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 2 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
Annie Get Your Gun (1950)	In this entertaining film based upon the Broadway hit, there were two show-stopping Irving Berlin songs: the massively-staged rodeo finale There's No Business Like Show Business (pictured) sung by sharpshooting backwoods cowgirl Annie Oakley (Betty Hutton) and her compatriots, and the competitive challenge duet Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) (pictured) between Hutton and Howard Keel (in his film debut as Frank Butler).
Annie Hall (1977)	This film contained the scene of aspiring but timid singer Annie Hall's (Diane Keaton) Saturday nightclub audition with an unsteady, shaky rendition of It Had To Be You (pictured), performed in a distracting and noisy environment - microphone feedback, the loud crash of dropped plates, a ringing telephone, uninterested oblivious patrons, and other audience distractions made it an awful debut experience; later she performed more self-assuredly with a captivating rendition of Seems Like Old Times (pictured).
Antz (1998)	This DreamWorks computer-animated film contained the marvelous Guantanamera sequence in which worker ant Z-4195 (voice of Woody Allen) and Princess Bala (voice of Sharon Stone) break from the monotonous dancing of the group and improvise ("Why does everyone have to dance the same way? That's completely boring!") by dancing the Batusi from the Batman TV series; it also included Z's joyful infatuated singing of the Lerner and Loewe classic Almost Like Being In Love ("...There's a smile on my face, for the whole insect race / It's almost like being in love!...") afterwards; the ant colony also serenaded with Give Z a Chance - a variation of the famous John Lennon song Give Peace a Chance.
Anything Goes (1936, and 1956)	This archetypal 1930s Paramount film musical from director Lewis Milestone, based upon the 1934 stage musical, was set on a luxury ocean liner voyaging from New York to Southampton; the plot told of romantic endeavors between various passengers including Bing Crosby, Ida Lupino, Arthur Treacher, and Ethel Merman; it included classic Cole Porter songs from the original stage musical, including Ethel Merman's brassy renditions of You're the Top (a duet with Bing Crosby), I Get A Kick Out of You, and the title tune Anything Goes.
Applause (1929)	This landmark musical drama with innovative sound techniques from director Rouben Mamoulian (his first sound film) provided a more realistic and cynical look at seamy backstage life - the chorus line of burlesque dancers in the Zenith Opera House in the film was composed of unattractive, pudgy and washed-up chorines rather than conventional cute blondes; the film featured real-life torch singer Helen Morgan as fading, "washed-up" burlesque star Kitty Darling, the ailing self-sacrificing mother of convent-bred daughter April Darling (Joan Peers); in one early scene, Kitty sang the plaintive What Wouldn't I Do For That Man to a photograph of her unscrupulous, predatory, unfaithful and brutish "Bad Boy" lover Hitch Nelson (Fuller Mellish, Jr.) while he was down the hall (in a triangulated, split-screen view) kissing another chorine; there was also a disturbing end scene in which April forced herself to dance sordid burlesque in front of leering, middle-aged men in place of her ailing mother who was dying from self-poisoning in the dressing room
At Long Last Love (1975)	Homage to musicals of the 30s was attempted by director Peter Bogdanovich in this innovative and original film from Fox, although it was a disaster at the box-office due to its lack of sparkle, dull screenplay and miscasting; it had 16 witty Cole Porter songs (including You're the Top, I Get a Kick Out of You, But in the Morning, No, Most Gentlemen Don't Like Love, It's De-Lovely, Did You Evah?, Just One of Those Things, and the title song) and virtuoso performances, not from the leads (miscast Burt Reynolds or Cybill Shepherd), but from supporting players Madeline Kahn, Duilio Del Prete, Eileen Brennan, Mildred Natwick, and John Hillerman.
Babes in Arms (1939)	Busby Berkeley directed this very successful MGM musical loosely based on the 1937 Rodgers and Hart stage show; this was the first of the many "Mickey-Judy" musicals (the most successful musical team of the studio) produced by Arthur Freed, with Oscar-nominated Rooney as energetic Mickey Moran and Garland as Patsy Barton in a "let's put on a show" plot; they sang the Arthur Freed/Nacio Herb Brown song Good Morning (pictured) (reprised over a decade later in Singin' in the Rain (1952)), and Garland sang the plaintive I Cried For You; during the performance of the title tune, the pair strode through their town gathering others kids to join them, and the film ended with the patriotic finale God's Country (pictured).
Back in the Saddle (1941)	"Singing cowboy" Gene Autry's signature western for Republic Pictures in the early 40s took the name of Autry's Back in the Saddle tune, penned by Ray Whitley; the theme song was originally written by Whitley for RKO Radio's western crime film Border G-Man (1938) starring George O'Brien and then revived for Autry's own Rovin' Tumbleweeds (1939).
Back to the Future (1985)	Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a mid-80s teen stuck in the year 1955, played the lead guitar and sang the 1950's rock 'n' roll song Johnny B. Goode [originally recorded by Chuck Berry in 1958] at his parents' "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" prom night to encourage their romance when the lead musician was put out of commission, but he got carried away during his performance, playing 1980's heavy metal guitar riffs, strumming behind his head, skidding on the floor with his knees and knocking over an amplifier - at the end when he remembered belatedly that he was playing to a 1950's audience, he told the stunned, blankly-starring prom-goers: "I guess you guys aren't ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it!"
The Band Wagon (1953) # 17	This Vincente Minnelli-directed film, with a witty screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, has often been thought of as Fred Astaire's best MGM musical - it included his classic, graceful, and elegant "falling-in-love" dance with ballerina Cyd Charisse in Central Park to the melody of the Howard Dietz-Arthur Schwartz song Dancing In the Dark (pictured); Astaire also performed the solo song By Myself as he strolled down a railroad platform after reporters favored the arrival of Ava Gardner instead, and the duet A Shine On Your Shoes with a black shoeshine boy (Leroy Daniels) in a 42nd Street penny arcade; in addition, in the hilarious Triplets (pictured) - Astaire, Nanette Fabray, and Jack Buchanan were dressed up as baby siblings; the film's jazzy balletic finale Girl-Hunt Ballet (pictured) with long-legged Charisse (as a red-dressed femme fatale) and Astaire was a take-off on the hard-boiled Mickey Spillane detective novels ("She came at me in sections...more curves than the scenic railway"); many also remember the film's anthem song That's Entertainment - a celebration of show-business that was sung by the ensemble (Jack Buchanan, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray), and reprised at the end of the film.
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)	This celebrated MGM film featured the legendary last performance that reunited RKO's dancing pair of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire after a ten-year gap - it was their first and only film in Technicolor; they tap-danced in rehearsal clothes to the lively and light-hearted Bouncin' the Blues (pictured); they also performed The Swing Trot (under the credits) (pictured) the Scottish-flavored song/dance My One and Only Highland Fling; Astaire sang You'd Be So Hard to Replace to Rogers, and he also sang and they danced together to reprise They Can't Take That Away From Me (pictured) (from Shall We Dance (1937)) as well as the film's brief finale number Manhattan Downbeat; the film was also notable for Oscar Levant's keyboard rendition of The Sabre Dance.