Musical (Song and Dance) Movie Moments and Scenes

Greatest Musical (Song and Dance) Movie Moments and Scenes

The following listing (in multiple parts) was an attempt to compile a collection of many of the greatest song and dance moments in film history. Though the list appears to be dominated by musicals, other genres were examined and included.

Those that are exceptional examples of the development of song/dance are marked with this symbol:

AFI's 25 Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time are marked with an icon and their ranking number (#)

Another point of reference for this kind of material may be found in the AFI's selections of 100 Years...100 Songs and in this site's genre writeup of "Musical Films".

Greatest Musical - Song and Dance Movie Moments and Scenes (alphabetical) - Part 13 Part 1 \| Part 2 \| Part 3 \| Part 4 \| Part 5 \| Part 6 \| Part 7 \| Part 8 \| Part 9 \| Part 10 \| Part 11 \| Part 12 \| Part 13 \| Part 14 \| Part 15 \| Part 16 \| Part 17 \| Part 18 \| Part 19 \| Part 20 \| Part 21 \| Part 22 \| Part 23 \| Part 24 \| Part 25
Movie Title	Brief Scene Description	Example
Hello, Dolly! (1969)	After her success in Funny Girl (1968), Barbra Streisand starred in this ill-considered, cumbersome Fox film directed by dancer Gene Kelly -- it was a big-budget musical version of Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker that had opened on Broadway in 1964; the musical was the most expensive ($20 million) produced up to its time, and starred Streisand as a miscast widowed Jewish matchmaker named Dolly Levi -- she sang the famous title song Hello, Dolly! (pictured) in the Harmonia Gardens sequence where she was joined by gravel-voiced bandleader and trumpeter Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong who sang: "Well, hello... Dolly! It's so nice to have you back where you belong"; the film also included Before the Parade Passes By (pictured) staged with a large parade down a reconstructed 14th Street in 1890s NYC.
Help! (1965)	In this Fab Four spoof of the James Bond films, the Beatles sang many classic, memorable tunes, including the title song Help!, You're Gonna Lose That Girl, Ticket to Ride, and You've Got to Hide Your Love Away.
Hercules (1997)	In this Disney animation (their 35th) - their first feature film inspired by Greek mythology, young Hercules (voice of Roger Bart) sang the triumphant Oscar-nominated original song Go the Distance (pictured) ("...I am on my way, I can go the distance..."); there were also many lively Greek Chorus gospel soul group do-wop songs including the opening credits expositionary song Long Ago... ("Long ago, in the faraway land of ancient Greece, there was a golden age of powerful gods and extraordinary heroes..." initially narrated by the voice of Charlton Heston).
High Society (1956)	This entertaining Technicolored MGM musical with a Cole Porter score (with an Academy Award nomination for Best Score) - a tuneful remake of director George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story (1940) set in Newport with Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart, starred miscast Bing Crosby (as ex-husband CK Dexter Haven), Frank Sinatra (as writer Mike Connor), and Grace Kelly (in her last film, as rich girl Tracy Samantha Lord); memorable moments included Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong's singing of the title song (pictured) in the back of a limousine in calypso style with his band to outline the plot like a Greek chorus, Sinatra's seductive singing of You're Sensational (pictured) to Kelly, the teaming of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in a clever duet Well, Did You Evah? (pictured), the romantic popular Oscar-nominated hit song True Love (pictured) performed by Crosby and Grace Kelly, and Crosby's lively duet of Now You Has Jazz with Louis Armstrong's jazz band during the Newport Jazz Festival.
History of the World: Part 1 (1981)	Director/writer/producer/actor Mel Brooks appeared as the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition in this episodic comedy; he was featured leading a lengthy song and dance musical number in which he sang with a chorus of monks: "The Inquisition, Let's begin, The Inquisition, Look out, sin, We have a Mission, To Convert the Jews!..."; the sequence ended with an Esther Williams/Busby Berkeley set piece production depicting water torture (for the persecution of the Jews) which was introduced by Torquemada: "We'll flatten their fingers, we've branded their buns! Nothing is working! Send in the nuns!" - a long row of nuns appeared, removed their black and white habits to reveal one piece white bathing suits and caps - and then dove into a large pool and performed a synchronized swimming routine.
Holiday Inn (1942)	This Paramount homefront musical with 14 Irving Berlin songs teamed Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in the first of their two appearances together; as song-and-dance men who competed in a love triangle for the same girl (Marjorie Reynolds), mellow-voiced Crosby delivered his first screen performance of Berlin's timeless classic and poignant Oscar-winning Best Song White Christmas (pictured) - the best-selling single in any music category for more than 50 years - the song would become the title tune for the remake White Christmas (1954), starring Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen; Astaire's best and most spectacular dance number was Say It With Firecrackers (pictured) - punctuated by exploding fireworks.
Hollywood Hotel (1937)	This lively and amusing Busby Berkeley-directed musical comedy, about small-town jazz band member Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell) winning a Hollyw0od talent contest and being assigned as his prize to escort a starlet to a movie premiere - in a case of mistaken identity, was famous for its musical numbers, although it appeared to be the last of the cycle of lavish musicals: its numbers included the theme song Hooray for Hollywood ("Hooray for Hollywood / That screwy, bally-hooey Hollywood..."), and I'm Like a Fish Out of Water (pictured) - sung by Dick Powell and Lola Lane (as Mona Marshall) while wading in a fountain.
Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)	MGM's elaborate, Best Picture-nominated film at the dawn of the talkies was an early all-star musical Broadway revue with many star performers from Hollywood that contained some color sequences; it was hosted by Jack Benny (including a bit in drag) and Conrad Nagel, and starred Joan Crawford (singing Gotta Feeling For You), Bessie Love, comedians Laurel and Hardy (bumbling through magic tricks), Marie Dressler singing For I'm the Queen (pictured), Buster Keaton, Marion Davies performing Tommy Atkins on Parade and tap-dancing on a large drum, and Norma Shearer and John Gilbert reprising (in color) the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet; its most famous and popular song was the first rendition of Singin' In the Rain (pictured), sung by Cliff ("Ukelele Ike") Edwards playing a ukulele with a chorus of showgirls in raincoats during a downpour - and the song was also reprised at the climax of the film when the entire cast appeared in yellow raincoats.
How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955)	Sheree North, an attempted carbon-copy blonde replacement for Marilyn Monroe, starred in this musical comedy opposite Betty Grable (her last film) after the unwilling blonde star walked off and refused to do this picture for Fox; in one of its more talked-about sequences, North stripped off her gray graduation gown and performed a rock and roll dance to Shake, Rattle & Roll on the stage during the ceremony.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)	This musical comedy film version virtually duplicated Frank Loesser's Tony Award-winning Broadway musical from 1961 - it included two stars reprising their roles from the stage: Robert Morse (as ex-window washer and ambitious, up-and-coming corporate executive J. Pierpont Finch), and Rudy Vallee as his pompous boss J. B. Biggley - both employed in the World Wide Wicket Company; a few of the film's catchy tunes included A Secretary is Not a Toy (pictured), the irreverent The Company Way (pictured), the romantic ballad I Believe in You (pictured), the mock college fight song Grand Old Ivy, and the finale Brotherhood of Man (pictured).
Idiot's Delight (1939)	Clark Gable made his musical debut in this MGM film (a version of Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play) as American entertainer Harry Van, with a slightly inferior song-dance rendition of Puttin' on the Ritz, with a straw hat, white cane and bevy of dancing girls (his traveling all-girl troupe of "Les Blondes") behind him.