MovieChat Forums > There's No Business Like Show Business (1955) Discussion > Not about the plot ...

Not about the plot ...

posted 13 years ago by dmnemaine
5 replies | jump to latest

I wonder if a lot of people don't understand the kind of film that this was supposed to be. The story isn't what's important here. It's a paper thin plot about the trials and tribulations of a show biz family on which to hang the real point of the film -- the Irving Berlin song catalogue. There were quite a few films from the late 30s on through the mid 50s that followed the same type of format. Most of those were bio-pics of a famous composer, singer, lyricist, etc. In this case, the music itself is the showcase. The plots were never much to write home about, but the music and performances were usually big and spectacular. The audiences of the day knew what to expect from this type of film, and they adjusted their "suspension of disbelief" accordingly. People today aren't familiar with this particular film genre (actually the film musical in general for that matter), and have a hard time getting past the thinness of the plot to what the film was really made for -- enjoying and being entertained by the lavish musical numbers.

[–] catmanofquincy 13 years ago

You hit the nail right on the head! Too many contemporary audiences see this film and have so many complaints about it, having no idea what the musical movies of the 1930's - 1950's were all about. The title card of the film says it all: "Irving Berlin's 'There's No Business Like Show Business'." I've read complaints about Marilyn Monroe and Johnnie Ray's performances in this film and their styles fit this film perfectly--for the time period in which this film was produced. The film starred leading mostly musical stars of the period and featured the music of Irving Berlin, all in a film about a show business family and their ups and downs over the decades, again, all centered around the music of Irving Berlin.

I recently assistant directed a community theatre production of "Paint Your Wagon," the ORIGINAL stage production, not what became the 1969 Clint Eastwood-Lee Marvin-Jean Seberg film. The original stage production was from the early 1950's when audiences expected lavish musical numbers with lots of singing AND dancing. Today's audiences don't have the patience for all of that, so we cut quite a bit of the dancing out of the show--it amounted to about 50+ pages of music!

My point is that this movie exemplifies a 1950's musical film--it's overblown and contains varying degrees of acting and singing styles--PERFECT for a 1950's musical film! Sit back, relax and enjoy this slice of 1950's cinematic Americana and let your imagination wander.

[–] dmnemaine 13 years ago

I would love to see the stage version of "Paint Your Wagon". In my opinion, the 1969 film version stinks. Anyway, that's a rabbit trail. I think the problem with modern audiences is that people have been brought up for a couple of generations now on "instant" everything -- so they expect their entertainment to be the same way.

[–] katesgram2000 12 years ago

Exactly- it is about entertainment-the singing-the dancing-and most of all the music.

[–] marktayloruk (2380) 2 years ago

Revived in London in90s. I enjoyed it.

[–] 12 years ago

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