Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers".
203-403: Sextette is a 1978 American musical comedy film directed by Ken Hughes , and starring Mae West in her final film, alongside an ensemble cast including Timothy Dalton , Dom DeLuise , Tony Curtis , Ringo Starr , Keith Moon , George Hamilton , Alice Cooper and Walter Pidgeon . Produced by Daniel Briggs, Robert Sullivan and Harry Weiss for the production company Briggs and Sullivan,
406-531: A Salvation Army director in She Done Him Wrong , which made it all the more charming. The film was a box office hit, earning more than $ 2 million in the United States, and has since won much acclaim. For I'm No Angel , Grant's salary was increased from $ 450 to $ 750 a week. The film was even more successful than She Done Him Wrong , and saved Paramount from bankruptcy; Vermilye cites it as one of
609-547: A "genuine charm", which made him stand out among the other good looking actors at the time, making it "remarkably easy to find people who were willing to support his embryonic career". He made his feature film debut with the Frank Tuttle -directed comedy This is the Night (1932), playing an Olympic javelin thrower opposite Thelma Todd and Lili Damita . Grant disliked his role and threatened to leave Hollywood, but to his surprise
812-521: A "mixture of John Barrymore and cockney ", while another announced that he had brought a "breath of elfin Broadway" to the role. Grant found it difficult forming relationships with women, remarking that he "never seemed able to fully communicate with them" even after many years "surrounded by all sorts of attractive girls" in the theater, on the road, and in New York. In 1930, Grant toured for nine months in
1015-586: A 1927 Packard sport phaeton . He visited his half-brother Eric in England, and he returned to New York to play the role of Max Grunewald in a Shubert production of A Wonderful Night . It premiered at the Majestic Theatre on October 31, 1929, two days after the Wall Street Crash , and lasted until February 1930 with 125 shows. The play received mixed reviews; one critic criticized his acting, likening it to
1218-611: A Bollywood-style song-and-dance number during the film's end credits, Tallika (2022) was the first movie with Maximum Genres of Music Composed by Maharaja and registered as a World Record Holder in Music, Spain has a history and tradition of musical films that were made independent of Hollywood influence. The first films arise during the Second Spanish Republic of the 1930s and the advent of sound films . A few zarzuelas (Spanish operetta ) were even adapted as screenplays during
1421-676: A British army sergeant opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in the George Stevens -directed adventure film Gunga Din , set at a military station in India . Roles as a pilot opposite Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth in Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings , and a wealthy landowner alongside Carole Lombard in In Name Only followed. In 1940, Grant played a callous newspaper editor who learns that his ex-wife and former journalist, played by Rosalind Russell ,
1624-491: A Male War Bride in which he appeared in scenes dressed as a woman, wearing a skirt and a wig. During the filming he was taken ill with infectious hepatitis and lost weight, affecting the way he looked in the picture. The film, based on the autobiography of Belgian resistance fighter Roger Charlier , proved to be successful, becoming the highest-grossing film for 20th Century Fox that year with over $ 4.5 million in takings and being likened to Hawks's screwball comedies of
1827-467: A Sixpence , The Happiest Millionaire , Star! , Darling Lili , Goodbye, Mr. Chips , Paint Your Wagon , Song of Norway , On a Clear Day You Can See Forever , 1776 , Man of La Mancha , Lost Horizon , and Mame . Collectively and individually these failures affected the financial viability of several major studios. In the 1970s, film culture and the changing demographics of filmgoers placed greater emphasis on gritty realism, while
2030-489: A car accident. Topper became one of the most popular movies of the year, with a critic from Variety noting that both Grant and Bennett "do their assignments with great skill". Vermilye described the film's success as "a logical springboard" for Grant to star in The Awful Truth that year, his first film made with Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy . Though director Leo McCarey reportedly disliked Grant, who had mocked
2233-519: A career comeback, and would respond to the suggestion with "fat chance". He did, however, briefly appear in the audience for Elvis Presley 's 1970 Las Vegas concert documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is . In the 1970s, he was given the negatives from a number of his films, and he sold them to television for a sum of over $ 2 million dollars in 1975 ($ 11.3 million in 2023). Morecambe and Stirling argue that Grant's absence from film after 1966
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#17328760148122436-529: A career's best with an "extraordinary and agile performance", which was matched by Rogers, it received a mixed reception overall. Grant had hoped that starring opposite Deborah Kerr in the romantic comedy Dream Wife would salvage his career, but it was a critical and financial failure upon release in July 1953, when Grant was 49. Though he was offered the leading part in A Star is Born , Grant decided against playing that character. He believed that his film career
2639-530: A case of mistaken identity. Like Indiscreet , it was warmly received by the critics and was a major commercial success, and is now often listed as one of the greatest films of all time. Weiler, writing in The New York Times , praised Grant's performance, remarking that the actor "was never more at home than in this role of the advertising-man-on-the-lam" and handled the role "with professional aplomb and grace". Grant wore one of his most well-known suits in
2842-538: A convict on the run in The Talk of the Town (1942), who escapes after being wrongly convicted of arson and murder. He hides in a house with characters played by Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman , and gradually plots to secure his freedom. Crowther praised the script, and noted that Grant played Dilg with a "casualness which is slightly disturbing". After a role as a foreign correspondent opposite Ginger Rogers and Walter Slezak in
3045-456: A critic from Variety praised his performance, and thought that he looked like a "potential femme rave". In 1932, Grant played a wealthy playboy opposite Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus , directed by Josef von Sternberg . Grant's role is described by William Rothman as projecting the "distinctive kind of nonmacho masculinity that was to enable him to incarnate a man capable of being
3248-425: A definitive specimen of High Camp in entertainment." Scott Cain of The Atlanta Journal had the most favorable response to the film, saying "Mae West’s new movie “Sextette” is tacky silly unbelievable and unforgivable. On the other hand it’s a barrel of laughs. I loved it. In their haste to denounce this picture, Mae’s detractors conveniently overlook the fact that it is a farce. They forget that Mae has always been
3451-474: A few dramas) included their own musical numbers. The Marx Brothers ' films included a musical number in nearly every film, allowing the Brothers to highlight their musical talents. Their final film, entitled Love Happy (1949), featured Vera-Ellen , considered to be the best dancer among her colleagues and professionals in the half century. Similarly, the vaudevillian comedian W. C. Fields joined forces with
3654-408: A few well-received films, but even their popularity waned by 1932. The public had quickly come to associate color with musicals and thus the decline in their popularity also resulted in a decline in color productions. The taste in musicals revived again in 1933 when director Busby Berkeley began to enhance the traditional dance number with ideas drawn from the drill precision he had experienced as
3857-408: A freelance actor was The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936), which was shot in England. The film was a box office bomb and prompted Grant to reconsider his decision. Critical and commercial success with Suzy later that year in which he played a French airman opposite Jean Harlow and Franchot Tone , led to him signing joint contracts with RKO and Columbia Pictures , enabling him to choose
4060-699: A group called the "Knockabout Comedians" at the Palace Theater on Broadway. He formed another group that summer called "The Walking Stanleys" with several of the former members of the Pender Troupe, and he starred in a variety show named "Better Times" at the Hippodrome towards the end of the year. While serving as a paid escort for the opera singer Lucrezia Bori at a Park Avenue party, he met George C. Tilyou Jr. , whose family owned Steeplechase Park . Learning of his acrobatic experience, Tilyou hired him to work as
4263-467: A half minutes. Wansell notes how Grant's performance "underlined how far his unique qualities as a screen actor had matured in the years since The Awful Truth ". In 1947, Grant played an artist who becomes involved in a court case when charged with assault in the comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (released in the U.K. as "Bachelor Knight"), opposite Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple . The film
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#17328760148124466-481: A heart attack on stage during a performance of the play. In 1969, James Aubrey of MGM commissioned Leonard Spigelgass to write a script. In August 1969, West was filming Myra Breckinridge . She said she wanted Christopher Plummer to play one of her husbands in Sextette . However, filming did not proceed. Funds were eventually raised by Danile Briggs, daughter of a Stauffer Chemicals heiress. In March 1976, it
4669-456: A mental institution, and told him she had gone away on a "long holiday", later declaring that she had died. Grant grew up resenting his mother, particularly after being told she left the family. After she was institutionalised, Grant and his father moved into Grant's grandmother's home in Bristol. When Grant was ten, his father remarried and started a new family. Grant did not learn that his mother
4872-526: A musical and India producing the most movies in the world (formed in 1913), the first Bollywood film to be a complete musical, Dev D (directed by Anurag Kashyap ), came in 2009. The second musical film to follow was Jagga Jasoos (directed by Anurag Basu ), in 2017. Bollywood musicals have their roots in the traditional musical theatre of India , such as classical Indian musical theatre , Sanskrit drama , and Parsi theatre . Early Bombay filmmakers combined these Indian musical theatre traditions with
5075-547: A nod to the passage of time. The various costume changes and her eternal prop a sizable fan cannot hide the dimming fire, the fading zest. Even her famous, purring delivery of lines like 'When I am good, I am very good, but when I am bad, I am better' has become too measured, a conscious effort to capture and capitalize on a past trademark. The audience senses the chasm between past and present, and somewhat ill at ease cannot relax at what otherwise would have been lightweight fare. After all, why should we root for connubial bliss between
5278-534: A noise in the back row and would never do his homework". He spent his evenings working backstage in Bristol theatres, and at the age of 13, was responsible for the lighting for magician David Devant at the Bristol Empire in 1917. He began hanging around backstage at the theatre at every opportunity, and volunteered for work in the summer as a messenger boy and guide at the military docks in Southampton , to escape
