19. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

One of Disney’s most beautiful films, Beauty and the Beast not only has an incredible score, but the character’s are amazing. I fell in love with Belle (Paige O’Hara) and the Beast (Robby Benson) of course, but every bit as much with Lumiere (Jerry Orbach) and Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury) the animated characters. It’s also the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award’s Best Picture.

When watching the Beauty and the Beast for the first time it wasn’t like I was watching a cartoon or even an animated film, instead I was transported to another reality where dreams really can come true. Corny and cheesy, yes, but isn’t that what love stories are all about and I love a good love story.

20. Top Hat (1935)

It would be tragic to pick the top 25 musicals and not include at least one with the most famous dance team in movie history: the very defining duo of grace and elegance, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers! Top Hat is the best in a great series of films starring the pair. Great music, incredible dance sequences and some of the best chemistry on screen, make this film unmatched in pure ballroom joy.

Top Hat is also one of their funniest. When Rogers mistakes Edward Everett Horton for Astaire the action is hilarious and that is only one of the great scenes. I love this film. The story is great, the characters excellent and, of course, the dancing is some of the best you will ever see in a movie. I’ve watched Top Hat a dozen times and never get tired of it.

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21. Showboat (1951)

Once again, Howard Keel stars in a sometimes grim, sometimes funny take on the grand old days of the great Mississippi paddle wheel steamboats. Showboats once traveled “Ol’ Man River” picking up audiences, gamblers and travelers and presenting some of the best melodramas of the time. There was always plenty of dancing, singing, food and drink at, usually, a reasonable price. Having grown up on the Mississippi, just twenty miles from Hannibal, Missouri, I have a special love for the great waterway and it’s history.

Showboat captures much about that history and also the joy and pain of the time. Add in one of the greatest casts ever collected: Keel, Ava Gardner, Kathryn Grayson, Joe E. Brown, Agnes Moorehead and Robert Sterling, among many others; it’s no wonder that Showboat commands an important place in Americana, and American film. And, it’s a really good story too.

One note: if you’ve never seen (or heard) William Warfield singing Ol’ Man River you should immediately stop in your tracks…march right to your computer and get on Youtube. Type in William Warfield and Ol Man River and be thrilled. I get chills and can’t think of anything that lasts three minutes that’s any better! You will thank me. Or better yet, here it is!

22. Oliver! (1968)

Charles Dickens is one of the best known writers in the history of the world. His bleak depiction of the British Isles, and particularly London, combine with a transcendent ability to create brilliant characters to make his work uniquely suited to stage and film. A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield and, of course, Oliver Twist, among many others, have reached countless millions of fans.

Oliver! Is one of the best of these: with great music, a wonderful cast and the best Fagin (Ron Moody) and Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) I’ve ever seen. Fagin’s Reviewing the Situation makes Oliver! a must pick in the top 25!

23. Kiss Me Kate (1953)

Based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and one of the cleverer of the musical comedies, Kiss Me Kate is two running stories at once. One, the actual play, with Howard Keel as the indomitable Petruchio and Kathryn Grayson as shrewish Katharine and the other: the story of Fred Graham (also Keel) and Lilli Vanessi (also Grayson), the stars of the play. They are divorced but obviously still in love. Their battles, in the film, are legendary as were those in the original Shakespeare masterpiece and great fun.

Keel, as always, brilliant to a fault, is the musical equivalent of Clark Gable: loved by women and respected by men. His presence on the screen is riveting and his voice and bearing majestic. Taking nothing away from Grayson, she of the flashing eyes and beautiful face, has a grace and power on both screen and stage that’s almost incomparable. The play is brilliant and the understory great fun. It also has an incredible dance number with Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), two of America’s greatest dancers. The only thing keeping it from a much higher place on my list is the gimmicky feel. (Pardon me if it seems I tend toward hyperbole, but I assure you I do not. These actors/dancers are that good!)

24. South Pacific (1958)

      Brilliantly made with a superlative cast and great direction by Joshua Logan, South Pacific is also of the one of the largest in scope. Set during WWII and against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful areas in the world, South Pacific is a deadly serious, brilliant and chilling look at love and loss in paradise. The music is unsurpassed, the plot excellent if a bit predictable and the performances superb. Only it’s, perhaps, too large plot make it less approachable than many other, musicals. It also seems a bit dated in today’s world, but I heartily recommend it to anyone.

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Hey everyone! I’m going to try something new here at Movie Madness. I’m going to start with top 25 lists of some of my favorite categories. These are my picks so don’t blame Doug, Mr. Jeremy, Steph or Jason.

I’m going to start with one I saw as a little boy. It was a stage musical at the famous Muny Theater in St. Louis, as I recall, with the original cast. It began a love for live theater that has never waned. Imagine my surprise when, in 1959, the film version arrived in our local theater. I begged my aunt to take me and my number 25 musical became forever etched in stone.

25. Li’l Abner (1959)

Yea, okay, I got it. Li’l Abner, one of the best musicals ever? I would argue yes. The film is so true to the stage musical that I, at eight years old, was singing along during the film. With great music, a great cast and great watchability, Li’l Abner is such a wild eyed and wonderful recreation of a classic comic that it blows nearly every other attempt away. And guess what, Jerry Lewis has an uncredited appearance in the film as Itchy McRabbit! How could that be bad. The only knock on the film is that it seems to be hidden away in some vault and played seldom on TV.