Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen
Directors of Golden Age Hollywood Musicals
Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen
Directors of Golden Age Hollywood Musicals
Description
An introduction to movie musicals in the golden age of Hollywood and the directors that brought them to the big screen.
The role directors have played in American cinema cannot be overstated, particularly how they shaped and developed the medium during Hollywood's golden age. Little appreciation has been paid though to the individual directors' accomplishments with regards to the musical film, a genre that remains popular today. When the first film musicals were made, there were no experienced movie directors for the new genre. Instead of recruiting stage directors, Hollywood turned to the seasoned directors currently under contract and assigned them to make talkies with song and dance.
In Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen, Thomas S. Hischak looks at the contribution that twenty-seven Hollywood directors made to the art of the movie musical during the exciting and prolific golden age of cinema. Some directors flourished with the new genre; others struggled and eventually were only assigned to traditional films. Some unknown directors found their niche in making musicals and much of their subsequent careers were in the new genre. Yet even those directors who made only a handful of musicals sometimes delivered musical classics. This book will look at them all, focusing on the directors' musicals and how they compare to their non-musical works.
Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen covers movie musicals made from the first talkies up through the 1950s, from The Jazz Singer in 1927 to Gigi in 1958. Hischak explores the directors' careers and film musicals chronologically and includes biographical information for each director. Readers will learn about both famous and obscure film musicals, making this the perfect guide for movie and musical fans alike.
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Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: All Singing, No Talking
Alan Crosland and The Jazz Singer
Chapter 2: The Pioneers
Harry Beaumont; Lloyd Bacon; King Vidor
Chapter 3: Outside the Box
Thornton Freeland; W. S. Van Dyke; James Whale
Chapter 4: Something with Style
Rouben Mamoulian; Ernst Lubitsch; Vincente Minnelli
Chapter 5: Prolific Professionals
Norman Taurog; Roy Del Ruth; David Butler; Michael Curtiz; Walter Lang
Chapter 6: Star Handlers
Irving Cummings; Mark Sandrich; Richard Thorpe; Charles Vidor
Chapter 7: Not Who You'd Expect
Raoul Walsh; George Stevens; George Cukor; Victor Fleming
Chapter 8: Choreographer to Director
Busby Berkeley; Charles Walters; Stanley Donen; Gene Kelly
Appendix: Directors and Their Film Musical Credits
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Product details
| Published | Oct 16 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 264 |
| ISBN | 9781538195833 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 15 bw photos |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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