Brigadoon

source: Brigadoon

I think this movie is one of the better musicals to come out of the '50s. Gene Kelley and Van Johnson make such a great team, it's a shame they didn't do more movies together. Johnson's timing and sarcastic remarks are truly funny. Cyd Charrise is also enjoyable in her Scottish role. This movie is very enjoyable for the whole family.

Woefully thin plot about two American hunters in Scotland stumbling across a small village under a magical spell proves to be too twee for even Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse to juice up! Movie-treatment of Lerner and Lowe's successful Broadway musical is full of forced charm (and forced accents), processed through the mechanical magic of director Vincente Minnelli. Kelly, who also choreographed the dance numbers, cannot belie his lack of faith in this material, which may be why wiseacre sidekick Van Johnson gets the only laughs with the leaden dialogue. Sugary, flat, and forgettable, a seat-numbing experience. *1/2 from ****

I saw Brigadoon on TV last night (12 Sept 2009). I am 61 years old and have been watching films as long as I can remember. I can truthfully say that Brigadoon stands alone as by far and away the worst film I have ever seen. The accents were shameful. The local children's club would have produced better sets. The characters were so wooden that they probably contracted dry rot from the tears of the patrons who had the misfortune to watch them. It is to be hoped that the stars of this film had hides thick enough to protect them from the embarrassment which they must have suffered on seeing this film. The owners of this tripe should perform a great service to mankind and destroy all copies of this film.

This film has to be one of the worst musicals I have ever seen. The plot was well nigh to ridiculously bad, and this was only one of a myriad of problems. The scenery of brigadoon on the hills was an obvious painting and the set complete with livestock was absolutely ghastly not to mention the awful fake scoottish accents. Those gaudy plaid pants the guys were wearing in the town and thge way everyone was dressed in general was terribly ludicrous in every aspect. The long dance numbers oh my God they were terrible and boring. Am I supposed to believe that a man who was engaged to be married is going to fall so in love because he picked flowers with a girl that he would give up his entire life. The only redeeming aspect of the movie was the amusing actions and comments of Van Johnson's character. Stay away from this movie at all costs.

Much has been made of the fact that Vincente Minnelli didn't want to direct the film version of the stage hit "Kismet" in 1955 but was forced to by mean, nasty MGM (in order for him to take on "Lust for Life"). The film he should have skipped, one year earlier, was this miserable desecration of one of the crowned jewels of Broadway musicals. All of the gossimer magic (and nearly all of the songs) were lost during the transition from stage to screen. Instead, this flat-footed bore might as well be entitled "The Gene Kelly Show." Even the few grand songs remaining are butchered into tiresome dance routines by the camera-swallowing, egomaniacal Kelly. "Almost Like Being in Love" was a soaring romantic duet on stage. Here, Kelly sings it solo, then breaks into a dance routine. Cyd Charisse is perfectly adequate as his romantic lead, but she too is shortchanged (allowed only one song--the best in the film--"Waiting for My Dearie" with her voice dubbed; dancewise, she gets short shrift from Kelly and Minnelli). Kelly & Minnelli groused because MGM's budget cutbacks prevented them from filming on-location in Scotland; thus "Brigadoon" had to be created on MGM's vast soundstages (with some of the ugliest, tackiest production design in the studio's history). That same limitation didn't hurt "Seven Bridges for Seven Brothers," MGM's modestly-budgeted "ugly step-sister" to "Brigadoon." "Brides" went on to become a box office smash and an enduring classic. "Brigadoon" (on which MGM pinned its hopes) was a deserved critical and box office dud. Any highschool (much less professionally mounted) production of "Brigadoon" is certain to be superior to the distinctively unenchanting film version. And I beg to differ with all the other IMDb commentators that MGM initially purchased the screen rights as a vehicle for Kathryn Grayson & Howard Keel--and what a disaster that would have been. Not so. At least, the classic score would have survived virtually intact, and Grayson & Keel would have sung it to absolute perfection! Fortunately, 12 years later, a glorious production of "Brigadoon" was telecast as a TV special; the deleted songs were restored and sung to perfection by the perfectly-cast Robert Goulet and Sally Ann Howes, who also recreated the wistful magic totally absent from MGM's expensive dud. "Brigadoon" should be seen, and this is the version to see!

Other commentors have criticized this movie up and down for its casting, props, stage, singing and dancing. I don't profess to be an expert on any of those things. I enjoy movies and I enjoyed this one. It is the story line that gets me most. That an entire village appears for just one day every 100 years may be far fetched but is great fantasy. I'll have to admit that I've enjoyed this story more in live theater than the movie version, but the movie version is much easier to pop in the VCR for anytime viewing. I think its a great movie and might make a great remake if someone was willing to address the criticisms left here by other commentors.

