All Singing, All Dancing: Hollywood-Musicals 1933–1957

The film musical is one of the most popular genres from the golden era of classic Hollywood cinema, blending comedic, theatrical, dance and circus elements into a new artistic whole. The development of the genre is closely connected to the introduction of sound film. "All talking! All singing! All dancing!" is how Metro Goldwyn Mayer 1929 advertised the first feature-length sound film musical The Broadway Melody in 1929, which carried a whole wealth of similar productions in its wake. The stock character of the early film revues and behind the scenes stage shows, which merely gifted the story with a excuse for music and dance numbers, gradually gave way to film musicals unburdened by such tricks from 1933 onwards. Over the course of just a few months, Warner Bros charted an entirely new course in the form of three modern, unsentimental, and fast-moving productions full of cheeky dialogue (42ND STREET, "Gold Diggers of 1933" and "Footlight Parade"). For the choreography of the lavish musical numbers, Busby Berkeley arranged dozens of showgirls into geometric, kaleidoscopic patterns and transformed the stage into a world of cinematic fantasy by way of special effects, a moving camera, and rapid sequences of shots. At the same time, RKO produced musicals with dancing couple Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that came across like a counterdraft to Berkeley’s ornamental crowd scenes and the visual opulence of the Warner musicals. The films are characterized by a more intimate, individual elegance and the everyday character of the stories, with song and dance being integrated into the plot to a greater degree. It was the MGM musicals of 40s and 50s that managed to blend songs, dance and plot together in truly seamless fashion, musicals which are above all connected with Arthur Freed's production unit and director Vincente Minnelli. Song and dance no longer needed any explanation, as within the reality of the musical, the boundary between dream and real life dissolves and the rules and conventions of everyday reality are suspended: "Music, dance and color do away with the 'seriousness of life' and promise the victory of love and happiness." (Ulrich Gregor/Enno Patalas)