Great movie songs with dance scenes. Great not just good. | Page 6 | The Boneyard

Great movie songs with dance scenes. Great not just good.

Piccadilly, a 1929 movie, A young Chinese woman, working in the kitchen at a London dance club, is given the chance to become the club's main act which soon leads to a plot of betrayal, forbidden love and murder.

 
Michael Bennett did very little movie work. Here is a recreation of his famous "Turkey Lurkey" number from "Promises, Promises". This was a little known movie called "Camp" and yes, that's a VERY young Alexis Kendrick in the background.

 
WestsideWaltz said:
Michael Bennett did very little movie work. Here is a recreation of his famous "Turkey Lurkey" number from "Promises, Promises". This was a little known movie called "Camp" and yes, that's a VERY young Alexis Kendrick in the background.

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Anna Kendrick was quite a prodigy. She was 17 or 18 here. But she was nominated for a Tony at 13 for her role in High Society on Broadway. Talented young lady! Poor Michael Bennett died so young. I think he was married to Donna McKechnie around the time she played Cassie in "A Chorus Line".
 
Okay, another slight deviation. Michael Bennett never really made it to the movies, although he was featured extensively on TV shows like "Hullabaloo". He also did several TV dances for performers like Joey Heatherton. This is a very early work on the Ed Sullivan Show from one of his flops, "Henry Sweet Henry". The late Alice Playten goes after the song "Poor Little Person" like a young Merman. Look in the chorus and you'll see the girl with black braids is none other than Pia Zadora and she does indeed stand out with star quality. The blonde in front is Ilene Kristen who gained some daytime fame as Dee on "Ryan's Hope". Bennett's staging and choreography are completely delightful.

 
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Bama fan said:
Ann Miller from "On the Town". Oh, and there are a couple of other "stiffs" with her.

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Bama, I always thought that Ann Miller was one of the great dancers of her era. She never made it to the "A" list like Ginger Rogers but I thought she danced rings around her.
 
For Bama fan and this strangely ties a bunch of posts together. Ann Reinking made her mark on Broadway in "Over Here!" written by the Sherman Brothers (Mary Poppins) and starring the Andrew Sisters. This big jitterbug number was choreographed by Patricia Birch who also did "Grease" and you can see the similarity to "Born to Hand Jive". In fact, Travolta wanted Annie to play ChaCha in "Grease". Travolta? Yup, he's here as one of the military men. As is Treat Williams and Marilu Henner. Reinking actually broke her back doing the backflip towards the end of the number.

 
WestsideWaltz said:
Attenborough's "A Chorus Line" was not a success but the number he got right was the "One" finale. He modeled it on Bennett's version during the gala when ACL became the longest running show on Broadway at the time.

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IMO, Broadway's best finale!
 
WestsideWaltz said:
For Bama fan and this strangely ties a bunch of posts together. Ann Reinking made her mark on Broadway in "Over Here!" written by the Sherman Brothers (Mary Poppins) and starring the Andrew Sisters. This big jitterbug number was choreographed by Patricia Birch who also did "Grease" and you can see the similarity to "Born to Hand Jive". In fact, Travolta wanted Annie to play ChaCha in "Grease". Travolta? Yup, he's here as one of the military men. As is Treat Williams and Marilu Henner. Reinking actually broke her back doing the backflip towards the end of the number.

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Boy! I thought they always said "break a leg" for luck. Guess poor Ann misunderstood. She was fanatastic!
 
Fosse was proudest of this performance in "My Sister Eileen". Known as "Alley Dance", it was a face off between ballet dancer Tommy Rall and Fosse, He wanted to prove he could keep up with a ballet dancer and also that dance could be masculine. Obviously choreographed by himself, it is Fosse at his performance peak.

 
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Since we've had a Blues Brothers sighting, we have to add Aretha in "Think". The story was Jake and Elmo are trying to put together an All Star Blues Band and they're trying to recruit Aretha's husband. She tells him to think about it. Everyone in the audience knew what was coming next. Jake and Elmo would leave her husband behind and take Aretha on tour. It didn't happen and that was when you knew the movie would flop.

 
WestsideWaltz said:
Since we've had a Blues Brothers sighting, we have to add Aretha in "Think". The story was Jake and Elmo are trying to put together an All Star Blues Band and they're trying to recruit Aretha's husband. She tells him to think about it. Everyone in the audience knew what was coming next. Jake and Elmo would leave her husband behind and take Aretha on tour. It didn't happen and that was when you knew the movie would flop.

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I was going to pick that next. As Jack Black said "Everybody wants to party with Aretha!"
 
Vera Ellen and Gene Kelly dance Slaughter on 10th Avenue. She was incredibly versatile. Danced any style with class and verve. Said to have had the smallest waist in Hollywood in her day. Today she does not get the recognition she deserves.

 
Here is Vera Ellen in her first film role in "Wonder Man". She does an unbelievable tap routine that will leave you totally exhausted and amazed. There is a section of this routine where she taps en pointe. Just fabulous talent and energy.

 
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Last one for now-- wasn't a lot of dancing but awesome song. From 48 Hours. Notmuch from the movie on here. Mostly Sat. Night. But hot song anyways.

 
Dolores Gray was a fairly famous Broadway star who never quite made the transition to Hollywood. In "It's Always Fair Weather", she got her best shot and this great number, "Midnight with Madeline" is total camp and likely inspired drag queens for decades. Gray is one of many who got a bad introduction on "Ed Sullivan". She was sitting in the audience and Sullivan introduced her as "Dolores Gray, who is starving on Broadway". She'd put on a fair amount of weight and the audience laughed when she stood up. Ever the gentleman, Sullivan than said "You can see she's not starving."

 
Barrie Chase is a lesser known Fred Astaire partner, but she was not a lesser talent. More dynamic than some of his other partners, (Arlene Croce called her "a dancing bonfire"), she was a wonderful counterpart to Astaire. Much of her work was on TV.

 
Hoops66 said:
Here's a real oldie
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Hoopster, you beat me to it. THIS was the dance routine I thought of when I first saw this thread. This routine is a classic as much as dancing in the rain, the sound of music, top hat, flash dance and thriller, Thanks for posting it.
 
I would concur with Gene Kelly in "Singin in the Rain"...one of the most nearly perfect scenes ever put on film. I am stunned, however, that no one mentioned the opening scene from "La La Land". I thought the film, on the whole, was overrated, but the opening scene is one of the best 'feel good' scenes in recent years.

 
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