Memorable, crazy movie

hyped garbage

An Exercise In Nonsense

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Winner of the New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Play of the Year, the original 1947 Broadway production had the journalists cheering. The public loved the show too. It ran a sensational 581 performances. Directed by Robert Lewis, with dances staged by the legendary Agnes De Mille, this original "Brigadoon" starred David Brooks, Marion Bell and George Keane. In a featured role was Virginia Bosler, the only member of the original cast to be hired for the movie. (Miss Bosler made only one other film — Oklahoma!). On the other hand, the film "Brigadoon" pleased almost no-one except me. Even Gene Kelly had serious reservations. He thought it a mistake to stage all the village scenes as if they were being presented in a theater. A very large, extremely well-equipped theater, but a theater nonetheless. Personally, I think this decision not only adds to the picture's charm, but contrasts well with the super-realistically filmed New York sequences.But just about everyone disagrees with me. Even the score is not highly regarded, especially by comparison with "My Fair Lady". But I think it's marvelous. The singers are absolutely out of this world too, particularly John Gustafson and Carol Richards. And as for the zest and sheer exuberance dancers — seventh heaven! The big surprise is Van Johnson. We all forget that he got his start in the chorus line of "Too Many Girls". Good to see him singing and dancing once more—and acting with such caustic vigor in what I feel is his best role ever!Gene Kelly certainly shines at his vibrant best and even the normally bland Cyd Charisse strikes more sparks than usual. A pity the lovely Elaine Stewart is confined to a small, unsympathetic role as Kelly's New York fiancée, and maybe Barry Jones comes over as a bit too preachy a schoolmaster, but otherwise the casting seems perfect.One notable inclusion I must commend is Hugh Laing, a principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, here making his only film appearance. Oddly, Laing is actually required to do very little dancing, but turns in a fascinating and engrossing performance in a pivotal role. I'd also salute Albert Sharpe as the father, Dody Heath as the village siren, and Archer MacDonald as a noisome flannel-suit.In their first CinemaScope venture, Minnelli and Ruttenberg have taken great pains to fill the wide, anamorphic screen to overflowing with action, movement and drama. Congratulations, men!

From director Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, Gigi), I saw who the leading actor and a four star rating, but I didn't know anything about it, so I thought whatever, let's try it. Basically a pair of Americans from New York, Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) have come to Scotland on a hunting vacation, but they have managed to get themselves lost. Then they discover the quaint and cheerful village of Brigadoon, a place not on the map, but later on there is a good explanation for that, and until then Tommy has met Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse). She and all the other residents of the village are looking forward to the big wedding of Fiona's sister Jean (Virginia Bosler) and Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing) before the end of the day. After some love dance sequences between Tommy and Fiona, he and Jeff are told about the enchanted village, there were some witches or something that put a big spell over the village, and it now only wakes up one day every year, and to the villagers it just seems like two days have gone by, not two hundred years. So with time running out Tommy is deciding whether he wants to believe this story and stay in the village with new love Fiona, or leave and risk not seeing her again, he decides that leaving would be a better idea, especially after Jeff accidentally kills someone. Months go by after Tommy and Jeff have returned to New York, but Tommy's love for Fiona still hurts him deep inside, many certain words said in conversation remind him of being in Brigadoon. In the end, Tommy and Jeff take the chance to find the Scottish village again and keep it awake for all time, and obviously they do, and Tommy and Fiona are lovingly reunited. Also starring Elaine Stewart as Jane Ashton, Barry Jones as Mr. Lundie, Albert Sharpe as Andrew Campbell, Jimmy Thompson as Charlie Chisholm Dalrymple, Tudor Owen as Archie Beaton, Owen McGiveney as Angus, Dee Turnell as Ann, Dodie Heath as Meg Brockie and Eddie Quillan as Sandy. Kelly is good both acting and dancing, he did the choreography as well, Charisse does well as his love interest as well, and Johnson gets some good lines and moments too. Some of the songs including "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean", "The Heather on the Hill" and "Almost Like Being In Love" are catchy, and some of the dancing is good, but with dodgy Scottish accents and a little underdeveloped story I can see why this film is overlooked, but not a bad musical. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design and Best Sound, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Cinematography. Very good!

I have quite a Love/Hate relationship with this movie. I Love and hate it for many of the reasons others have stated here. I own a DVD and though parts of are enough to turn my stomach, I watch it at least once a year. Am I Masochistic? Maybe. I suppose my main attraction to it is the fact that it plays on and exaggerates many of the existing Scottish stereotypes of the day. It has so much of the same elements that the the early "blackface" musicals that were every bit as trite and insipid with its contrived accents and characterizations. Its kind of fun to see white people get this kind of treatment. After The Jazz Singer and Amos & Andy it was about time for a little payback.

Superficically, "Brigadoon" is a very promising entertainment package. Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli, the team behind "An American in Paris", are reunited with a lot of the great craftsmen and women behind their previous collaborations. Gene's leading lady is Cyd Charisse, one of the best dancers of 40s/50s cinema, and unlike the generally superior "It's Always Fair Weather" this film gave them the chance for not only one but two dances. Lerner and Loewe were the rising team behind such future hits as "My Fair Lady" and Minnelli's musical masterpiece "Gigi"; Lerner and Minnelli had already demonstrated their sanguine collaborative juices on the excellent "American in Paris."What happened along the way? Why is the movie itself such a stupid bore? Minnelli himself didn't want to do the movie, despite his previous warm artistic and personal relationship with Lerner. Maybe it was because the movie's innate conservatism was just a bit too much of two steps forward for MGM and one step backward for Vincente Minnelli. But once trapped in this assignment like the denizens of Brigadoon are trapped within its city limits, Minnelli strove to turn it into something that would be entertaining in a specifically distracting, if not liberating way. The ultimate result is truly horrific to behold.While aiming for the naive charm of previous Minnelli hits like "Cabin in the Sky" and "Meet Me in St. Louis", the plaid-tights wearing inhabitants of Brigadoon can conjure up none of the illusive nostalgia of those never-have-been locales. Its whimsy doesn't even match up to the glossy luster of "Yolanda and the Thief" or "The Pirate" because the highlands settings seem at the same time too specific for such an exotic fantasy and too generic for real human emotions. The only people in Brigadoon who I at least can relate to are the malcontented man who tries to escape and the unfortunate fellow-traveler played by Van Johnson who accidentally shoots him. The general proceedings in the township of Brigadoon itself are too arcane and provincial even to be attributed to a backwards form of Christianity: they seem positively pagan in their aspect. For example, in exchange for Brigadoon's immortality, the honorable and most generally "good" pastor of the town has sacrificed his own place in the supposedly blessed refuge.At one point we're assured that "everybody's looking for their own Brigadoon." Suffice it to say the box office for this picture confirms my own suspicion that most of us aren't looking for this kind of quasi-queasy paradise. The premise itself is ridiculous and almost insultingly patronizing, but could work if the players were perfect. But Kelly himself is the most patronizing thing about the movie, and Charisse is horribly miscast as a virginal optimist in much the same way as Lucille Bremer was miscast in "Yolanda and the Thief." Van Johnson does his best version of the classic Oscar Levant sidekick to Kelly (even lighting 3 cigarettes at one point like Levant in "AIP"), and he provides a lot of amusing moments. But it says something in itself if the best part of a big budget extravaganza with all the best talents of MGM is a tossed-off Van Johnson performance.