LOS ANGELES, CA (American Film Institute/ AFI) - American Film
Institute (AFI) revealed the top 25 movie musicals of all time in The Big Picture - AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals, a one-night only presentation produced by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in cooperation with AFI. 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.
Rounding off the top 10 were movie musicals from the 1930s to today, including: WEST SIDE STORY (No 2); THE WIZARD OF OZ (No 3); THE SOUND OF MUSIC (No 4); CABARET (No 5); MARY POPPINS (No 6); A STAR IS BORN (No 7); MY FAIR LADY (No 8); AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (No 9); and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (No 10).
Spanning a century of film music and counting down from 25 to number one throughout the evening, Director John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed excerpts from each of the winning musicals, many of them accompanied by favorite movie scenes shown on the Bowl's big video screens. While television broadcasts have announced the previous nine installments of AFI's 100 Years ... series, following the success of last year's AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, this is now the second time an AFI countdown was revealed before a live audience.
The Honorees Are ...
FILM TITLE - YEAR - STUDIO
1 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN - 1952 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
2 WEST SIDE STORY - 1961 United Artists
3 WIZARD OF OZ, THE - 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
4 SOUND OF MUSIC, THE - 1965 Twentieth Century-Fox
5 CABARET - 1972 Allied Artists
6 MARY POPPINS - 1964 Disney
7 STAR IS BORN, A - 1954 Warner Bros.
8 MY FAIR LADY - 1964 Warner Bros.
9 AMERICAN IN PARIS, AN - 1951 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
10 MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS - 1944 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
11 KING AND I, THE - 1956 Twentieth Century-Fox
12 CHICAGO - 2002 Miramax
13 42ND STREET - 1933 Warner Bros.
14 ALL THAT JAZZ - 1979 Twentieth Century-Fox, Columbia
15 TOP HAT - 1935 RKO
16 FUNNY GIRL - 1968 Columbia
17 BAND WAGON, THE - 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
18 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY - 1942 Warner Bros.
19 ON THE TOWN - 1949 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
20 GREASE - 1978 Paramount
21 SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS - 1954 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
22 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - 1991 Disney
23 GUYS AND DOLLS - 1955 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
24 SHOW BOAT - 1936 Universal
25 MOULIN ROUGE! - 2001 Twentieth Century Fox
Created as a sidebar to AFI's popular AFI's 100 Years ... series, AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals continues the mission of this program - to reignite an interest in classic American cinema. This theme additionally befits the Hollywood Bowl's annual movie night, which brings to life the music of the world's most beloved films.
AFI's 100 Years ... series has garnered considerable attention from movie lovers around the world - and consistently sparks national discussions of America's film history. Previous programs within this series have included AFI 100 Years ... 100 Movies (1998), ... 100 Stars (1999), ... 100 Laughs (2000), ... 100 Thrills (2001), ... 100 Passions (2002), ... 100 Heroes & Villains (2003), ... 100 Songs (2004), ... 100 Movie Quotes (2005) and ... 100 Cheers (2006).
