October 20, 2025 • 22 mins
In this episode, I spoke with author Thomas Hischak about his book "Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen! Directors of Golden Age Hollywood Musicals". The role directors have played in American cinema cannot be overstated, particularly how they shaped and developed the medium during Hollywood's golden age. Little appreciation has been paid though to the individual directors' accomplishments with regards to the musical film, a genre that remains popular today. When the first film musicals were made, there were no experienced movie directors for the new genre. Instead of recruiting stage directors, Hollywood turned to the seasoned directors currently under contract and assigned them to make talkies with song and dance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Let's go. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition
I've Forgotten Hollywood. I'm your host, Doug has Now if
you're turning Forgot in Hollywood for the first time, what
we do on this podcast is take you down a
journey down a road of memories and introduce you to
some things that you may or may not know about
(00:24):
of Hollywood. And today we have a very special guest
with us today, Thomas hissed Jack, and he is here
to talk about his book Bringing Song and Dance to
the screen directors of Golden Age Hollywood Musical. Thomas, first
of all, welcome to Forgot in Hollywood. Thank you well,
thank you for spending a few minutes out of your
(00:45):
busy schedule to be with us today. And Thomas, like
we do with all our authors, allow you just pretty
in your own words, what this book is about.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, there are so many books about Hollywood musicals, mostly
picture books, and I've written some of them. But something
I thought was lacking was the attention given to the directors.
Because musicals are known for their stars, their songs, their choreography,
(01:22):
you know, And it was the directors I was curious about.
I knew their names, they'd shown up here and there,
But I thought I wanted to focus just on directors
during the Golden Age, which is nineteen twenty seven nineteen
fifty eight is generally considered that. So I took thirty directors.
(01:44):
Some had a lot of credits, some only had a few,
and then I tried to analyze what did they do
in those movies that make them so wonderful? Well, you know,
what input did they have? Because musicals know such a
collaborative thing, and you know, the choreography is set in
(02:04):
the sensor there, and you know that what can the
director do? And as best I could, And so that
was the goal of the book, and I loved working
on it. Of course I knew the musicals, but it
was great to go back and look at the musicals.
And I was surprised at times directors the number of
(02:29):
you know, productions they directed, or somebody who was like
a Raoul Walsh, who's such a rugged you know, the
director of mel things. He did a bunch of musicals.
He's like, well, well what would they be like?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So it was a like any book, you learned so
much while you're working on it, a labor of love, right,
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Now, you said that you had thirty directors, and we're
kind of talking a little bit about this before we
started recording. I thought it was really interesting a lot
of the directors of the Golden Age, what did they do?
You know you were talking about early on that the
(03:14):
sets were already there and the costumes were already there.
You know, what was really the role of the director
in that timeframe?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, Well, the studio would say, first foremost, get the
movie done on schedule, because musicals are very expensive, and
if you're running two weeks over schedule whatever they to them,
that's a bad director, right, Yeah, I forget the artistic
thing if you cannot keep the thing moving. And in
(03:46):
most cases, these were seasoned directors of other movies, movies,
and they knew schedule was everything, and you just didn't
stand around and you know, be creative. So that was
the first thing, because frankly, if you couldn't get a
movie done on time, they they just didn't use you again,
(04:07):
you know, I mean that was the bottom line. I
don't care how artistic it was. So that was the
first thing. And then the other thing that was much
harder is how did you get a movie your stamp
your personal look, your personal feeling. And some of them
were able to do it, and some were just journeyman craftsman,
(04:30):
you know, and got everything done on time. But could you,
you know, create a distinction that says, oh, this is
a Vincemonelli movie. And he was able to do that
because he was an artist, he was a designer and
before he became a director, and his movies look terrific.
(04:53):
They all look like a Vincentmonelli movie. Mark Sandri, on
the other hand, he comes up with a different look.
He's at RKL and he does a lot of the
Fred Astaire in Ginger Rogers movies, and he wants a
look and he has some say in it, that sleek
(05:14):
art deco look that is just so stylish and nothing
to do with reality, you know, And that's his mark
on a film. So they can handle it, of course,
the way they handle the actors. But in the planning
that they say I want a look like this, I
(05:35):
want lighting like this, they do have a say, and
they can't do it right on the set. It's too late.