I have to agree with all those viewers who had issues with this film - it is really a horrible version of a charming show! The idea of Gene Kelly isn't bad in itself- - he has the right kind of personality for Tommy. Even his voice, while not " up to it", is okay in terms of character- - Howard Keel would have been ALL WRONG ! But Kelly was a horrible choice for choreographer. So we are subjected to more of those Kelly-Charisse pas de deux which are totally inappropriate for the story line: too sophisticated!, and not enough of the folk dance-inspired numbers that DeMille did so successfully! In fact, the dancing was much of the success of the original production. Add to this the fake scenery ( complete with livestock ! ), the really bad 'fifties-looking costumes (by Sharaff, of all people, who should have done better ! )and the downplaying of all the character roles, and you're left with a Gene Kelly vehicle. As for Cyd, she is TOTALLY miscast ! Can't sing a note, therefore dubbed, and completely wrong personality. Even her looks are all wrong ! MGM was going into a really bad phase of musical producing ( viz " ShowBoat"), but this was one of the worst adaptations of what had been a great show !

Can fake scenery ruin a picture? You wouldn't think so, but it actually for me in here. Listen, I have a lot of classic-era movies and I know pretty much what to except, such as the drivers steering immobile cars in front of a screen, etc. But a lot of that hokey business has to do with action scenes. To have fake scenery, fake mountains and flowers shot after shot as seen in "Brigadoon" gets insulting after awhile. As far as the music entertainment went, this is always subjective. What songs one person likes, another may not so that shouldn't be a big part of judging a film (whether someone likes the songs). I could blast this movie for its corny 1950 songs, dances, romances and characters but that was the '50s and a lot of people liked this sort of things. Musicals did very well in the '50s. Me, I liked the '30s and '40s with the great taps. By the '50s, tap was out and this new stuff - which I can stand - was it. Does that make this a lousy movie? No. It just makes one I didn't care for very much Despite the good cast, good director and high expectations, this film bombed at the box office, and with me. I should have liked it more, being a dreamer myself and that's a nice part of this story. I am not the cynical type and a nice town and nice people making me feel good sounds awful appeal. Then why couldn't I connect with this film? Part of it also was the dancing. I don't care for the stuff that replaced tap dancing on screen. But - no - the thing really turned me off what that staging. There was no Scotland, no highlands, just a hokey- looking background to make it look that way and it turned me almost from the start. Score one point for today's realism where they "go on location" most of the time.

What more can be said about Vincente Minnelli's "Brigadoon" (1954)? It is a charming and ethereal bit of musical blarney set in a mythical Scottish village that materializes from the highland mist once every hundred years. The film stars Gene Kelly (Tommy Albright) and Van Johnson (Jeff Douglas) as a pair of American vacationers hunting grouse on holiday. Jeff is the bitter cynic; Tommy, a cockeyed idealist. Both of these vices will be put to the test when the two stumble across Brigadoon's quaintly out of touch folk. At first marveling over the rustic backwardness of their new discovery, the pair quickly realize that something strange is afoot. When Tommy develops more than a passing interest in the sumptuous beauty, Fiona (Cyd Charisse), she eventually confesses the truth about Brigadoon; that its hallowed ground and prophesy will prevent she and Tommy of ever being together. Made during a period in MGM's history where the purse strings were being tightened on all film budgets, "Brigadoon" arguably suffers from being confined to a series of indoor sets that are, after all, paper mache with canvas backing. Both Minnelli and Gene Kelly petitioned the studio to let the film be made on location in Scotland, but to no avail. Yet, in a retrospective of fifty plus years, none of Brigadoon's obvious artifice seems to matter. In fact, it enhances the mythical quality in much the same way as the old MGM has since vanished into the mists of time. What is prevalent and obvious throughout the film is that Minnelli has made the absolute most of the resources granted him. The sets are marvelous and detailed. The dance sequences, particularly "The Gathering of the Clans" and "Wedding Dance" are miracles of staging and execution. Kelly and Charisse's "Heather on the Hill" is sublime, while "Go Home With Bonnie Jean" provides the sort of grand spectacle that MGM musicals were quite famous for. Warner's DVD is a mixed blessing. After previously made available in a non-anamorphic transfer (the worst of all possible solutions), this new incarnation is enhanced for widescreen televisions. However, "Brigadoon" was shot during a period in Hollywood's history where no one was certain whether the grandeur of Cinemascope would catch on. Hence, the film was shot twice, once in the anamorphic process, the other in a full frame Academy ratio. Though the Academy version was never theatrically released, it would have been of considerable interest to both film historians and buffs to have both it and the Cinemascope version presented here for posterity. Unfortunately, only the Cinemascope version survives. Warner's DVD is nicely balanced. The color, by Ansco, is rich (if not quite as rich as Technicolor might have been), with blazon reds, deep greens and powerful yellows. Black and contrast levels are deep and solid. A hint of edge enhancement appears in the thatched rooftops of the village but nothing that will distract. The audio is 5.1 and quite a powerful presentation; uncharacteristically rich and vibrant beyond expectation. Three outtake musical numbers are all the extras offered up on this occasion.