essentially, 707 00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:50,750 is that in front of what she believes to be his wife, 708 00:37:50,750 --> 00:37:53,660 he asks her to dance-- he asks Rogers to dance with her, 709 00:37:53,660 --> 00:37:57,200 and then, to her surprise, Astaire's apparent wife 710 00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:58,080 says, oh, go ahead. 711 00:37:58,080 --> 00:37:59,630 I'd love to see you two together. 712 00:37:59,630 --> 00:38:04,280 And she says, well, I'm-- and so when the dance begins, 713 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:05,800 she's sort of resistant. 714 00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:07,610 She thinking, ah, this is disgus-- 715 00:38:07,610 --> 00:38:09,896 and she goes along with it, but she 716 00:38:09,896 --> 00:38:11,520 feels there's something wrong about it. 717 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:13,080 And then as the dance goes on, you 718 00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:15,850 can see her resistance begin to break down. 719 00:38:15,850 --> 00:38:19,010 And you can see the dance becoming more and more mutual. 720 00:38:19,010 --> 00:38:22,710 And you can see her enthusiasm for the dance increase. 721 00:38:22,710 --> 00:38:25,720 And think about what the dance, first 722 00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:29,230 of all, how profound and brilliant this dance 723 00:38:29,230 --> 00:38:33,440 is as an embodiment of mutuality and collaboration 724 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:36,060 because one of the reasons Rogers was so remarkable 725 00:38:36,060 --> 00:38:38,230 was that she was capable of dancing 726 00:38:38,230 --> 00:38:42,710 at the same complex, astonishing level as Fred Astaire himself. 727 00:38:42,710 --> 00:38:47,000 And it's an image of mutuality and of collaborative artistry 728 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:48,270 that's very remarkable. 729 00:38:48,270 --> 00:38:50,340 But it's also a metaphor for other kinds 730 00:38:50,340 --> 00:38:52,990 of mutual interactions that are physical. 731 00:38:52,990 --> 00:38:56,040 And I hope you will pay attention to that subtext 732 00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:58,750 as you're watching this remarkable sequence. 733 00:38:58,750 --> 00:39:04,140 The fact that Rogers begins in an act-- hostilely, resistant, 734 00:39:04,140 --> 00:39:07,900 and yields slowly is a key to the energy we see here. 735 00:39:07,900 --> 00:39:09,432 OK. 736 00:39:09,432 --> 00:39:10,815 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 737 00:39:10,815 --> 00:39:13,532 -Nice to see you again, Miss Tremont. 738 00:39:13,532 --> 00:39:14,782 DAVID THORBURN: Ginger Rogers. 739 00:39:14,782 --> 00:39:16,168 -You've robbed me of the pleasure 740 00:39:16,168 --> 00:39:17,554 of introducing you two. 741 00:39:17,554 --> 00:39:19,529 You've already met. 742 00:39:19,529 --> 00:39:22,070 DAVID THORBURN: Now, remember, Ginger is mistaken about this. 743 00:39:22,070 --> 00:39:23,784 Fred's not really married to her. 744 00:39:23,784 --> 00:39:25,700 And of course that's a typical Hollywood trick 745 00:39:25,700 --> 00:39:28,760 because we're able to enjoy the [FRENCH] 746 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:32,420 of infidelity and of the idea of straying from your wife, 747 00:39:32,420 --> 00:39:33,600 but it isn't really true. 748 00:39:36,330 --> 00:39:37,913 -I don't know what I'd do without her. 749 00:39:37,913 --> 00:39:39,390 -Oh, that's sweet of you, darling. 750 00:39:39,390 --> 00:39:41,200 But you two run along and dance, and don't give me 751 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:41,866 another thought. 752 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:46,696 -That's what I'm afraid of. 753 00:39:54,326 --> 00:39:57,120 I think Madge is a very brave person. 