Although they could change their mind and say, oh what
if we shot it this way, what if we lit
it that way? But doing it on schedule. That was
the bottom line.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, no, absolutely no, I Thomas, She said there was
thirty directors you looked at. Was it hard to narrow
it down to those? Thirty?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Thirty was a good number because you have to remember,
these people directed three or four movies a year, right,
I mean they turned them out, you know, And so
they had so many credits during this period that I
was able to look and and kind of, you know, say,
(06:30):
oh my goodness, look at this. They really were strong
in the thirties here, and they really did all these these,
you know, and I have to include them. On the
other hand, I turned around and I include some people
only directed one musical, like Victor Fleming directed Wizard of Oz,
never directed another musical again, but that's important, you know.
(06:52):
Or George Stevens only did one musical swing time and
it's so amazing, but he never did another one again,
and what the reasons whatever, you know. So it was
not too hard, because thirty is a good number. If
I had to get it down to a dozen, i'd
really be hurting, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Be pulling your hair out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So yeah, and there were surprises, you know, Oh I
didn't know so and so did that many you know things,
or or look at the variety of things that this
guy did, and they are all men. I hate to
say it. You know, no women were allowed to direct musicals.
(07:39):
They were very few of them. Even did choreography. It
was pretty much a male thing. The women were allowed
to do the costumes and and things like that. But
so when I say it's the menu did the movies
and that sure, you just see down near the facts,
(08:00):
it would be quite a while before that would change.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah. Absolutely, He kind of alluded to this briefly, and
I'm just going to ask you kind of like a
little bit more broader question on this. What else kind
of surprised you during the writing and the research of
the book.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think directors who I did not think would make
musicals did and did very very well. I think the
most glowing example is why Walsh. Walsh was a masculine
action movie kind of you know, and that was his
(08:42):
westerns and war movies. And I mean, the guy, you know,
had one eye, he lost an eye in World War One,
and he was just that rugged individual. And I thought,
oh my goodness, he did some musicals, and he did,
and the one I picked to discuss in detail was
going Hollywood, which is a movie that has an edge
(09:06):
to it. You know, I was surprised he directed it,
And then when I watched it again, I said, yeah,
this was directed by Raoul Walsh. There's a kind of
a rawness and there's a young bing Crosby who's being
forced to act more than he normally had to do,
(09:27):
and the look of it and the fem fatale that
he falls in love with, and it's like, yeah, this
is a Raoul Walsh movie, but it happens to be
a musical.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So that was a surprise. Interesting. So here's where I
want to do, Thomas. We got about ten minutes or
so left. Really, what I would like for you to
do is maybe pick one, maybe two directors that are
not famous, more of our gotten friends, if you will.
(10:01):
Because we were kind of talking. Everybody knows Gene Kelly
and the great work that he did, but maybe if
you could pick one or two of the directors and
just come talk a little bit about them and some
of the musicals that they did. M hm.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
The first one that comes to mind is Ruben Mammulian,
and I'll say it again because people don't know him.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Man Bullian.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
This was he was one of the most amazing directors.
He went back and forth between theater and movies, which
very few of them did. And this man directed the
original Porgy and Best on Broadway Oklahoma Carousel. I mean
he'd be famous. He's not famous. People don't know him
(10:50):
as well, but he would have been in the books
just for his theater work. But he did several movies,
and he made about what is about eight musicals here,
and every one of them has got something that's totally
remarkable about it. His first musical is Applause. This is
(11:15):
an early musical nineteen twenty nine with Helen Morgan Macy
for Showboat. And this is a serious musical. I mean
it is not a song and dance. It's a woman
you know, who's literally beaten by her boyfriend and she's
(11:38):
kept trying to keep her daughter away from him by
sending him off to school, sending her off to school.
