Film Studies Librarian
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Other library resource(s)
- “What’s Happened to Chorus Girls?”: Domesticity and the Postwar Backstage Musical from JCMS byCall Number: Electronic journal articleThis article examines an unidentified cycle of popular films in the postwar era: the domestic-themed backstage musical. These films have since received relatively little scholarly attention. Musicals such as Mother Wore Tights (Lang, 1947) reflected contemporary social tensions about the endurance of marriage and the relationship between mothers and children by incorporating themes of divorce, suicide, and miscarriage into the otherwise entertainment-oriented genre. ...
Musicals from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286The film musical is usually identified almost exclusively with Hollywood, specifically those lavish star-filled films made during the heyday of the studio era. Furthermore, it has often been considered a genre that sings volumes about the American character and national sensibility, and for this reason, the film musical has also been taken to be an American “invention” tied to American show business traditions. ...- Music and cinema, classical Hollywood from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Commercial film production in the United States developed rapidly after World War I. Theater programs focused on full-length narrative feature films along with secondary one-to-two-reel films such as newsreels, comedy shorts, travelogues, and (by the late 1920s) cartoons. Industry consolidation favored efficient large-scale production practices. ...
Finding articles & journals
Articles and other writings about musicals can be found in many publications. We don't have journals that look exclusively at musicals. However, you can use Film & Television Literature Index, Web of Science or the search box at the top of the page to find relevant articles.
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about this film genre.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Internet resource(s)
- AFI's 100 Years of Musicals
... A jury of over 500 film artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians selected the Gene Kelly song-and-dance classic SINGIN' IN THE RAIN as the most memorable movie musical of all time. - The Movie Musical Book
Putting Asian and European musicals into conversation with Hollywood classics like Singin’ in the Rain and La La Land, this study demonstrates the flexibility and durability of the genre. ...
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.
A quick definition for musical films
An internationally popular film genre, featuring music, song, and dance in varying combinations, often intertwined with a romance plot with a happy ending. Film versions of operas and stage musicals made in the silent era were usually screened with live musical accompaniment, often as part of theatrical entertainments featuring musical acts (see music). Some scholars contend that it was the popularity of these shows with audiences that prompted the development of synchronized sound after the mid 1920s. Early sound musicals like The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, US, 1927) and The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, US, 1929) had hardly any synch-sound dialogue but did include several songs. By the 1930s, musicals were a core element of film production in Hollywood and around the world. Locally-produced films featuring music and dance—like the Brazilian chanchada and the Argentine tanguero, for example—were popular with audiences throughout Latin America, while the film operetta was significant in the outputs of several film industries in Europe. Musicals continue to be a staple of international film production, and Bollywood’s musical output—particularly its speciality, the ‘melodramatic musical’—has long outstripped Hollywood’s. In Hollywood alone, the genre has generated a number of subtypes and hybrids over the decades, including the musical comedy (for example Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953)) and the backstage musical (for example 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933)). In terms of the relationship between story and musical numbers, three basic types of musical have been identified: the fairytale musical (for example The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965)); the show musical (for example Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)); and the folk musical (for example Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978)). The animated musical, pioneered by Disney Studios with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937), now rivals the live-action Hollywood musical in production output and popularity: successful titles include The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993); Tangled (Nathan Greno, 2010); and Moana (Ron Clements and others, 2016).
In film studies, the Hollywood musical has long been the subject of analysis and investigation across a range of topics: these include the various ways in which plot and musical numbers are integrated in a film’s narrative; issues of gender, sexuality, and spectacle; questions of studio style (MGM’s lavish Technicolor musicals of the 1950s are a case in point); the contributions of key creative personnel (such as directors Ernst Lubitsch and Vincente Minnelli, choreographer Busby Berkeley, and performers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers); and investigations of the genre’s industrial, social, and cultural contexts. Musicals made outside Hollywood tend to be studied in terms of their links with local popular and folk musical forms, and in the context of their wider national cinemas. See also entertainment; excess.
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Musical. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 Apr. 2023
Getting started
To find musical films in the Library's collections, you can click on the subject headings below.
- musical filmsLook at the call number range PN 1995.9 .M86 on Baker Level 4.
Introductory reading(s)
American film musical themes and forms by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 D86 2004ISBN: 9780786418770The musical has been called "the most popular form of entertainment in the world." This work examines the subjects, themes, and contemporary relevance of Hollywood musicals through their long popularity, placing each show in historical and political context and analyzing it in detail. ...
Changed for good: a feminist history of the Broadway musical by Call Number: Baker-Berry ML 2054 .W64 2011ISBN: 9780195378238From Adelaide in Guys and Dolls to Nina in In the Heights and Elphaba in Wicked, female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche. In this lively book, Stacy Wolf illuminates the women of American musical theatre - performers, creators,and characters - from the start of the cold war to the present day, creating a new, feminist history of the genre. ...