754 00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,120 -Yes, I have tremendous admiration for her. 755 00:40:05,980 --> 00:40:07,980 DAVID THORBURN: You see how the misunderstanding 756 00:40:07,980 --> 00:40:14,886 adds tremendous sexual energy, wit to the scene. 757 00:40:14,886 --> 00:40:17,655 -Well, if Madge doesn't care, I certainly don't. 758 00:40:17,655 --> 00:40:21,060 -Neither do I. All I know is that it's-- 759 00:40:21,060 --> 00:40:23,560 (SINGING) heaven. 760 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:26,370 I'm in heaven. 761 00:40:26,370 --> 00:40:32,740 And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak. 762 00:40:32,740 --> 00:40:36,730 And I seem to find the happiness I 763 00:40:36,730 --> 00:40:43,660 seek when we're out together dancing cheek to cheek. 764 00:40:46,630 --> 00:40:49,455 Heaven, I'm in heaven. 765 00:40:49,455 --> 00:40:51,580 DAVID THORBURN: Kristen, can you put the sound off? 766 00:40:51,580 --> 00:40:54,304 And pay attention-- [INAUDIBLE] I'm 767 00:40:54,304 --> 00:40:55,970 going to do the terrible damage to this. 768 00:40:55,970 --> 00:40:57,960 Keep watching as I'm talking, and imagine you 769 00:40:57,960 --> 00:40:59,267 hearing the song, all right? 770 00:40:59,267 --> 00:41:00,850 But because we're running out of time, 771 00:41:00,850 --> 00:41:02,310 I don't want to lose our energy, and I 772 00:41:02,310 --> 00:41:03,476 don't want to keep you over. 773 00:41:03,476 --> 00:41:04,606 So this dance continues. 774 00:41:04,606 --> 00:41:06,355 As you'll see, it's quite a long sequence, 775 00:41:06,355 --> 00:41:08,649 and he's singing to her in his weedy-- 776 00:41:08,649 --> 00:41:10,190 really not a very good singer, is he? 777 00:41:10,190 --> 00:41:11,480 It doesn't seem to matter. 778 00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:13,810 But one of the things you should watch 779 00:41:13,810 --> 00:41:15,920 is the way they move out of a crowded space 780 00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:20,510 into a more private space and how the intimacy of their-- 781 00:41:20,510 --> 00:41:23,640 and how the dance partly stops for a moment. 782 00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:24,930 Then it resumes. 783 00:41:24,930 --> 00:41:29,640 And they move-- as you'll see in the sequence, 784 00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:34,120 they move into a space that's completely private, and her-- 785 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,320 and if you watch her expression, you 786 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:38,910 can also see that she's beginning to yield, 787 00:41:38,910 --> 00:41:42,420 that she's beginning to become enthusiastic. 788 00:41:42,420 --> 00:41:42,950 OK. 789 00:41:42,950 --> 00:41:44,270 Put the sound back on. 790 00:41:44,270 --> 00:41:49,198 -(SINGING) --charm about you will carry me through 791 00:41:49,198 --> 00:41:52,154 to heaven. 792 00:41:52,154 --> 00:41:55,528 I'm in heaven. 793 00:41:55,528 --> 00:42:02,416 And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak. 794 00:42:02,416 --> 00:42:06,400 And I seem to find the happiness I 795 00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:13,140 seek when we're out together dancing cheek to cheek. 796 00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:47,230 DAVID THORBURN: --the sound for a second. 797 00:42:47,230 --> 00:42:48,700 My final comment-- we're coming to 798 00:42:48,700 --> 00:42:51,110 near the end of this sequence, although it will extend. 799 00:42:51,110 --> 00:42:52,620 I want you to hear the music, too. 800 00:42:52,620 --> 00:42:57,470 But watch especially the way the intensity of this picks up 801 00:42:57,470 --> 00:42:59,320 and then subsides. 802 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:01,900 Ask yourself what rhythms are being implicitly 803 00:43:01,900 --> 00:43:05,160 dramatized here and then why, at the very end, 804 00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:06,930 it's time for a cigarette. 805 00:43:06,930 --> 00:43:07,802 OK. 806 00:43:07,802 --> 00:43:11,098 [MUSIC PLAYING] 807 00:45:19,850 --> 00:45:23,200 [END PLAYBACK]