He comes back, she starts making passes at him, and
she eventually commits suicide. This is a serious musical Applause
and it works because of Helen Morgan is it's her
(12:00):
greatest performance by me. She sings about five songs and oh,
I'm sorry, and she He just captures that tawdry backstage
feeling so well. And then he turns around three years
(12:22):
later and he directs, I think one of the great
fairy tale music adult fairy tale musicals, Love Me Tonight.
This is a Maurice Chevellier Janet MacDonald's musical.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It is.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
It's light, it's a frothy it's clever. Everything about it
is unique and very different from applause. Love Me Tonight
introduces a great score, isn't it romantic?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And me Me? And the title song.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
And the look of the performances. It's just it's something
we couldn't capture today. It's just something about it. It's
not real at the same time, it's grounded in, you know,
real emotions. And it's Mamoulian who does it. He's the
(13:19):
one who you know, stages it in such a way.
He sings Mimi Chevalier sexy song to Mimi. Is not
her name, but he calls her Mimi. And he's there
with a horse. He's just rescued her from a runaway
carriage and he's singing, and the horses in the scene,
(13:42):
you know, reacting to it, and it's like it's just
beautifully staged. So yeah, Mamoulian is one of those one
of the great musicals that's not well known is high,
wide and handsome. It's nineteen thirty seven, and that is
a musical that is just so rich. It's Randolph Scott
(14:07):
and b Boo, I'm blanking out, and it's got everything
in it. It's kind of a Western. It's got a
circus in it, it's got a medicine show, it's got
a saloon dance. It's just Americana all over the place,
(14:27):
and it's so beautifully filmed, and it's just not that
well known. So it's kind of the story of Mammoulian
is he did not make one of the big blockbusters,
but every one of his movies has got such a
distinctive style to it. And Love Me Tonight is considered
(14:51):
a classic, but it was a bomb in its day.
It just nineteen thirty two wasn't a good time for musicals, right,
you know, they were exaggerated and too many musicals, and
but that one, you know, is really quite good. His
last musical is disappointing. He did the musical of Silk
(15:13):
Stockings Fred Astaire and should sid Cherie and it's got
some wonderful moments in it, but it's such a weak
script and the score is it's cold Porter, but it's
not top you know, top drawer Cole Porter. So I
mean he's got him in there. He's got a couple
(15:34):
of bombs in there as well as you know. But
I consider Mamoulian a truly unsung, you know, brilliant director
switched to a very different one as Mark Sandrich. His
career is pretty remarkable, the troubles. He died at the
(15:57):
peak of his career. He was only forty four years old.
But during that time he directed some wonderful musicals and
he did one, two, three, four, five five with Fred
Astare and Ginger Rogers. He also directed Holiday Inn and
(16:20):
some other ones that are really quite good. But after
he directed Here Come the Waves nineteen forty four, and
he died even before it was released. Mark Sandrich was
known for the Art deco look in his movies, and
of course he didn't design them, but he had an
awful lot to say about him. He wanted white walls,
(16:46):
black floors that shined like a mirror, you know. He
wanted the space to be uncluttered, which is part of
the Art Deco look, and he would do amazing stuff
for top Hat. It was supposed to be in Venice,
(17:07):
well it didn't look anything like Venice. It was all
done in a studio and if Venice was all white
and sleek and the lido is where it's supposed to
take place. And he even went so far as they
had a canal on the set, one of the huge sets,
and they filled it with water, and he didn't like
the look of it because it just it wasn't looking
(17:30):
that Art deco look. So they they made the water black.
By having black water, it looked terrific, it's like, because
that was his thing. So but he handled Fred and
Ginger so well. Now they're doing the choreography. There's a
(17:54):
choreographer and a stair always did some of the choreography.
But the between them, you know, the way they fought.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Or the way they they they made love, you know,
the way that those and they were you know, pretty
frothy relationships.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
You know, it was always he was always after her
and she always was resisting, but.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
She loved them.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
And there were complications until they can finally get together.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
But in the.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Meantime they do some wonderful you know, dancing together and
wonderful love scenes. He handled those so beautifully that just
made you realize that part of their charm wasn't just
when they danced. They just had a wonderful report. They
(18:44):
weren't too crazy about each other. It wasn't personal, uh,
he just they just sparkled together and screen. Yeah, the
chemistry was unbelievable and you really believe that these two
you know, must have been lovers off screen, but they weren't.