5481-614: A production of the musical The Street Singer . It ended in early 1931, and the Shuberts invited him to spend the summer performing on the stage at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri ; he appeared in 12 different productions, putting on 87 shows. He received praise from local newspapers for these performances, gaining a reputation as a romantic leading man. Significant influences on his acting in this period were Gerald du Maurier , A. E. Matthews , Jack Buchanan , and Ronald Squire . He admitted that he
5684-699: A renaissance of the genre. The Guru and The 40-Year-Old Virgin also feature Indian-style song-and-dance sequences; the Bollywood musical Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film ; two other Bollywood films Devdas (2002) and Rang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language ; and Danny Boyle 's Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008) also features
5887-651: A romantic hero". Grant found that he conflicted with the director during the filming and the two often argued in German. He played a suave playboy type in a number of films: Merrily We Go to Hell opposite Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney , Devil and the Deep with Tallulah Bankhead , Gary Cooper and Charles Laughton (Cooper and Grant had no scenes together), Hot Saturday opposite Nancy Carroll and Randolph Scott , and Madame Butterfly with Sidney. According to biographer Marc Eliot, while these films did not make Grant
6090-515: A sailor in Singapore Sue (1931), a ten-minute short film by Casey Robinson . Grant delivered his lines "without any conviction" according to McCann. Through Robinson, Grant met with Jesse L. Lasky and B. P. Schulberg , the co-founder and general manager of Paramount Pictures respectively. After a successful screen-test directed by Marion Gering , Schulberg signed a contract with the 27-year-old Grant on December 7, 1931, for five years, at
6293-456: A second-rate carnival freak show. There is a queasy mixture of disgust, pity and guilt that settles in the bottom of your stomach after watching Mae West's deficiencies being exploited for profit. But she is obviously exploiting herself." He added: Other stars of her day gracefully accepted retirement. They settled into Beverly Hills and appear annually at the Academy Awards. That lifestyle
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6496-415: A sense of permanence and stability in her life. He had become increasingly disillusioned with cinema in the 1960s, rarely finding a script of which he approved. He remarked: "I could have gone on acting and playing a grandfather or a bum, but I discovered more important things in life". He knew after he had made Charade that the "Golden Age" of Hollywood was over. Grant expressed little interest in making
6699-524: A sense, the viewer becomes the diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s, musicals gained popularity with the public and are exemplified by the films of Busby Berkeley , a choreographer known for his distinctive and elaborate set pieces featuring multiple showgirls. These lavish production numbers are typified by his choreographic work in 42nd Street , Gold Diggers of 1933 , Footlight Parade (all from 1933). During
6902-648: A series of successful performances in New York City, he decided to stay there. He established a name for himself in vaudeville in the 1920s and toured the United States before moving to Hollywood in the early 1930s. Grant initially appeared in crime films and dramas, such as Blonde Venus (1932) and She Done Him Wrong (1933), but later gained renown for his performances in romantic screwball comedies such as The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), and The Philadelphia Story (1940). These pictures are frequently cited among
7105-459: A sex-bombe—even tongue in cheek—she is young enough to make an ass of herself. Sextette is an occasionally musical comedy where the laughs are also occasional." Jesús Fernández Santos of the Spanish newspaper El País , reviewing the film after her death, remarked that "beyond the well-known plot, old songs, and new actors, there's something pathetic about Mae West holding onto the idea of a body when
7308-519: A show-biz plot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man. Advertised by MGM as the first "All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing" feature film, it was a hit and won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits. The Love Parade (Paramount 1929) starred Maurice Chevalier and newcomer Jeanette MacDonald , written by Broadway veteran Guy Bolton . Warner Brothers produced
7511-418: A soldier during World War I . In films such as 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Berkeley choreographed a number of films in his unique style. Berkeley's numbers typically begin on a stage but gradually transcend the limitations of theatrical space: his ingenious routines, involving human bodies forming patterns like a kaleidoscope, could never fit onto a real stage and the intended perspective
7714-532: A soldier in post-World War I France. The production opened on September 29, 1931, in New York, but was stopped after just 39 performances due to the effects of the Depression. Grant's role in Nikki was praised by Ed Sullivan of The New York Daily News , who noted that the "young lad from England" had "a big future in the movies". The review led to another screen test by Paramount Publix, resulting in an appearance as
7917-489: A star, they did well enough to establish him as one of Hollywood's "new crop of fast-rising actors". In 1933, Grant gained attention for appearing in the pre-Code films She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel opposite Mae West . West would later claim that she had discovered Cary Grant. Of course Grant had already made Blonde Venus the previous year in which he was Marlene Dietrich's leading man . Pauline Kael noted that Grant did not appear confident in his role as
8120-471: A starting salary of $ 450 a week. Schulberg demanded that he change his name to "something that sounded more all-American like Gary Cooper ", and they eventually agreed on Cary Grant. Grant set out to establish himself as what McCann calls the "epitome of masculine glamour", and made Douglas Fairbanks his first role model. McCann notes that Grant's career in Hollywood immediately took off because he exhibited
8323-437: A stilt-walker and attract large crowds on the newly opened Coney Island Boardwalk , wearing a bright greatcoat and a sandwich board that advertised the amusement park. Grant spent the next couple of years touring the United States with "The Walking Stanleys". He visited Los Angeles for the first time in 1924, which made a lasting impression on him. The group split up and he returned to New York, where he began performing at
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8526-525: A string of successes with live action fantasy adaptations of several of their animated features , Disney produced a live action version of Beauty and the Beast , the first of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical, and features new songs as well as new lyrics to both the Gaston number and the reprise of the title song. Bill Condon , who directed Dreamgirls , directed Beauty and
8729-475: A three-week tour of the United States as part of a group to help the war effort and was photographed visiting wounded marines in hospital. He appeared in several routines of his own during these shows and often played the straight-man opposite Bert Lahr . In May 1942, when he was 38, the ten-minute propaganda short Road to Victory was released, in which he appeared alongside Bing Crosby , Frank Sinatra and Charles Ruggles . On film, Grant played Leopold Dilg,
8932-440: A three-year contract between Grant and Pender that stipulated Grant's weekly salary, along with room and board, dancing lessons, and other training for his profession until age 18. There was also a provision in the contract for salary raises based on job performance. The Pender Troupe began touring the country, and Grant's performing pantomime developed his physical skills, broadening the range of his acting. The troupe traveled on
9135-530: A tormented character who hysterically discovers that his amnesia has affected the masculine order in society in The Black Curtain . After making a brief cameo appearance opposite Claudette Colbert in Without Reservations (1946), Grant portrayed Cole Porter in the musical Night and Day (1946). The production proved to be problematic, with scenes often requiring multiple takes, frustrating
9338-588: A troupe of acrobatic dancers known as The Penders or the Bob Pender Stage Troupe. He subsequently trained as a stilt walker and began touring with them. Jesse Lasky was a Broadway producer at the time and saw Grant performing at the Wintergarten theater in Berlin around 1914. In 1915, Grant won a scholarship to attend Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol, although his father could barely afford to pay for
9541-489: A way to break away from their typecasting. For instance, the multi-talented James Cagney had originally risen to fame as a stage singer and dancer, but his repeated casting in "tough guy" roles and mob films gave him few chances to display these talents. Cagney's Oscar -winning role in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) allowed him to sing and dance, and he considered it to be one of his finest moments. Many comedies (and
9744-503: A week. The show was not well received, but it lasted for 184 performances and several critics started to notice Grant as the "pleasant new juvenile" or "competent young newcomer". The following year, he joined the William Morris Agency and was offered another juvenile part by Hammerstein in his play Polly , an unsuccessful production. One critic wrote that Grant "has a strong masculine manner, but unfortunately fails to bring out
9947-462: A young, handsome lord, and a white-faced woman four times his age?" Ron Bush of the Orlando Sentinel said "whoever persuaded Mae West to do a film based on her play 'Sextette' did her—and moviegoers—wrong." He added: Back in 1970 Mae West said (in the revised edition of her autobiography "Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It") she planned to film "Sextette" and a remake of " She Done Him Wrong ,"
10150-497: Is almost wholly superfluous. Perhaps the inference to be taken is that a man in his 50s or 60s has no place in romantic comedy except as a catalyst. If so, the chemistry is wrong for everyone". Hitchcock had asked Grant to star in Torn Curtain that year, only to learn that he had decided to retire. In 1966, when his daughter Jennifer Grant was born, Grant retired from the screen so he could focus on bringing her up and to provide
10353-432: Is considered the first African American A-list film star. Celebrated director Howard Hawks also ventured into the genre with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . In the 1960s, 1970s, and continuing up to today, the musical film became less of a bankable genre that could be relied upon for sure-fire hits. Audiences for them lessened and fewer musical films were produced as the genre became less mainstream and more specialized. In
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#173287601481210556-496: Is life after death and looked positively embalmed. The picture comes under the heading of 'must miss' movies. In Australia, John Lapsley of The Sun-Herald gave the film only a one-star rating out of four, and said that "despite what you may think if you see Mae West in Sextette, medical opinion is that the aged sex star is certifiably alive. It is not considered nice to lambast an old lady but as. long as Mae West pretends she can play
10759-479: Is often called "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made". In 1964, Grant changed from his typically suave, distinguished screen persona to play a grizzled beachcomber who is coerced into serving as a coastwatcher on an uninhabited island in the World War II romantic comedy Father Goose . The film was a major commercial success, and upon its release at Radio City at Christmas 1964 it took over $ 210,000 at
10962-412: Is the hardest thing in the world". In 1952, Grant starred in the comedy Room for One More , playing an engineer husband who with his wife ( Betsy Drake ) adopt two children from an orphanage. He reunited with Howard Hawks to film the off-beat comedy Monkey Business , co-starring Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe . Though the critic from Motion Picture Herald wrote gushingly that Grant had given
11165-572: Is to marry insurance officer Ralph Bellamy in Hawks' comedy His Girl Friday , which was praised for its strong chemistry and "great verbal athleticism" between Grant and Russell. Grant reunited with Irene Dunne in My Favorite Wife , a "first rate comedy" according to Life magazine, which became RKO's second biggest picture of the year, with profits of $ 505,000. After playing a Virginian backwoodsman in The Howards of Virginia , set during
11368-474: Is viewing from straight above. Musical stars such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were among the most popular and highly respected personalities in Hollywood during the classical era; the Fred and Ginger pairing was particularly successful, resulting in a number of classic films such as Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Many dramatic actors gladly participated in musicals as
11571-525: The Los Angeles Times said it "will be cherished by her fans." Stanley Eichelbaum of the San Francisco Examiner called the film "a foolish, vulgar, quite vulgar but awfully funny musical comedy (the songs, too, are mostly old), in which West does more than a self-parody. She's a travesty of Mae West in an outlandish wardrobe by Edith Head ." Film critic Rex Reed (who starred with West in
11774-564: The Academy Award for Best Original Song (1938), the film earned an ASCAP Film and Television Award (1989) for Bob Hope's signature song " Thanks for the Memory ". During the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, a production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer headed by Arthur Freed made the transition from old-fashioned musical films, whose formula had become repetitive, to something new. (However, they also produced technicolor remakes of such musicals as Show Boat , which had previously been filmed in
11977-626: The Cinerama Dome in March 1978. West was moved when she was greeted by thousands of young fans there and in San Francisco. Arthur Knight wrote in The Hollywood Reporter about "a kind of odd gallantry in the octogenarian Mae's loyalty to her public". Sextette was released on VHS by Media Home Entertainment in 1982. In April 2011, Scorpion Entertainment released the film on Region 1 DVD in
12180-677: The Golden Age of Hollywood by the American Film Institute in 1999. Grant was born into an impoverished family in Bristol , where he had an unhappy childhood marked by the absence of his mother and his father's alcoholism. He became attracted to theatre at a young age when he visited the Bristol Hippodrome . At 16, he went as a stage performer with the Pender Troupe for a tour of the US. After
12383-654: The Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy in their respective years, while such films as The Phantom of the Opera , Hairspray , Mamma Mia! , Nine , Into the Woods , The Greatest Showman , Mary Poppins Returns , Rocketman , Cyrano , Tick, Tick... Boom! , Elvis , and The Color Purple were only nominated. Chicago was also the first musical since Oliver! to win Best Picture at
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#173287601481212586-464: The New York Hippodrome , the largest theater in the world at the time with a capacity of 5,697. They performed there for nine months, putting on 12 shows a week, and they had a successful production of Good Times . Doing stand-up comedy is extremely difficult. Your timing has to change from show to show and from town to town. You're always adjusting to the size of the audience and the size of
12789-450: The RMS ; Olympic to conduct a tour of the United States on July 21, 1920, when he was 16, arriving a week later. Biographer Richard Schickel writes that Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were aboard the same ship, returning from their honeymoon; Grant played shuffleboard with Fairbanks, who became an important role model for him. After arriving in New York, the group performed at
12992-643: The Sherman Brothers . Starting with 1989's The Little Mermaid , the Disney Renaissance gave new life to the musical film. Other successful animated musicals included Aladdin , The Hunchback of Notre Dame , and Pocahontas from Disney proper, The Nightmare Before Christmas from Disney division Touchstone Pictures, The Prince of Egypt from DreamWorks, Anastasia from Fox and Don Bluth, Eight Crazy Nights from Columbia, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut from Paramount. Beauty and
13195-549: The "Golden Age" of Hindi cinema . Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period. Examples include Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), directed by Guru Dutt and written by Abrar Alvi , Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955), directed by Raj Kapoor and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas , and Aan (1952), directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Dilip Kumar . These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class life in India , particularly urban life in
13398-649: The "Jack Janis Company", which began touring vaudeville. He was sometimes mistaken for an Australian during this period and was nicknamed "Kangaroo" or "Boomerang". His accent seemed to have changed as a result of moving to London with the Pender troupe and working in so many music halls in the UK and the US, eventually becoming a sort of transatlantic or mid-Atlantic accent . In 1927, he was cast as an Australian in Reggie Hammerstein's musical Golden Dawn , for which he earned $ 75
13601-421: The "best thing he's done in a long time". After a commercial failure in his second RKO venture The Toast of New York , Grant was loaned to Hal Roach 's studio for Topper , a screwball comedy film distributed by MGM , which became his first major comedy success. Grant played one half of a wealthy, freewheeling married couple with Constance Bennett , who wreak havoc on the world as ghosts after dying in
13804-406: The "frustrated advertising man" was one of his best screen portrayals. In Every Girl Should Be Married , an "airy comedy", he appeared with Betsy Drake and Franchot Tone , playing a bachelor who is trapped into marriage by Drake's conniving character. He finished the year as the fourth most popular film star at the box office. In 1949, Grant starred alongside Ann Sheridan in the comedy I Was
14007-474: The 1930s it was clear that if the Soviet cinema was to compete with its Western counterparts, it would have to give audiences what they wanted: the glamour and fantasy they got from Hollywood. The musical film, which emerged at that time, embodied the ideal combination of entertainment and official ideology. A struggle between laughter for laughter's sake and entertainment with a clear ideological message would define
14210-518: The 1930s, the musical films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers became massive cultural fixtures in the eyes of the American public. These films included, Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet , Swing Time (both 1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz (1939) would become a landmark film for movie musical as it experimented with new technology such as Technicolor . During
14413-598: The 1930s.) In 1939, Freed was hired as associate producer for the film Babes in Arms . Starting in 1944 with Meet Me in St. Louis , the Freed Unit worked somewhat independently of its own studio to produce some of the most popular and well-known examples of the genre. The products of this unit include Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in
14616-407: The 1940s and 1950s, Grant had a close working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock , who cast him in four films: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). For the suspense-dramas Suspicion and Notorious , Grant took on darker, morally ambiguous characters, both challenging Grant's screen persona and his acting abilities. Toward
14819-690: The 1940s and 1950s, musical films from MGM musicals regularly premiered. These works included: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), High Society (1956), and Gigi (1958). During this time, films outside the Arthur Freed unit at MGM included Holiday Inn (1942), White Christmas (1954), and Funny Face (1957) as well as Oklahoma! (1955), The King and I (1956), Carousel , and South Pacific (1958). These films of
15022-639: The 1960s created specifically for film were Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book , two of Disney's biggest hits of all time. The phenomenal box-office performance of The Sound of Music gave the major Hollywood studios more confidence to produce lengthy, large-budget musicals. Despite the resounding success of some of these films, Hollywood also produced a large number of musical flops in the late 1960s and early 1970s which appeared to seriously misjudge public taste. The commercially and/or critically unsuccessful films included Camelot , Finian's Rainbow , Hello Dolly! , Sweet Charity , Doctor Dolittle , Half
15225-653: The 1960s, films based on stage musicals continued to be critical and box-office successes. These films included, West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), The Music Man (1962), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), My Fair Lady , Mary Poppins (both 1964), The Sound of Music (1965), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying , Thoroughly Modern Millie (all 1967), Oliver! , and Funny Girl (both 1968). In
15428-631: The 1960s, the critical and box-office success of the films West Side Story , Gypsy , The Music Man , Bye Bye Birdie , My Fair Lady , Mary Poppins , The Sound of Music , A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , The Jungle Book , Thoroughly Modern Millie , Oliver! , and Funny Girl suggested that the traditional musical was in good health, while French filmmaker Jacques Demy 's jazz musicals The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort were popular with international critics. However popular musical tastes were being heavily affected by rock and roll and
15631-738: The 1970s, film culture and the changing demographics of filmgoers placed greater emphasis on gritty realism, while the pure entertainment and theatricality of classical-era Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned. Despite this, Scrooge (1970), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Cabaret (1972), 1776 (1972), Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), and Pete's Dragon (1977), as well as Grease and The Wiz (both 1978), were more traditional musicals closely adapted from stage shows and were strong successes with critics and audiences. Throughout
15834-516: The 1980s and 1990s, musicals tended to be mainly coming from the Disney animated films of the period, from composers and lyricists, Howard Ashman , Alan Menken , and Stephen Schwartz . The Disney Renaissance started with 1989's The Little Mermaid , then followed by Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), and Mulan (1998). In