Film it with music: an encyclopedic guide to the American movie musical by Call Number: PN 1995.9 .M86 H57 2001ISBN: 9780313315381This encyclopedic reference to the American movie musical identifies and describes the musicals and the artists who made them. Film entries range from the legendary The Jazz Singer in 1927 to Fantasia 2000. Artists ranging from Gene Kelly to Elvis Presley, Busby Berkeley, and John Travolta are included, as are musicians as varied as Irving Berlin, Paul Williams, and the Beatles. ...
The movie musical by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 G374 2021ISBN: 9781978803794Putting Asian and European musicals into conversation with Hollywood classics like Singin' in the Rain and La La Land, this study demonstrates the flexibility and durability of the genre. It explores how the movie musical mediates between nostalgia and technical innovation, while foregrounding the experiences of women, immigrants, and people of color.
The musical: a research and information guide by Call Number: Baker-Berry ML 128 .M78 E84 2011ISBN: 9780415942959The musical, whether on stage or screen, is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable musical genres, yet one of the most perplexing. What are its defining features? How does it negotiate multiple socio-cultural-economic spaces? Is it a popular tradition? Is it a commercial enterprise? Is it a sophisticated cultural product and signifier? This research guide includes more than 1,400 annotated entries related to the genre as it appears on stage and screen. It includes reference works, monographs, articles, anthologies, and websites related to the musical. ...
The musical: race, gender and performance by Call Number: ML 2054 .S65 2005ISBN: 9781904764373This study explores one of the most popular and successful of genres, yet one that has not fully enjoyed critical recognition to match. Combining a detailed analysis of individual musicals with an in-depth consideration of racial and gender issues, Susan Smith examines the rich interactions that occur between music, performance and narrrative, as well as the use of the female voice and the female singer in certain 'Pygmalion'/'Svengali'-style narratives.
The Oxford handbook of the American musical by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780195385946The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical offers new and cutting-edge essays on the most important and compelling issues and topics in the growing, interdisciplinary field of musical-theater and film-musical studies. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to the concepts and terms that define the history of the musical as a genre and that offer ways to reflect on the specific creative choices that shape musicals and their performance on stage and screen. ...
The Oxford handbook of the Hollywood musical by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780197503423Since the release of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! in 2001, the film musical has returned to popularity as one of the most important cinematic genres, with box office hits that appeal to audiences of all ages. Yet the history of the musical on film goes back over seven decades earlier, stretching from early examples like The Jazz Singer (1927), the first ever film with synchronized sound, through the Astaire-Rogers musicals of the 1930s, the MGM and Warner Brothers extravaganzas of the 1940s and '50s, and the roadshow era of the 1960s. ...
Selected book title(s)
The first Hollywood musicals: a critical filmography of 171 features, 1927 through 1932 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 B73 1996ISBN: 9780899509457As Hollywood entered the sound era, it was rightly determined that the same public fascinated by the novelty of the talkie would be dazzled by the spectacle of a song and dance film. In 1929 and 1930, film musicals became the industry's most lucrative genre--until the greedy studios almost killed the genre by glutting the market with too many films that looked and sounded like clones of each other. ...
Hollywood musicals year by year by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 G74 1990ISBN: 9780881886108What movie was the first to combine live action with animated cartoon characters? What movie did Marion Brando first sing in? This book answers these and thousands of other interesting facts about Hollywood's favorite musicals. It provides facts and trivia for more than 300 movies. Each entry includes the screenplay writer, producer, director, choreographer, cast list, song list, release date, plot summary and interesting notes surrounding the production, cast and spin-offs that the movie inspired. ...
Musicals on the silver screen by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 K56 2013ISBN: 9781937589301Musicals adapted to the big screen--from West Side Story to The Phantom of the Opera--have enjoyed a staggering amount of success since the 1940s, and this guide is especially tailored to library patrons looking for help selecting the right flick to watch. The book is organized by decade, allowing readers to learn about the nuances of each era of musical movie production, and a description is paired with each film along with an explanation of why it is worth viewing. ...
Singing a new tune: the rebirth of the modern film musical, from Evita to De-lovely and beyond by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 M85 2005ISBN: 9781557836106Critics the world over have often loudly lamented that the movie musical is a dead art form. However, while it is true that the musical no longer occupies the cherished place of prominence in American cinema that it once did, the old razzle-dazzle has had a comeback. John Kenneth Muir faces the music in Singing a New Tune , a rollicking study that traces the rebirth of the film musical from the dark days of the early 1990s when all the musical numbers were cut from the film I'll Do Anything due to preview audience hostility to the current heyday of Moulin Rouge, Chicago, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera . ...
A song in the dark: the birth of the musical film by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 B37 2010ISBN: 9780195377347Publication Date: 2nd ed.Drawing on meticulous research, sharp wit, and insightful analysis, Richard Barrios illuminates the origins of the movie musical in this extensively revised and updated edition of his highly acclaimed A Song in the Dark. From Warner Bros. and Jolson, to the Oscar-winning Broadway Melody and beyond, here is the whole funny and peculiar history of these films, their creators, and their audiences.