It was it was all captured there. Sandrich got to
(19:06):
work with some of the great musical talents, and he's
got Irving Berlin writing the songs for Top Hat, He's
got the Gershwin's writing the music for Shall We Dance? Uh,
He's working with the best people, to say the least.
And outside of Fred and Ginger, Holiday inn is an
(19:29):
amazing movie. Oh my goodness, am I popular? And it is?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It is an amazing you know thing to introduced those songs,
and people forget that's the movie that White Christmas was introduced. Yes,
And is it a song ever been introduced in a
better way than it was in Holiday? And that's the director.
(19:59):
You know, there was no choreography. It was just the
way it was staged, you know, in the acting and
led into the song and then the song. So yeah,
Mark Sandrich, amazing talent and gone before you know, before.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
You knew it. Absolutely well, Thomas. I know we're here
at the end of time, But one thing I wanted
to ask you is, can you give us a film,
one musical that is forgotten that you think people should
be watching.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Oh, you know, it just comes to mind his Calamity
Jane Doloris Day. Nobody gives that movie any credit. She's
her best performance. She said, it was more fun than
(20:56):
any other thing. It's she plays Annie Oakley, somethe like that.
I don't know if she plays Anny Oakley. No, that
was Anny Get Your Gun, which she should have made.
But this is a Calamity Jane. And the score is great,
the choreographer is great, the chemistry between Ecuadora Stay and
(21:17):
her male lead, the comic characters, and the supporting roles.
I think it's a gem of a movie. And you
never hear much about it. It's fifties Hollywood. Yeah, excellent,
That's what I'd pick.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, Thomas, thank you so much for coming on and
spending some time with us today. I really enjoyed it.
And to our listeners, please go out and get a
copy of Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen Directors
of the Golden Age Hollywood Musicals. We've just hit the
tip of the iceberg with Thomas here. There's a lot
more you heard just briefly about two of the thirty
(21:52):
different directors that's in this and Thomas, we wish you
nothing but the very best, and again, thank you so
much for coming on.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Oh great to be here.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Thank you well, thank you, and thank you for listening
to this edition of Forgotten Hollywood. Join us next time
as we release the latest episode. Thank you for joining us,
and we'll talk to you soon.
Let's go. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition
I've Forgotten Hollywood. I'm your host, Doug has Now if
you're turning Forgot in Hollywood for the first time, what
we do on this podcast is take you down a
journey down a road of memories and introduce you to
some things that you may or may not know about
(00:24):
of Hollywood. And today we have a very special guest
with us today, Thomas hissed Jack, and he is here
to talk about his book Bringing Song and Dance to
the screen directors of Golden Age Hollywood Musical. Thomas, first
of all, welcome to Forgot in Hollywood. Thank you well,
thank you for spending a few minutes out of your
(00:45):
busy schedule to be with us today. And Thomas, like
we do with all our authors, allow you just pretty
in your own words, what this book is about.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, there are so many books about Hollywood musicals, mostly
picture books, and I've written some of them. But something
I thought was lacking was the attention given to the directors.
Because musicals are known for their stars, their songs, their choreography,
(01:22):
you know, And it was the directors I was curious about.
I knew their names, they'd shown up here and there,
But I thought I wanted to focus just on directors
during the Golden Age, which is nineteen twenty seven nineteen
fifty eight is generally considered that. So I took thirty directors.
(01:44):
Some had a lot of credits, some only had a few,
and then I tried to analyze what did they do
in those movies that make them so wonderful? Well, you know,
what input did they have? Because musicals know such a
collaborative thing, and you know, the choreography is set in
(02:04):
the sensor there, and you know that what can the
director do? And as best I could, And so that
was the goal of the book, and I loved working
on it. Of course I knew the musicals, but it
was great to go back and look at the musicals.
And I was surprised at times directors the number of
(02:29):
you know, productions they directed, or somebody who was like
a Raoul Walsh, who's such a rugged you know, the
director of mel things. He did a bunch of musicals.