16037-549: The 1990s, the three biggest Bollywood movie stars have been the " Three Khans ": Aamir Khan , Shah Rukh Khan , and Salman Khan . Combined, they have starred in most of the top ten highest-grossing Bollywood films . The three Khans have had successful careers since the late 1980s, and have dominated the Indian box office since the 1990s, across three decades. Baz Luhrmann stated that his successful musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001)
16240-556: The 21st century, the musical genre has been rejuvenated with darker musicals, musical biopics, musical remakes, epic drama musicals and comedy drama musicals such as Moulin Rouge! (2001), Chicago (2002), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Rent (2005), Dreamgirls (2006), Across the Universe , Enchanted , Hairspray , Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (all 2007), Mamma Mia! (2008), Nine (2009), The Muppets (2011), Les Misérables (2012), Into
16443-500: The Academy Awards. Joshua Oppenheimer 's Academy Award-nominated documentary The Act of Killing may be considered a nonfiction musical. One specific musical trend was the rising number of jukebox musicals based on music from various pop/rock artists on the big screen, some of which based on Broadway shows. Examples of Broadway-based jukebox musical films included Mamma Mia ! ( ABBA ), Rock of Ages , and Sunshine on Leith ( The Proclaimers ). Original ones included Across
16646-562: The Academy will take me seriously". Film historian David Thomson wrote that "the wrong man got the Oscar" for The Philadelphia Story and that "Grant got better performances out of Hepburn than (her long-time companion) Spencer Tracy ever managed." Stewart's winning the Oscar "was considered a gold-plated apology for his being robbed of the award" for the previous year's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington . Grant's not being nominated for His Girl Friday
16849-617: The American Revolution – which McCann considers to have been Grant's worst film and performance – his last film of the year was in the critically lauded romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story , in which he played the ex-husband of Hepburn's character. Grant felt his performance was so strong that he was bitterly disappointed not to have received an Oscar nomination, especially since both his lead co-stars, Hepburn and James Stewart , received them, with Stewart winning for Best Actor. Grant joked "I'd have to blacken my teeth first before
17052-521: The Beast , The Lion King , and others were adapted for the stage after their blockbuster success. In the 21st century, movie musicals were reborn with darker musicals, musical biopics, epic drama musicals and comedy drama musicals such as O Brother, Where Art Thou? , Moulin Rouge! , Chicago , Walk the Line , Dreamgirls , Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street , Les Misérables , La La Land , and West Side Story ; all of which won
17255-488: The Beast . The second film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical was Aladdin and features new songs. The third film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical was The Lion King and features new songs. The fourth film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical was The Little Mermaid and features new songs with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda , replacing Ashman. Pixar also produced Coco ,
17458-412: The Bollywood blockbuster format. Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973), directed by Hussain and written by Salim-Javed, has been identified as the first masala film and the "first" quintessentially "Bollywood" film. Salim-Javed went on to write more successful masala films in the 1970s and 1980s. Masala films launched Amitabh Bachchan into the biggest Bollywood movie star of the 1970s and 1980s. A landmark for
17661-825: The Chocolate Factory , Pete's Dragon , and Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks were also released in the 1970s, the latter winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects . By the 1980s, financiers grew increasingly confident in the musical genre, partly buoyed by the relative health of the musical on Broadway and London's West End . Productions of the 1980s and 1990s included The Apple , Xanadu , The Blues Brothers , Annie , Monty Python's The Meaning of Life , The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , Victor/Victoria , Footloose , Fast Forward , A Chorus Line , Little Shop of Horrors , Forbidden Zone , Absolute Beginners , Labyrinth , Newsies , Evita , and Everyone Says I Love You . However, Can't Stop
17864-650: The Flame (1930), Song of the West (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under a Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Whoopee! (1930), King of Jazz (1930), Viennese Nights (1930), and Kiss Me Again (1930). In addition, there were scores of musical features released with color sequences. Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931. By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut
18067-563: The French risqué comedy Boom-Boom at the Casino Theater on Broadway, which premiered on January 28, 1929, ten days after his 25th birthday. MacDonald later admitted that Grant was "absolutely terrible in the role", but he exhibited a charm that endeared him to people and effectively saved the show from failure. The play ran for 72 shows, and Grant earned $ 350 a week before moving to Detroit, and then to Chicago. To console himself, Grant bought
18270-465: The Gershwins, respectively. Warner Bros. produced Calamity Jane and A Star Is Born ; the former film was a vehicle for Doris Day , while the latter provided a big-screen comeback for Judy Garland, who had been out of the spotlight since 1950. Meanwhile, director Otto Preminger , better known for "message pictures", made Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess , both starring Dorothy Dandridge , who
18473-685: The Music , starring the Village People , was a calamitous attempt to resurrect the old-style musical and was released to audience indifference in 1980. Little Shop of Horrors was based on an off-Broadway musical adaptation of a 1960 Roger Corman film, a precursor of later film-to-stage-to-film adaptations, including The Producers . Many animated films of the period – predominately from Disney – included traditional musical numbers. Howard Ashman , Alan Menken , and Stephen Schwartz had previous musical theater experience and wrote songs for animated films during this time, supplanting Disney workhorses
18676-499: The Musical (all 2022), The Little Mermaid , Wonka , The Color Purple (all 2023), Mean Girls , Wicked , Mufasa: The Lion King , Joker: Folie à Deux , A Complete Unknown (all 2024). The 1930s through the early 1950s are considered to be the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its highest in the Western world . Disney 's Snow White and
18879-482: The National Vaudeville Artists Club on West 46th Street, doing comic sketches, juggling, performing acrobatics, and as "Rubber Legs", riding a unicycle. The experience was a particularly demanding one, but it gave Grant the opportunity to improve his comic technique and to develop skills that benefitted him later in Hollywood. Grant became a leading man alongside Jean Dalrymple and decided to form
19082-496: The Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953) and Gigi (1958). Non-Freed musicals from the studio included Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in 1954 and High Society in 1956, and the studio distributed Samuel Goldwyn 's Guys and Dolls in 1955. This era saw musical stars become household names, including Judy Garland , Gene Kelly , Ann Miller , Donald O'Connor , Cyd Charisse , Mickey Rooney , Vera-Ellen , Jane Powell , Howard Keel , and Kathryn Grayson . Fred Astaire
19285-779: The River Kwai at the time, but found that it was not possible because of his commitment to The Pride and the Passion . The film was shot on location in Spain and was problematic, with co-star Frank Sinatra irritating his colleagues and leaving the production after just a few weeks. Although Grant had an affair with Loren during filming, Grant's attempts to woo Loren to marry him during the production proved fruitless, which led to him expressing anger when Paramount cast her opposite him in Houseboat (1958) as part of her contract. The sexual tension between
19488-594: The Screen Trade . In the late 1970s and early '80s, Grant became troubled by the deaths of many close friends, including Howard Hughes in 1976, Howard Hawks in 1977, Lord Mountbatten and Barbara Hutton in 1979, Alfred Hitchcock in 1980, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman in 1982, and David Niven in 1983. At the funeral of Mountbatten , he was quoted as remarking to a friend: "I'm absolutely pooped, and I'm so goddamned old. ...I'm going to quit all next year. I'm going to lie in bed... I shall just close all doors, turn off
19691-514: The Seven Dwarfs , the earliest Disney animated feature film, was a musical which won an honorary Oscar for Walt Disney at the 11th Academy Awards . Musical short films were made by Lee de Forest in 1923–24. Beginning in 1926, thousands of Vitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists, and dancers. The earliest feature-length films with synchronized sound had only a soundtrack of music and occasional sound effects that played while
19894-487: The Soviet musical was first and foremost a form of propaganda. Vladimir Lenin said that cinema was "the most important of the arts". His successor, Joseph Stalin , also recognized the power of cinema in efficiently spreading Communist Party doctrine. Films were widely popular in the 1920s, but it was foreign cinema that dominated the Soviet filmgoing market. Films from Germany and the U.S. proved more entertaining than Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein 's historical dramas. By
20097-924: The Unicorn , and Spellbound . Biopics about music artists and showmen were also big in the 21st century. Examples include 8 Mile ( Eminem ), Ray ( Ray Charles ), Walk the Line ( Johnny Cash and June Carter ), La Vie en Rose ( Édith Piaf ), Notorious ( Biggie Smalls ), Jersey Boys ( The Four Seasons ) Love & Mercy ( Brian Wilson ), CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story ( TLC ), Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B ( Aaliyah ), Get on Up ( James Brown ), Whitney and I Wanna Dance With Somebody ( Whitney Houston ), Straight Outta Compton ( N.W.A ), The Greatest Showman ( P. T. Barnum ), Bohemian Rhapsody ( Freddie Mercury ), The Dirt ( Mötley Crüe ), Judy ( Judy Garland ), Rocketman ( Elton John ), Respect ( Aretha Franklin ) and Elvis ( Elvis Presley ). Grossing over $ 900 million at
20300-580: The United States. In July 2011, Sextette was released as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's Dangerous Babes , a budget-priced, three-DVD set that includes 11 other Crown Pictures films. Upon its premiere, most critics panned the film. Variety dubbed it "a cruel, unnecessary and mostly unfunny musical comedy." The New York Times ' critic Vincent Canby called Sextette "embarrassing", and said, in reference to West, that "Granny should have her mouth washed out with soap, along with her teeth." Kevin Thomas of
20503-582: The Universe ( The Beatles ), Moulin Rouge! (various pop hits), Idlewild ( Outkast ) and Yesterday ( The Beatles ). Disney also returned to musicals with Enchanted , The Princess and the Frog , Tangled , Winnie the Pooh , The Muppets , Frozen , Muppets Most Wanted , Into the Woods , Moana , Mary Poppins Returns , Frozen II , Encanto , Better Nate Than Ever , Disenchanted , Wish , Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King . Following
20706-537: The Woods (2014), La La Land (2016), Beauty and the Beast , The Greatest Showman (both 2017), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! , A Star Is Born , Mary Poppins Returns , Bohemian Rhapsody (all 2018), Aladdin , Rocketman , The Lion King (all 2019), In the Heights , Respect , Dear Evan Hansen , Cyrano , Everybody's Talking About Jamie , Tick, Tick… Boom! , West Side Story (all 2021), Elvis , Spirited , Disenchanted , Matilda
20909-496: The actors portrayed their characters just as they did in silent films: without audible dialogue. The Jazz Singer , released in 1927 by Warner Brothers , was the first to include an audio track including non- diegetic music and diegetic music, but it had only a short sequence of spoken dialogue. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuring Al Jolson singing "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", " Blue Skies ", and " My Mammy ". Historian Scott Eyman wrote, "As
21112-472: The auditionees. "I do the role I always do," said West. "I do Mae West... You see me. I take care of myself don't drink or smoke. I've kept my looks." "The script is very funny," said Dalton. "It really is a celebration of Mae West." Two weeks before filming began, Ken Hughes replaced Irving Rapper as director. Principal photography finally commenced in December 1976 at Paramount Studios . The film soon became
21315-490: The beauty of the score". Wansell notes that the pressure of a failing production began to make him fret, and he was eventually dropped from the run after six weeks of poor reviews. Despite the setback, Hammerstein's rival Florenz Ziegfeld made an attempt to buy Grant's contract, but Hammerstein sold it to the Shubert Brothers instead. J. J. Shubert cast him in a small role as a Spaniard opposite Jeanette MacDonald in
21518-640: The best comedy films of the 1930s. After a string of financially unsuccessful films, which included roles as a president of a company who is sued for knocking down a boy in an accident in Born to Be Bad (1934) for 20th Century Fox, a cosmetic surgeon in Kiss and Make-Up (1934), and a blinded pilot opposite Myrna Loy in Wings in the Dark (1935), and press reports of problems in his marriage to Cherrill, Paramount concluded that Grant
21721-1088: The big screen. It set a new template for Bollywood musical romance films that defined Hindi cinema in the 1990s. The period of Hindi cinema from the 1990s onwards is referred to as "New Bollywood" cinema, linked to economic liberalisation in India during the early 1990s. By the early 1990s, the pendulum had swung back toward family-centric romantic musicals. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak was followed by blockbusters such as Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Chandni (1989), Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994), Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Raja Hindustani (1996), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). A new generation of popular actors emerged, such as Aamir Khan, Aditya Pancholi , Ajay Devgan , Akshay Kumar , Salman Khan ( Salim Khan's son ), and Shahrukh Khan , and actresses such as Madhuri Dixit , Sridevi , Juhi Chawla , Meenakshi Seshadri , Manisha Koirala , Kajol , and Karisma Kapoor . Since
21924-612: The board of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . He died of a stroke in 1986 at the age of 82. Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904, at 15 Hughenden Road in the northern Bristol , England suburb of Horfield . He was the second child of Elias James Leach and Elsie Maria Leach (née Kingdon). His father worked as a tailor's presser at a clothes factory, while his mother worked as a seamstress. His older brother John William Elias Leach died of tuberculous meningitis two days before his first birthday. Grant may have considered himself partly Jewish. He had an unhappy upbringing; his father
22127-468: The body no longer exists." However, a few critics reacted more gently to the film. Chris Wienandt of the Abilene Reporter-News remarked that "Time is running out for Mae West's hourglass figure. But for a woman who was 86 when she made this film, she looks mighty good. Sextette , the film it took Mae almost 50 years to make, is atrocious. The acting is bad, the camera work is bad, the direction,
22330-464: The box office Bohemian Rhapsody is the most commercially successful musical biopic. Director Damien Chazelle created a musical film called La La Land , starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone . It was meant to reintroduce the traditional jazz style of song numbers with influences from the Golden Age of Hollywood and Jacques Demy 's French musicals while incorporating a contemporary/modern take on
22533-455: The box-office in the first week, breaking the record set by Charade the previous year. Grant's final film, Walk, Don't Run (1966), a comedy co-starring Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar , was shot on location in Tokyo, and is set amid the backdrop of the housing shortage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics . Newsweek concluded: "Though Grant's personal presence is indispensable, the character he plays
22736-425: The box-office. Marisol , Joselito , Pili & Mili , and Rocío Dúrcal were the major figures of musical films from the 1960s to 1970s. Due to Spanish transition to democracy and the rise of " Movida culture ", the musical genre fell in production and box-office, only saved by Carlos Saura and his flamenco musical films. Unlike the musical films of Hollywood and Bollywood, popularly identified with escapism,
22939-548: The cast and crew. Grant next appeared with Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains in the Hitchcock-directed film Notorious (1946), playing a government agent who recruits the American daughter of a convicted Nazi spy (Bergman) to infiltrate a Nazi organization in Brazil after World War II. During the course of the film Grant and Bergman's characters fall in love and share one of the longest kisses in film history at around two and
23142-519: The cast: Soon after filming ended, there was difficulty in finding a major distributor. As a result, several highly publicized sneak previews were scheduled in order to garner support. The first was held on the Paramount Pictures lot and the second at the Fox Bruin Theater , where West received a standing ovation. The producers ultimately decided to self-distribute. Sextette premiered at
23345-528: The choreography and the script is bad. This is the show Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder were looking for in The Producers — the worst show on the face of the earth — but like Springtime tor Hitler , it's so bad it’s good. You can’t criticize it because it can’t be taken seriously." Clyde Gilmour of the Toronto Star called it "so brazenly bad that it can be outrageously enjoyed, from time to time anyway, as
23548-529: The cinema, where he enjoyed the performances of Charlie Chaplin , Chester Conklin , Fatty Arbuckle , Ford Sterling , Mack Swain , and Broncho Billy Anderson . He moved a short distance to 50 Berkeley Road at about age 4, and was sent to Bishop Road Primary School when he was 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 . Grant's biographer Graham McCann claimed that his mother "did not know how to give affection and did not know how to receive it either". Biographer Geoffrey Wansell notes that his mother blamed herself bitterly for
23751-607: The comic actress Martha Raye and the young comedian Bob Hope in Paramount Pictures musical anthology The Big Broadcast of 1938 . The film also showcased the talents of several internationally recognized musical artists including: Kirsten Flagstad (Norwegian operatic soprano), Wilfred Pelletier (Canadian conductor of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra ), Tito Guizar (Mexican tenor), Shep Fields conducting his Rippling Rhythm Jazz Orchestra and John Serry Sr. (Italian-American concert accordionist). In addition to
23954-405: The conference, threatens to derail the intense negotiations unless he can have another sexual encounter with her. Marlo is expected to work "undercover" to ensure world peace. The film was based on a play by West, which in 1954 she was talking about having written. The play debuted in 1961. Alan Marshall and Jack La Rue played her leading men. Marshall died during the run of the show after suffering
24157-404: The conventions of Hindi cinema for decades. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the industry was dominated by musical romance films with "romantic hero" leads, the most popular being Rajesh Khanna . Other actors during this period include Shammi Kapoor , Jeetendra , Sanjeev Kumar , and Shashi Kapoor , and actresses like Sharmila Tagore , Mumtaz , Saira Banu , Helen and Asha Parekh . By
24360-508: The death of Grant's brother John, and never recovered from it. Grant acknowledged that his negative experiences with his mother affected his relationships with women later in life. She frowned on alcohol and tobacco, and would reduce pocket money for minor mishaps. Grant attributed her behavior to overprotectiveness, fearing that she would lose him as she did John. When Grant was nine, his father placed his mother in Glenside Hospital ,
24563-929: The decline of the musical film is Indian cinema , especially the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), where most of films have been, and still are, musicals. The majority of films produced in the Tamil industry , based in Chennai (formerly Madras), the Sandalwood industry , based in Bangalore , the Telugu industry , based in Hyderabad , and the Malayalam industry are also musicals. Despite this exception of almost every Indian movie being
24766-648: The director by enacting his mannerisms in the film, he recognized Grant's comic talents and encouraged him to improvise his lines and draw upon his skills developed in vaudeville. The film was a critical and commercial success and made Grant a top Hollywood star, establishing a screen persona for him as a sophisticated light comedy leading man in screwball comedies. The Awful Truth began what film critic Benjamin Schwarz of The Atlantic later called "the most spectacular run ever for an actor in American pictures" for Grant. In 1938, he starred opposite Katharine Hepburn in
24969-711: The end of his career he starred in the romantic films Indiscreet (1958), Operation Petticoat (1959), That Touch of Mink (1962), and Charade (1963). He is remembered by critics for his unusually broad appeal as a handsome, suave actor who did not take himself too seriously, and in comedies was able to toy with his dignity without sacrificing it entirely. Grant was married five times, three of them elopements with actresses Virginia Cherrill (1934–1935), Betsy Drake (1949–1962), and Dyan Cannon (1965–1968). He had daughter Jennifer Grant with Cannon. He retired from film acting in 1966 and pursued numerous business interests, representing cosmetics firm Fabergé and sitting on
25172-476: The era typically relied on the star power of such film stars as Fred Astaire , Gene Kelly , Bing Crosby , Frank Sinatra , Judy Garland , Ann Miller , Kathryn Grayson , and Howard Keel . They also relied on film directors such as Stanley Donen and Vincente Minnelli as well as songwriters Comden and Green , Rodgers and Hammerstein , Irving Berlin , Cole Porter , and the Gershwin Brothers . During
25375-555: The film Myra Breckinridge and at that time was working for the New York Daily News ) also gave the film a negative review, calling the film "a total, unbearable bomb, more like a training film for retired French whores than anything else." A critic at the same newspaper, Ann Guarino, gave the film a one-and-a-half star rating, saying that "at 86, [West] manages to bring back the tinsel glamor of her Hollywood days in 'Sextette,' adapted from one of her Broadway plays. Unfortunately,