The sound of musicals by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .M86 S68 2010ISBN: 9781844573462Despite having had its obituary written many times, the movie musical remains a flourishing twenty-first century form, and as this volume demonstrates, one that exists far beyond the confines of Broadway and Hollywood. The Sound of Musicals examines the films, stars, issues and traditions of the genre from the 1930s to the present day. Featuring sixteen original essays by leading international scholars, this illuminating collection addresses the complex history and global variety of the movie musical, and considers the delight and passionate engagement that musicals continue to inspire in audiences around the world. ...
Through the screen door: what happened to the Broadway musical when it went to Hollywood by Call Number: ML 1711 .H42 2004ISBN: 9780810850187In this personal and opinionated book Tom Hischak takes a close look at what happens when a Broadway musical goes to Hollywood, and less often when Hollywood comes to Broadway. The musicals discussed range from The Desert Song (1927), the first sound film of a Broadway musical, to Chicago, the 2002 film made from the 1975 Broadway hit. Film musicals that became Broadway shows range from Lili (1953) to Never Gonna Dance (2003). The book assumes a basic familiarity with famous musicals (for example the plot of My Fair Lady is summed up in a sentence or two) but lesser known works are fully explained. ...
White Gypsies: race and stardom in Spanish musical films by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780816645855Little has been written about the Spanish film musical, a genre usually associated with the early Franco dictatorship and dismissed by critics as reactionary, escapist fare. A timely and valuable corrective, White Gypsies shows how the Spanish folkloric musical films of the 1940s and '50s are inextricably tied to anxious concerns about race--especially, but not only, Gypsiness. Focusing on the processes of identity formation in twentieth-century Spain--with multifaceted readings of the cinematic construction of class, gender, and sexuality--Eva Woods Peiró explores how these popular films allowed audiences to negotiate and imaginatively, at times problematically, resolve complex social contradictions. ...
A Selected list of musical films
Find more musical films in the library's collections.
Across the universe by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #6216ISBN: 9781424861002Jude is a dock worker from Liverpool who travels to the United States in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There, he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother, Max, is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism.
The Blues Brothers by Call Number: DVD PN 1997 .B584 2005ISBN: 9781417034741After Jake Blues is released from prison, he and brother Elwood go to visit the old home where they were raised by nuns. They learn the church is no longer supporting the institution and will sell the place to the education authority. The only way to keep the place open is if the $5000 tax on the property is paid within the next 11 days. The brothers want to help and decide to put their blues band back together and raise the money by staging a big show. As they set off on their "mission from God" they seem to make more enemies than friends along the way.
Bombay talkie by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #10691ISBN: 9780780026773A troubled romance laced with barbed wit and pointed melodrama and an affectionate view of the Indian film industry (aka Bollywood). A visiting English author becomes involved with a married Indian movie star; when the romance fizzles she flees to an ashram.
Bride & prejudice by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #2926ISBN: 9780788858468Based on Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice, with a Bollywood twist. In Ammritsar, the determined Mrs. Bakshi sets out to find matches for her four daughters. Second sister, Lalita, meets American Will Darcy - is it love?
Brigadoon by Call Number: DVD M 1500 .L84 B75 2005ISBN: 9781419803543Two Americans stumble upon a Scottish village which comes to life for only one day a century. One of the men falls in love with a townswoman, and has to decide where his heart lies.
The Buddy Holly story by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #10352ISBN: 9780767827850Biographical drama of Buddy Holly, the 1950's rock musician from Lubbock, Texas, who changed Rock'n'Roll history.
The Busby Berkeley collection by Call Number: DVD PN 1995.9 .M86 B8739 2006 v. 1 - 6ISBN: 9781419823190Five remastered classics include: 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade (1933), Dames (1935), Gold Diggers of 1935, plus a bonus disc with more than 20 complete musical numbers from Busby Berkeley.
Cabaret by Call Number: DVD M 1500 .K36 C3 2000ISBN: 9780790782225Sally Bowles, an American singer in 1930s Berlin, falls in love with bi-sexual Brian. They are both then seduced by Max, a rich playboy. Sally becomes pregnant, and Brian offers to marry her... All the characters are linked by the Kit-Kat club, a nightspot where Sally sings. Around them the Nazi Party rises to power.
Crazy heart by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #9973The powerful story of a country music star's rocky road to redemption. Bad Blake is a boozy, broken-down singer who reaches for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the music. But will Bad's hard-livin' ways and crazy heart cost him his last chance at a comeback?
Hotel alojamiento by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #13168Thirteen couples conduct extra-marital affairs in a hotel.
The lion king by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #22485After the murder of his father, a young lion prince flees his kingdom only to learn the true meaning of responsibility and bravery.
Meeting Venus by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #14462International opera star Karin Anderson and married conductor Zoltan Szanto begin a passionate affair and discover that, unlike opera, love and the lunacy it inspires have no rehearsals.
Pitch perfect by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #6187Arriving at her new college, Beca finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together. When Beca leads this a cappella singing group out of their traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of college music competitions.
Rocketman by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #22408An epic musical fantasy about the uncensored human story of Sir Elton John's breakthrough years.
The Sapphires by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16449Inspired by a true story, it's 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertain the US troops in Vietnam.