He's like, well, well what would they be like?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So it was a like any book, you learned so
much while you're working on it, a labor of love, right,
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Now, you said that you had thirty directors, and we're
kind of talking a little bit about this before we
started recording. I thought it was really interesting a lot
of the directors of the Golden Age, what did they do?
You know you were talking about early on that the
(03:14):
sets were already there and the costumes were already there.
You know, what was really the role of the director
in that timeframe?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, Well, the studio would say, first foremost, get the
movie done on schedule, because musicals are very expensive, and
if you're running two weeks over schedule whatever they to them,
that's a bad director, right, Yeah, I forget the artistic
thing if you cannot keep the thing moving. And in
(03:46):
most cases, these were seasoned directors of other movies, movies,
and they knew schedule was everything, and you just didn't
stand around and you know, be creative. So that was
the first thing, because frankly, if you couldn't get a
movie done on time, they they just didn't use you again,
(04:07):
you know, I mean that was the bottom line. I
don't care how artistic it was. So that was the
first thing. And then the other thing that was much
harder is how did you get a movie your stamp
your personal look, your personal feeling. And some of them
were able to do it, and some were just journeyman craftsman,
(04:30):
you know, and got everything done on time. But could you,
you know, create a distinction that says, oh, this is
a Vincemonelli movie. And he was able to do that
because he was an artist, he was a designer and
before he became a director, and his movies look terrific.
(04:53):
They all look like a Vincentmonelli movie. Mark Sandri, on
the other hand, he comes up with a different look.
He's at RKL and he does a lot of the
Fred Astaire in Ginger Rogers movies, and he wants a
look and he has some say in it, that sleek
(05:14):
art deco look that is just so stylish and nothing
to do with reality, you know, And that's his mark
on a film. So they can handle it, of course,
the way they handle the actors. But in the planning
that they say I want a look like this, I
(05:35):
want lighting like this, they do have a say, and
they can't do it right on the set. It's too late.
Although they could change their mind and say, oh what
if we shot it this way, what if we lit
it that way? But doing it on schedule. That was
the bottom line.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, no, absolutely no, I Thomas, She said there was
thirty directors you looked at. Was it hard to narrow
it down to those? Thirty?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Thirty was a good number because you have to remember,
these people directed three or four movies a year, right,
I mean they turned them out, you know, And so
they had so many credits during this period that I
was able to look and and kind of, you know, say,
(06:30):
oh my goodness, look at this. They really were strong
in the thirties here, and they really did all these these,
you know, and I have to include them. On the
other hand, I turned around and I include some people
only directed one musical, like Victor Fleming directed Wizard of Oz,
never directed another musical again, but that's important, you know.
(06:52):
Or George Stevens only did one musical swing time and
it's so amazing, but he never did another one again,
and what the reasons whatever, you know. So it was
not too hard, because thirty is a good number. If
I had to get it down to a dozen, i'd
really be hurting, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Be pulling your hair out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So yeah, and there were surprises, you know, Oh I
didn't know so and so did that many you know things,
or or look at the variety of things that this
guy did, and they are all men. I hate to
say it. You know, no women were allowed to direct musicals.
(07:39):
They were very few of them. Even did choreography. It
was pretty much a male thing. The women were allowed
to do the costumes and and things like that. But
so when I say it's the menu did the movies
and that sure, you just see down near the facts,
(08:00):
it would be quite a while before that would change.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah. Absolutely, He kind of alluded to this briefly, and
I'm just going to ask you kind of like a
little bit more broader question on this. What else kind
of surprised you during the writing and the research of
the book.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think directors who I did not think would make
musicals did and did very very well. I think the
most glowing example is why Walsh. Walsh was a masculine
action movie kind of you know, and that was his
(08:42):
westerns and war movies. And I mean, the guy, you know,
had one eye, he lost an eye in World War One,
and he was just that rugged individual. And I thought,
oh my goodness, he did some musicals, and he did,
and the one I picked to discuss in detail was
going Hollywood, which is a movie that has an edge
(09:06):
to it. You know, I was surprised he directed it,
And then when I watched it again, I said, yeah,
this was directed by Raoul Walsh. There's a kind of
a rawness and there's a young bing Crosby who's being
forced to act more than he normally had to do,
(09:27):
and the look of it and the fem fatale that
he falls in love with, and it's like, yeah, this
is a Raoul Walsh movie, but it happens to be
a musical.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So that was a surprise. Interesting. So here's where I
want to do, Thomas. We got about ten minutes or
so left. Really, what I would like for you to
do is maybe pick one, maybe two directors that are
not famous, more of our gotten friends, if you will.
(10:01):
Because we were kind of talking. Everybody knows Gene Kelly
and the great work that he did, but maybe if
you could pick one or two of the directors and
just come talk a little bit about them and some
of the musicals that they did. M hm.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
The first one that comes to mind is Ruben Mammulian,
and I'll say it again because people don't know him.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Man Bullian.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
This was he was one of the most amazing directors.
He went back and forth between theater and movies, which
very few of them did. And this man directed the
original Porgy and Best on Broadway Oklahoma Carousel. I mean
he'd be famous. He's not famous. People don't know him
(10:50):
as well, but he would have been in the books
just for his theater work. But he did several movies,
and he made about what is about eight musicals here,
and every one of them has got something that's totally
remarkable about it. His first musical is Applause. This is
(11:15):
an early musical nineteen twenty nine with Helen Morgan Macy
for Showboat. And this is a serious musical. I mean
it is not a song and dance. It's a woman
you know, who's literally beaten by her boyfriend and she's
(11:38):
kept trying to keep her daughter away from him by
sending him off to school, sending her off to school.
He comes back, she starts making passes at him, and
she eventually commits suicide. This is a serious musical Applause
and it works because of Helen Morgan is it's her
(12:00):
greatest performance by me. She sings about five songs and oh,
I'm sorry, and she He just captures that tawdry backstage
feeling so well. And then he turns around three years
(12:22):
later and he directs, I think one of the great
fairy tale music adult fairy tale musicals, Love Me Tonight.
This is a Maurice Chevellier Janet MacDonald's musical.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It is.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
It's light, it's a frothy it's clever. Everything about it
is unique and very different from applause. Love Me Tonight
introduces a great score, isn't it romantic?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And me Me? And the title song.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
And the look of the performances. It's just it's something
we couldn't capture today. It's just something about it. It's
not real at the same time, it's grounded in, you know,
real emotions. And it's Mamoulian who does it. He's the
(13:19):
one who you know, stages it in such a way.
He sings Mimi Chevalier sexy song to Mimi. Is not
her name, but he calls her Mimi. And he's there
with a horse. He's just rescued her from a runaway
carriage and he's singing, and the horses in the scene,
(13:42):
you know, reacting to it, and it's like it's just
beautifully staged. So yeah, Mamoulian is one of those one
of the great musicals that's not well known is high,
wide and handsome. It's nineteen thirty seven, and that is
a musical that is just so rich. It's Randolph Scott
(14:07):
and b Boo, I'm blanking out, and it's got everything
in it. It's kind of a Western. It's got a
circus in it, it's got a medicine show, it's got
a saloon dance. It's just Americana all over the place,
(14:27):
and it's so beautifully filmed, and it's just not that
well known. So it's kind of the story of Mammoulian
is he did not make one of the big blockbusters,
but every one of his movies has got such a
distinctive style to it. And Love Me Tonight is considered
(14:51):
a classic, but it was a bomb in its day.
It just nineteen thirty two wasn't a good time for musicals, right,
you know, they were exaggerated and too many musicals, and
but that one, you know, is really quite good. His
last musical is disappointing. He did the musical of Silk
(15:13):
Stockings Fred Astaire and should sid Cherie and it's got
some wonderful moments in it, but it's such a weak
script and the score is it's cold Porter, but it's
not top you know, top drawer Cole Porter. So I
mean he's got him in there. He's got a couple
(15:34):
of bombs in there as well as you know. But
I consider Mamoulian a truly unsung, you know, brilliant director
switched to a very different one as Mark Sandrich. His
career is pretty remarkable, the troubles. He died at the
(15:57):
peak of his career. He was only forty four years old.
But during that time he directed some wonderful musicals and
he did one, two, three, four, five five with Fred
Astare and Ginger Rogers. He also directed Holiday Inn and
(16:20):
some other ones that are really quite good. But after
he directed Here Come the Waves nineteen forty four, and
he died even before it was released. Mark Sandrich was
known for the Art deco look in his movies, and
of course he didn't design them, but he had an
awful lot to say about him. He wanted white walls,
(16:46):
black floors that shined like a mirror, you know. He
wanted the space to be uncluttered, which is part of
the Art Deco look, and he would do amazing stuff
for top Hat. It was supposed to be in Venice,
(17:07):
well it didn't look anything like Venice. It was all
done in a studio and if Venice was all white
and sleek and the lido is where it's supposed to
take place. And he even went so far as they
had a canal on the set, one of the huge sets,
and they filled it with water, and he didn't like
the look of it because it just it wasn't looking
(17:30):
that Art deco look. So they they made the water black.
By having black water, it looked terrific, it's like, because
that was his thing. So but he handled Fred and
Ginger so well. Now they're doing the choreography. There's a
(17:54):
choreographer and a stair always did some of the choreography.
But the between them, you know, the way they fought.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Or the way they they they made love, you know,
the way that those and they were you know, pretty
frothy relationships.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
You know, it was always he was always after her
and she always was resisting, but.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
She loved them.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
And there were complications until they can finally get together.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
But in the.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Meantime they do some wonderful you know, dancing together and
wonderful love scenes. He handled those so beautifully that just
made you realize that part of their charm wasn't just
when they danced. They just had a wonderful report. They
(18:44):
weren't too crazy about each other. It wasn't personal, uh,
he just they just sparkled together and screen. Yeah, the
chemistry was unbelievable and you really believe that these two
you know, must have been lovers off screen, but they weren't.
It was it was all captured there. Sandrich got to
(19:06):
work with some of the great musical talents, and he's
got Irving Berlin writing the songs for Top Hat, He's
got the Gershwin's writing the music for Shall We Dance? Uh,
He's working with the best people, to say the least.
And outside of Fred and Ginger, Holiday inn is an
(19:29):
amazing movie. Oh my goodness, am I popular? And it is?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
It is an amazing you know thing to introduced those songs,
and people forget that's the movie that White Christmas was introduced. Yes,
And is it a song ever been introduced in a
better way than it was in Holiday? And that's the director.
(19:59):
You know, there was no choreography. It was just the
way it was staged, you know, in the acting and
led into the song and then the song. So yeah,
Mark Sandrich, amazing talent and gone before you know, before.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
You knew it. Absolutely well, Thomas. I know we're here
at the end of time, But one thing I wanted
to ask you is, can you give us a film,
one musical that is forgotten that you think people should
be watching.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Oh, you know, it just comes to mind his Calamity
Jane Doloris Day. Nobody gives that movie any credit. She's
her best performance. She said, it was more fun than
(20:56):
any other thing. It's she plays Annie Oakley, somethe like that.
I don't know if she plays Anny Oakley. No, that
was Anny Get Your Gun, which she should have made.
But this is a Calamity Jane. And the score is great,
the choreographer is great, the chemistry between Ecuadora Stay and
(21:17):
her male lead, the comic characters, and the supporting roles.
I think it's a gem of a movie. And you
never hear much about it. It's fifties Hollywood. Yeah, excellent,
That's what I'd pick.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, Thomas, thank you so much for coming on and
spending some time with us today. I really enjoyed it.
And to our listeners, please go out and get a
copy of Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen Directors
of the Golden Age Hollywood Musicals. We've just hit the
tip of the iceberg with Thomas here. There's a lot
more you heard just briefly about two of the thirty
(21:52):
different directors that's in this and Thomas, we wish you
nothing but the very best, and again, thank you so
much for coming on.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Oh great to be here.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Thank you well, thank you, and thank you for listening
to this edition of Forgotten Hollywood. Join us next time
as we release the latest episode. Thank you for joining us,
and we'll talk to you soon.
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