The Movie Musical!

Starred review from September 9, 2019
Film historian Basinger (I Do and I Don’t) returns with this exhaustive and exhilarating survey of the American musical. Basinger starts by discussing the filmed vaudeville shorts that played in theaters even before Hollywood switched over to exclusively producing sound features in 1929, and goes all the way up to 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody. All the while, she examines each major development in musical film, such as how, in the early 1930s, the innovative use of sound and camera movement by directors Ernst Lubitsch and Rouben Mamoulian made “what formerly had been a stage-bound tradition” into a viable Hollywood genre. Basinger is informative and insightful on everything from celebrated classics such as Meet Me in St. Louis and Singin’ in the Rain, to forgotten—yet once surprisingly popular—“singing cowboy” films such as Melody Ranch and Boots and Saddles. Because of the rigorous scholarship, readers will feel they are in good hands when Basinger digresses from strict facts into opinion—for instance, her scorching dislike for the 2016 Oscar-winner La La Land, which, unlike classic-era musicals, is “not energetic, optimistic, or determined to pin down joy for its characters”—in short, “it’s not American.” The depth of her dislike feels telling: this is a passion project for her. That passion should be infectious for all readers of Basinger’s monumental but fleet-footed epic.

Film historian Jeanine Basinger offers an audiobook that film buffs, especially musical comedy fans, will savor. Narrator Erin Bennett's enthusiastic delivery makes this in-depth investigation of the birth of the musical genre even more compelling. Bennett offers Basinger's well-researched history of musicals from the beginnings of sound and vaudeville's musical shorts to the full-blown musical extravaganzas that today's audiences expect. Basinger makes clear distinctions between films that have music and true musicals as she traces the difficulties faced by early impresarios Ernst Lubitsch and Rouben Mamoulian, providing fascinating stories of soon-to-be stars of the budding genre--from Al Jolson, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire to Judy Garland and Julie Andrews. Bennett's lively, intelligent narration makes this undertaking even more enjoyable than it would be in print. S.J.H. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine