The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
The buoyant Molly Brown has survived the first crisis of her life—a flood. Sixteen years later she sets out to make her way in the world. She assures the Leadville saloon keeper that she can sing and play the piano, and learns quickly. Soon she marries Johnny Brown, who in a few years will be able to replace the original cigar wrapper wedding ring with a replica in gold and gemstones. The Browns head for Europe and bring a few crowned heads back to Denver for a party that turns into a ballroom brawl. Molly goes to Europe alone, returning on the Titanic. She didn't survive a flood as a baby for the story to end here.
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Best movie of this year hands down!
To me, this movie is perfection.
So much average
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
You must watch some movies twice to understand all that is present in a movie. The first time was good but not knowing the songs or the meaning behind the music made it seem long. BUT the second and later viewings fills in all that you miss on the first time. Please see twice or more and feel the emotions of this one.This is a very good movie for a musical, the acting and love story is also very good. Must watch till the end. By the way you would be surprised where some of these actors show up in later years.This is a semi true story of Molly Brown a real person of some fame. Hollywood has added music and a story to match the music. A young woman is bored with her poor rural life and dreams of making it rich in a big city. We follow her steps on the way to making all come true with love, laughs and music. There is a true meaning in this movie, do not watch for it, the point of the movie shows up at the end.
Today is the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and here I am reading the reviews of "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and listening to the CD of the Broadway musical, which I saw 14 years ago tonight in NYC. "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" is a movie that I've loved ever since my Mom dragged the whole family to see in 1964 when it came out. My reaction after reading a lot of these reviews is that most of the naysayers should lighten up. It is a musical COMEDY film made right at the end of the studio era in Hollywood. In comedy performers are quite broad. This wasn't a film that was supposed to be sophisticated...remember that one of the biggest TV hits of the time was "The Beverly Hillbillies." In my opinion Debbie Reynolds should have taken home the Oscar for Best Actress as she nails the part in all 3 aspects--singing, dancing, and acting. If you disagree with me about the acting, just re-watch the scene in Europe when she encounters Gladys MacGraw in the fancy restaurant while she's missing Johnny. Julie was wonderful too, but her character of Mary Poppins was rather a one-note one. She won simply because she was denied the role of Eliza Dolittle by Jack Warner, and she was much, much better that year in "The Americanization of Emily" and in 1965 in "The Sound of Music." "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" is one of the last of the old-style Hollywood musicals and rates as the 7th best film of 1964 on my 10 Best List for that year. (Yes, "My Fair Lady," "Dr. Strangelove," and "Mary Poppins" are 1, 2, and 3) And in 1989 I got to see Debbie and Harve repeat their roles from this film LIVE on stage and they were just as wonderful!
Debbie Reynolds in her book "Debbie My Story" tells that Director Chuck Walters drove to Reynolds Beverly Hills home in a monsoon rain storm to beg Debbie Reynolds to not do this film. It seems Shirley MacLaine had been under the assumption that She would be the star and Walters also wanted Shirley MacLaine. Ms.Reynolds writes that Shirley MacLaine herself called Debbie Reynolds to read her the riot act, that the role was MacLaine's and Debbie Reynolds somehow stole it. As we all know Ms. Reynolds went on to do the movie and gave an Academy Award Nominating Performance in this smash hit MGM film that co starred Harve Presnell. Ms.Reynolds writes in her book some of the great extravagant dance sequences were budgeted for one take only putting added stress on Reynolds and the cast. The film is rip roaring success and very enjoyable. Debbie Reynolds in her book tells Shirley MacLaine during their argument that "this is my last chance at a big role,you will have many more". Debbie Reynolds was right. (Shirley MacLaine years later would play "Debbie" in Postcards From The Edge, perhaps a bit of payback?) I recommend this colorful and great musical from the greatest studio of its time MGM.
The movie musical by this time was already breathing its last. Perhaps all genres go through a life cycle and eventually fade away, or so most observers believe. But I think there was a more fundamental shift at work, a shift in how we see film stories. Musicals demand that we enter a work that wavers between reality (in the story) and a stylized non-reality where a song-and-dance theatrical entertainment is presented. Since the 60s, we've been unwilling to shift realities without one of the explicit conventions that have evolved, some quite sophisticated.They tried something like one of these conventions by having an onstage "band" whenever Christmas and gang appeared.But there are other interesting things about this project. First, that it really is rooted in reality, more so than others of its ilk. At least Molly Brown did live, and her life was roughly as depicted. Second, there was another fold with reality: a celebrity scandal involving the "good" Debbie and the "bad" Liz, with Debbie fighting back (as a pudgy 32 year old).But there's another level that is lost today. The 60's in particular and the decades before as well were periods when the American social conscience was in a "populist" camp. Movies and books reflected this: the rich were either evil, or selfish, or blind or simply stupid while the real wisdom and joy and meaning of America was found in its "ordinary" people.Many were the dramas that reduced things as they are here: genuine but rough, simple people contrasted with the stodgy, sober unimaginative rich. That was before the American scene shifted. Most people now consider themselves middle class and don't mind being a bit pretentious consumption-wise. What was "simple" and "genuine" has been co-opted by their commercial abstractions in various worlds ("country" and "hiphop" for example).The model for "Molly" has now shifted to the explicitly dumb but well-intentioned and pure- hearted as in "Legally Blond."Once again, we have a Technicolor redheaded heroine. She's no Charisse and danced with a loping wide athletic stance that Gene Kelly would famously criticize. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.