25578-457: The film (with the wife discovering her husband is innocent rather than his being guilty and she letting him kill her with a glass of poisoned milk) "a complete mistake because of making that story with Cary Grant. Unless you have a cynical ending it makes the story too simple". Geoff Andrew of Time Out believes Suspicion served as "a supreme example of Grant's ability to be simultaneously charming and sinister". In 1942, Grant participated in
25781-465: The film earned rave reviews from critics. He again appeared with Hepburn in the romantic comedy Holiday later that year, which did not fare well commercially, to the point that Hepburn was considered to be "box office poison" at the time. Despite a series of commercial failures, Grant was now more popular than ever and in high demand. According to Vermilye, in 1939, Grant played roles that were more dramatic, albeit with comical undertones. He played
25984-474: The film ended and applause grew with the houselights, Sam Goldwyn 's wife Frances looked around at the celebrities in the crowd. She saw 'terror in all their faces', she said, as if they knew that 'the game they had been playing for years was finally over'." Still, only isolated sequences featured "live" sound; most of the film had only a synchronous musical score. In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie, The Singing Fool , which
26187-497: The film was possibly the finest romantic comedy film of the era, and that Grant himself had professed that it was one of his personal favorites. Grant received his first of five Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nominations for his performance and finished the year as the most popular film star at the box office. In 1959, Grant starred in the Hitchcock-directed film North by Northwest , playing an advertising executive who becomes embroiled in
26390-439: The film, which became very popular, a fourteen-gauge, mid-gray, subtly plaid, worsted wool that was custom-made on Savile Row . Grant finished the year playing a U.S. Navy submarine skipper opposite Tony Curtis in the comedy Operation Petticoat . The reviewer from Daily Variety saw Grant's comic portrayal as a classic example of how to attract the laughter of the audience without lines, remarking that "In this film, most of
26593-529: The finest performances of his career. In 1944, Grant starred alongside Priscilla Lane , Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre , in Frank Capra 's dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace , playing the manic Mortimer Brewster, who belongs to a bizarre family that includes two murderous aunts and an uncle claiming to be President Teddy Roosevelt. Grant took up the role after it was originally offered to Bob Hope , who turned it down owing to schedule conflicts. Grant found
26796-507: The first computer-animated musical film by the company. Other animated musical films include Rio , Dr. Seuss' The Lorax , Rio 2 , The Book of Life , Trolls , Sing , My Little Pony: The Movie , Smallfoot , UglyDolls , Trolls World Tour , Over the Moon , Vivo , Sing 2 , The Bob's Burgers Movie , Under the Boardwalk , Trolls Band Together , Leo , Thelma
26999-451: The first colour film in Hindi , Kisan Kanya . The next year, he made another colour film, a version of Mother India . However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema. Following India's independence , the period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is regarded by film historians as
27202-426: The first of Grant's four collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock . Grant did not warm to co-star Joan Fontaine , finding her to be temperamental and unprofessional. Film critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times considered that Grant was "provokingly irresponsible, boyishly gay and also oddly mysterious, as the role properly demands". Hitchcock later stated that he thought the conventional happy ending of
27405-446: The first of four collaborations with Hepburn. Though a commercial failure, his dominating performance was praised by critics, and Grant always considered the film to have been the breakthrough for his career. When his contract with Paramount ended in 1936 with the release of Wedding Present , Grant decided not to renew it and wished to work freelance . Grant claimed to be the first freelance actor in Hollywood. His first venture as
27608-546: The first screen operetta, The Desert Song in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film in Technicolor . This was followed by the first all-color, all-talking musical feature which was entitled On with the Show (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was the second all-color, all-talking feature which was entitled Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). This film broke all box office records and remained
27811-473: The first to laugh at herself. It’s a whole lot easier to laugh with Mae than to laugh at her. I can’t understand why people are so determined not to have a good time." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 25% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. In a 2020 retrospective, Filmink said the film "is absurd but almost compulsive in its randomness." Sextette earned $ 31,000 in its first week, largely due to West's appearance at
28014-411: The former two examples; Awaara presented the city as both a nightmare and a dream, while Pyaasa critiqued the unreality of city life. Mehboob Khan 's Mother India (1957), a remake of his earlier Aurat (1940), was the first Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film , which it lost by a single vote. Mother India was also an important film that defined
28217-484: The freedom and youth associated with it, and indeed Elvis Presley made a few films that have been equated with the old musicals in terms of form. A Hard Day's Night and Help! , starring the Beatles , were audacious. Most of the musical films of the 1950s and 1960s such as Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music were straightforward adaptations or restagings of successful stage productions. The most successful musicals of
28420-538: The frequency of her earpiece she accidentally picked up police radio frequencies, and at one point mistakenly stated "There's a 608!" In reality, West wore an earpiece so Hughes could feed her lines. Hughes had rewritten most of the dialogue because he and West both felt the script was weak. As a result, West had no time to study the script to memorize her lines. Hughes repeatedly debunked the urban legend that West's earpiece picked up police signals and that West repeated them. Hughes later stated that with hearing loss, West
28623-488: The gags play off him. It is his reaction, blank, startled, etc., always underplayed, that creates or releases the humor". The film was major box office success, and in 1973, Deschner ranked the film as the highest earning film of Grant's career at the US box office, with takings of $ 9.5 million. In 1960, Grant appeared opposite Deborah Kerr , Robert Mitchum , and Jean Simmons in The Grass Is Greener , which
28826-411: The golden age of the Soviet musical of the 1930s and 1940s. Then-head of the film industry Boris Shumyatsky sought to emulate Hollywood's conveyor belt method of production, going so far as to suggest the establishment of a Soviet Hollywood. Cary Grant This is an accepted version of this page Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach ; January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986)
29029-454: The greatest comedy films of all time. Other well-known films in which he starred in this period were the adventure Gunga Din (1939), the dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), and the dramas Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Penny Serenade (1941), and None but the Lonely Heart (1944), the latter two for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor . During
29232-453: The highest-grossing film ever produced until 1939. Suddenly, the market became flooded with musicals, revues, and operettas. The following all-color musicals were produced in 1929 and 1930 alone: The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), The Vagabond King (1930), Follow Thru (1930), Bright Lights (1930), Golden Dawn (1930), Hold Everything (1930), The Rogue Song (1930), Song of
29435-476: The idea as Grant would be committed to only one feature film; therefore, the producers decided to go after someone who could be part of a franchise after James Mason would only agree to commit to three films. In 1963, Grant appeared in his last typically suave, romantic role opposite Audrey Hepburn in Charade . Grant found the experience of working with Hepburn "wonderful" and believed that their close relationship
29638-746: The late 1930s. By this point he was one of the highest paid Hollywood stars, commanding $ 300,000 per picture. The early 1950s marked the beginning of a slump in Grant's career. His roles as a top brain surgeon who is caught in the middle of a bitter revolution in a Latin American country in Crisis , and as a medical-school professor and orchestra conductor opposite Jeanne Crain in People Will Talk were poorly received. Grant had become tired of being Cary Grant after twenty years, being successful, wealthy and popular, and remarked: "To play yourself, your true self,
29841-635: The late 1980s, Hindi cinema experienced another period of stagnation, with a decline in box office turnout, due to increasing violence, decline in musical melodic quality, and rise in video piracy, leading to middle-class family audiences abandoning theaters. The turning point came with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), directed by Mansoor Khan , written and produced by his father Nasir Hussain , and starring his cousin Aamir Khan with Juhi Chawla . Its blend of youthfulness, wholesome entertainment, emotional quotients and strong melodies lured family audiences back to
30044-471: The lead role. Grant stated that Warren Beatty had made a big effort to get him to play the role of Mr. Jordan in Heaven Can Wait (1978), which eventually went to James Mason. Morecambe and Stirling claim that Grant had also expressed an interest in appearing in A Touch of Class (1973), The Verdict (1982), and a film adaptation of William Goldman 's 1983 book about screenwriting, Adventures in
30247-578: The macabre subject matter of the film difficult to contend with and believed that it was the worst performance of his career. That year he received his second Oscar nomination for a role, opposite Ethel Barrymore and Barry Fitzgerald in the Clifford Odets -directed film None but the Lonely Heart , set in London during the Depression. Late in the year he featured in the CBS Radio series Suspense , playing
30450-639: The masala film genre was Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), directed by Manmohan Desai and written by Kader Khan . Manmohan Desai went on to successfully exploit the genre in the 1970s and 1980s. Along with Bachchan, other popular actors of this era included Feroz Khan , Mithun Chakraborty , Naseeruddin Shah , Jackie Shroff , Sanjay Dutt , Anil Kapoor and Sunny Deol . Actresses from this era included Hema Malini , Jaya Bachchan , Raakhee , Shabana Azmi , Zeenat Aman , Parveen Babi , Rekha , Dimple Kapadia , Smita Patil , Jaya Prada and Padmini Kolhapure . In
30653-504: The music from films that were then being released. For example, Life of the Party (1930) was originally produced as an all-color, all-talking musical comedy. Before it was released, however, the songs were cut out. The same thing happened to Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931) and Manhattan Parade (1932) both of which had been filmed entirely in Technicolor . Marlene Dietrich sang songs successfully in her films, and Rodgers and Hart wrote
30856-522: The musical film format that emerged from early Hollywood sound films. Other early influences on Bombay filmmakers included Urdu literature and the Arabian Nights . The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani 's Alam Ara (1931), was a major commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming. In 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made
31059-561: The musical's heyday. They include 1776 , The Wiz , At Long Last Love , Mame , Man of La Mancha , Lost Horizon , Godspell , Phantom of the Paradise , Funny Lady ( Barbra Streisand 's sequel to Funny Girl ), A Little Night Music , and Hair amongst others. The critical wrath against At Long Last Love , in particular, was so strong that it was never released on home video. Fantasy musical films Scrooge , The Blue Bird , The Little Prince , Willy Wonka &
31262-529: The nearby town of Almondsbury . Wansell claims that Grant had set out intentionally to get himself expelled from school to pursue a career in entertainment with the troupe, and he did rejoin Pender's troupe three days after being expelled. His father had a better-paying job in Southampton, and Grant's expulsion brought local authorities to Pender's door with questions about why he was living in Bristol and not with his father in Southampton. His father then co-signed
31465-499: The off-beat comedy Once Upon a Honeymoon , in which he was praised for his scenes with Rogers, he appeared in Mr. Lucky the following year, playing a gambler in a casino aboard a ship. The commercially successful submarine war film Destination Tokyo (1943) was shot in just six weeks in September and October, which left him exhausted; the reviewer from Newsweek thought it was one of
31668-443: The paragraph, he wrote: It was about four o'clock yesterday afternoon and there I was alone—in a dark room—with Mae West. It was not a triumph! First of all, she was on the screen, and I was in an empty theatre, and secondly, she was appearing in what I pray is her final picture, Sextette . It looked as though the whole movie had been shot through a nylon stocking—the heel of a nylon stocking. The lady seemed out to prove that there
31871-503: The premiere of the R&;B band Bloodstone 's movie Train Ride to Hollywood , but problems in distribution rendered it barely getting token theatrical release. The year 1976 saw the release of the low-budget comic musical, The First Nudie Musical , released by Paramount. The 1978 film version of Grease was a smash hit; its songs were original compositions done in a 1950s pop style. However,
32074-410: The premiere. The film earned about an additional $ 20,000 in the United States before being pulled from theaters. Against its budget of $ 4 million to $ 8 million, it was a box-office bomb . Hughes later wrote "May God bless Mae West. She was one of the great artists of the cinema. I am proud to have met her and to have worked with her. May she never be forgotten." Musical film The musical film
32277-535: The pure entertainment and theatricality of classical-era Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned. Despite this, Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret were more traditional musicals closely adapted from stage shows and were strong successes with critics and audiences. Changing cultural mores and the abandonment of the Hays Code in 1968 also contributed to changing tastes in film audiences. The 1973 film of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice 's Jesus Christ Superstar
32480-501: The result is a feeble, old-fashioned musical comedy that is something of a curio." Joseph Gelmis of Newsday called it "outrageous camp and low farce of a kind that isn’t seen very often in movies anymore." Amnon Kabatchnik of the Tallahassee Democrat said that "unfortunately, the legendary Mae West comes across as a pale imitation of her own image. There is something sad about an old woman clinging to her youthful foils without
32683-584: The romance An Affair to Remember , playing an international playboy who becomes the object of her affections. Schickel sees the film as one of the definitive romantic pictures of the period, but remarks that Grant was not entirely successful in trying to supersede the film's "gushing sentimentality". That year, Grant also appeared opposite Sophia Loren in The Pride and the Passion . He had expressed an interest in playing William Holden 's character in The Bridge on
32886-498: The same year is also a "sin of omission" for the Oscars. The following year Grant was considered for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Penny Serenade —his first nomination from the academy. Wansell claims that Grant found the film to be an emotional experience, because he and wife-to-be Barbara Hutton had started to discuss having their own children. Later that year he appeared in the romantic psychological thriller Suspicion ,
33089-421: The screen version of her play " Diamond Lili " and probably her best known film. Let's hope she rethinks that plan. She would do well to let the late late show speak for her—through "She Done Him Wrong," " I'm No Angel ," " Belle of the Nineties ," " Klondike Annie " and " My Little Chickadee ." Michael Blowen of The Boston Globe remarked that "the film creates the general ennui that one gets from going through
33292-524: The screenplay was dramatized for the screen by Herbert Baker , from West's final stage performance play of the same title, later renamed Sextet , which West herself had written (based on a story idea by Charlotte Francis) and originally performed in 1961. Costumes were designed by Edith Head . Filmed at Paramount Studios , Sextette was West's final film, as well as that of Pidgeon and Moon. Featured were cameos by Rona Barrett , Regis Philbin and George Raft , all of whom appeared as themselves. The film
33495-417: The screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby , featuring a leopard and frequent bickering and verbal jousting between Grant and Hepburn. He was initially uncertain how to play his character, but was told by director Howard Hawks to think of Harold Lloyd . Grant was given more leeway in the comic scenes, the editing of the film and in educating Hepburn in the art of comedy. Despite losing over $ 350,000 for RKO,
33698-436: The script which got the film financed but he is not credited on the movie. West was reportedly in search of a leading man along the lines of Cary Grant , with whom she had co-starred in She Done Him Wrong . Filming was to start in August. 150 unknowns auditioned on one day. Over a thousand men ended up auditioning. In August, Timothy Dalton was cast after West saw him in Wuthering Heights ; eighteen smaller roles would go to
33901-623: The sequel Grease 2 (released in 1982) bombed at the box-office. Films about performers which incorporated gritty drama and musical numbers interwoven as a diegetic part of the storyline were produced, such as Lady Sings the Blues , All That Jazz , and New York, New York . Some musicals made in Britain experimented with the form, such as Richard Attenborough 's Oh! What a Lovely War (released in 1969), Alan Parker 's Bugsy Malone and Ken Russell 's Tommy and Lisztomania . A number of film musicals were still being made that were financially and/or critically less successful than in
34104-578: The silent era. The beginnings of the Spanish musical were focused on romantic Spanish archetypes: Andalusian villages and landscapes, gypsies, "bandoleros", and copla and other popular folk songs included in story development. These films had even more box-office success than Hollywood premieres in Spain. The first Spanish film stars came from the musical genre: Imperio Argentina , Estrellita Castro , Florián Rey (director) and, later, Lola Flores , Sara Montiel and Carmen Sevilla . The Spanish musical started to expand and grow. Juvenile stars appear and top
34307-441: The source of several urban legends . One such persistent rumor is that the then-83 year old West could not remember any of her lines and had to wear a concealed earpiece under her wig to have her lines fed to her. Tony Curtis later commented that West could not hear well, and thus required the earpiece. Creatively rewriting the story for dramatic effect, in an episode of the program The Dame Edna Experience , he said that because of
34510-430: The start of the 1970s, Hindi cinema was experiencing thematic stagnation, dominated by musical romance films . The arrival of screenwriter duo Salim–Javed , consisting of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar , marked a paradigm shift, revitalizing the industry. They began the genre of gritty, violent, Bombay underworld crime films in the early 1970s, with films such as Zanjeer (1973) and Deewaar (1975). The 1970s
34713-515: The stories that he felt suited his acting style. His Columbia contract was a four-film deal over two years, guaranteeing him $ 50,000 each for the first two and $ 75,000 each for the others. In 1937, Grant began the first film under his contract with Columbia Pictures, When You're in Love , portraying a wealthy American artist who eventually woos a famous opera singer ( Grace Moore ). His performance received positive feedback from critics, with Mae Tinee of The Chicago Daily Tribune describing it as
34916-974: The story and characters with balances in fantasy numbers and grounded reality. It received 14 nominations at the 89th Academy Awards , tying the record for most nominations with All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997), and won the awards for Best Director , Best Actress , Best Cinematography , Best Original Score , Best Original Song , and Best Production Design . In 2013, NBC produced The Sound of Music Live! as part of their effort for expanded live entertainment events, which became an annual tradition of adaptations of stage musicals, created specifically as live television events. The following years featured Peter Pan Live! , The Wiz Live! , Hairspray Live! , Jesus Christ Superstar Live! , Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical Live! , and Annie Live! . ABC and Fox also produced similar events, including Grease Live! , A Christmas Story Live! , Rent: Live , and The Little Mermaid Live! . An exception to
35119-478: The survival of the world. As chairman Mr. Chambers tries to call the meeting to order, the delegates are crowding to the windows in an effort to catch a glimpse of Marlo's arrival. As they enter the lobby, Marlo, now Lady Barrington, and her husband, a knight, are swarmed by admirers and reporters. Once inside their suite, the couple are unable to consummate due to the constant demands of Marlo's career, such as interviews, dress fittings and photo sessions, as well as
35322-454: The theatre. —Grant on stand-up comedy. Grant became a part of the vaudeville circuit and began touring, performing in places such as St. Louis, Missouri , Cleveland , and Milwaukee , and he decided to stay in the US with several of the other members when the rest of the troupe returned to Britain. He became fond of the Marx Brothers during this period, and Zeppo Marx was an early role model for him. In July 1922, he performed in
35525-412: The time. Grant received more than $ 700,000 for his 10% of the gross of the successful To Catch a Thief , while Hitchcock received less than $ 50,000 for directing and producing it. Though critical reception to the overall film was mixed, Grant received high praise for his performance, with critics commenting on his suave, handsome appearance in the film. In 1957, Grant starred opposite Deborah Kerr in
35728-442: The two was so great during the making of Houseboat that the producers found it almost impossible to make. Later in 1958, Grant starred opposite Bergman in the romantic comedy Indiscreet , playing a successful financier who has an affair with a famous actress (Bergman) while pretending to be a married man. During the filming he formed a closer friendship and gained new respect for her as an actress. Schickel stated that he thought
35931-403: The unhappiness of his home life. The time spent at Southampton strengthened his desire to travel; he was eager to leave Bristol and tried to sign on as a ship's cabin boy, but he was too young. On March 13, 1918, the 14-year-old Grant was expelled from Fairfield. Several explanations were given, including being discovered in the girls' lavatory and assisting two other classmates with theft in
36134-405: The uniform. He was quite capable in most academic subjects, but he excelled at sports, particularly fives , and his good looks and acrobatic talents made him a popular figure. He developed a reputation for mischief, and frequently refused to do his homework. A former classmate referred to him as a "scruffy little boy", while an old teacher remembered "the naughty little boy who was always making
36337-478: The various men, including some former husbands, diplomat Alexei Andreyev Karansky, director Laslo Karolny, gangster Vance Norton and an entire American athletic team, all of whom want to have sex with her. Meanwhile, Turner desperately searches for an audiotape containing his client's memoirs in order to destroy it. Marlo has recorded extensive details about her affairs and scandals, with a lot of dirt about her husbands and lovers. Ex-husband Alexei, Russian delegate at
36540-436: Was "possibly the finest actress I've ever worked with". Grant was one of the first actors to go independent by not renewing his studio contract, effectively leaving the studio system , which almost completely controlled all aspects of an actor's life. He decided which films he was going to appear in, often had personal choice of directors and co-stars, and at times negotiated a share of the gross revenue, something uncommon at
36743-408: Was a blockbuster hit. Theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hire Broadway composers to write musicals for the screen. The first all-talking feature, Lights of New York , included a musical sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. The Broadway Melody (1929) had
36946-485: Was a major box office bomb , grossing just $ 50,000 against an estimated budget of $ 4–8 million. American actress and sex symbol Marlo Manners has just married for the sixth time. She and her new husband Sir Michael Barrington depart for a honeymoon suite at a posh and exclusive London hotel reserved for them by her manager Dan Turner. The hotel is also the location of an international conference, where leaders have come together to resolve tensions and problems that threaten
37149-410: Was a major commercial and critical success, and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Life magazine called it "intelligently written and competently acted". The following year, Grant played neurotic Jim Blandings, the title-sake in the comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House , again with Loy. Though the film lost money for RKO, Philip T. Hartung of Commonweal thought that Grant's role as
37352-420: Was a natural development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if a live audience were watching. In
37555-500: Was also coaxed out of retirement for Easter Parade and made a permanent comeback. The other Hollywood studios proved themselves equally adept at tackling the genre at this time, particularly in the 1950s. Four adaptations of Rodgers and Hammerstein shows - Oklahoma! , The King and I , Carousel , and South Pacific - were all successes, while Paramount Pictures released White Christmas and Funny Face , two films which used previously written music by Irving Berlin and
37758-435: Was also when the name "Bollywood" was coined, and when the quintessential conventions of commercial Bollywood films were established. Key to this was the emergence of the masala film genre, which combines elements of multiple genres ( action , comedy , romance , drama , melodrama , musical). The masala film was pioneered in the early 1970s by filmmaker Nasir Hussain , along with screenwriter duo Salim-Javed, pioneering
37961-407: Was an English and American actor. Known for his Mid-Atlantic accent , debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he was one of classic Hollywood 's definitive leading men . He was nominated twice for the Academy Award , received an Academy Honorary Award in 1970 , and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981. He was named the second greatest male star of
38164-452: Was an alcoholic and his mother had clinical depression. He had such a traumatic childhood, it was horrible. I work with a lot of kids on the street and I've heard a lot of stories about what happens when a family breaks down — but his was just horrendous. —Grant's wife Dyan Cannon on his childhood Grant's mother taught him song and dance when he was four, and she was keen on his having piano lessons. She occasionally took him to
38367-411: Was clear on camera, though according to Hepburn, he was particularly worried during the filming that he would be criticized for being far too old for her and seen as a "cradle snatcher". Author Chris Barsanti writes: "It's the film's canny flirtatiousness that makes it such ingenious entertainment. Grant and Hepburn play off each other like the pros that they are". The film, well received by the critics,
38570-401: Was clearly not enough for West. Tragically, she never let go of the sex symbol identity that has-transformed her into an eccentric anomaly. Mae West is a sexual Peter Pan who's never grown up and "Sextette" is strictly for voyeuristic curiosity seekers. John Burgess devoted a single paragraph to the film when he reviewed it at the 1979 Montreal World Film Festival for the Montreal Star . In
38773-448: Was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals. The film pays homage to India, incorporating an Indian-themed play and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate . The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western live action musical genre, and subsequently films such as Chicago , The Producers , Rent , Dreamgirls , and Hairspray were produced, fueling
38976-416: Was drawn to acting because of a "great need to be liked and admired". He was eventually fired by the Shuberts at the end of the summer season when he refused to accept a pay cut because of financial difficulties caused by the Depression . His unemployment was short-lived, however; impresario William B. Friedlander offered him the romantic lead in his musical Nikki , and Grant starred opposite Fay Wray as
39179-454: Was even interviewed by Rona Barrett in the picture! It was a real stretch for me, and, frankly, after making love to a woman in her mid-80s, I knew I could handle any assignment!" George Raft, who played himself, had been the star of West's first film, Night After Night , in 1932. The two cinematic legends ended up dying just two days apart in November 1980, on the 22nd and 24th, respectively. The film features eight songs, seven performed by
39382-400: Was expendable. Grant's prospects picked up in the latter half of 1935 when he was loaned out to RKO Pictures . Producer Pandro Berman agreed to take him on in the face of failure because "I'd seen him do things which were excellent, and [Katharine] Hepburn wanted him too." His first venture with RKO, playing a raffish Cockney swindler in George Cukor 's Sylvia Scarlett (1935), was
39585-448: Was met with some criticism by religious groups but was well received. By the mid-1970s, filmmakers avoided the genre in favor of using music by popular rock or pop bands as background music, partly in hope of selling a soundtrack album to fans. The Rocky Horror Picture Show was originally released in 1975 and was a critical failure until it started midnight screenings in the 1980s where it achieved cult status. That same year also saw
39788-416: Was not because he had "irrevocably turned his back on the film industry," but because he was "caught between a decision made and the temptation to eat a bit of humble pie and re-announce himself to the cinema-going public". In the 1970s, MGM was keen on remaking Grand Hotel (1932) and hoped to lure Grant out of retirement. Hitchcock had long wanted to make a film based on the idea of Hamlet , with Grant in
39991-433: Was over, and briefly left the industry. In 1955, Grant agreed to star opposite Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief , playing a retired jewel thief named John Robie, nicknamed "The Cat", living in the French Riviera . Grant and Kelly worked well together during the production, which was one of the most enjoyable experiences of Grant's career. He found Hitchcock and Kelly to be very professional, and later stated that Kelly
40194-432: Was praised by critics, and it received three Academy Award nominations and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy Picture , in addition to landing Grant another Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor. Deschner ranked the film as the second highest grossing of Grant's career. Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman originally sought Grant for the role of James Bond in Dr. No (1962) but discarded
40397-441: Was praised by the critics, who admired the picture's slapstick qualities and chemistry between Grant and Loy; it became one of the biggest-selling films at the box office that year. Later that year he starred opposite David Niven and Loretta Young in the comedy The Bishop's Wife , playing an angel who is sent down from heaven to straighten out the relationship between the bishop (Niven) and his wife (Loretta Young). The film
40600-535: Was reported Sextette would be produced for $ 4.8 million with West receiving $ 1 million. Four months later, in July 1976, it was reported that the film would in fact be made for $ 1.5 million with West getting $ 250,000 and 20% of the profits. Irving Rapper would direct and Universal had first right of refusal as distributor. West said Baker worked as the screenwriter "An' puttin' in the camera shots. I can do that myself, but it's tedious work. He's not writin' my lines, though. Nobody can do that." AJ Palmerio said he wrote
40803-553: Was shot in England at Osterley Park and Shepperton Studios . McCann notes that Grant took great relish in "mocking his aristocratic character's over-refined tastes and mannerisms", though the film was panned and was seen as his worst since Dream Wife . In 1962, Grant starred in the romantic comedy That Touch of Mink , playing suave, wealthy businessman Philip Shayne romantically involved with an office worker, played by Doris Day . He invites her to his apartment in Bermuda , but her guilty conscience begins to take hold. The picture
41006-421: Was still alive until he was 31, his father confessing to the lie shortly before his own death. Grant made arrangements for his mother to leave the institution in June 1935, shortly after he learned of her whereabouts. He visited her regularly, including after filming Gunga Din in October 1938. Grant enjoyed the theater, particularly pantomimes at Christmas, which he attended with his father. He befriended
41209-460: Was unable to take direction, which caused problems in filming. He recalled one incident involving a scene of West in an elevator, which took an entire day to film. After its completion, Hughes wrapped for the day. West was not within hearing range to hear Hughes's call to wrap and remained in the closed elevator for half an hour before being let out. Dalton had mixed feelings, but complimented West. "I admired her nerve, and enjoyed working with her - I
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