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 5 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
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)	Woody Allen's Roaring Twenties-era show-business comedy included virtuoso chorus girl renditions of hit standards, such as You've Got To See Mamma Ev'ry Night Or You Can't See Mamma At All, That Certain Feeling, and Nagasaki.
Bus Stop (1956)	Would-be saloon singer Cherie (pronounced Cherry) (Marilyn Monroe) performed an off-key, inept, but innocently sensual rendition of That Old Black Magic in the Blue Dragon - a run-down honky-tonk night-club in Phoenix - at the end of the number, she turned a red spotlight on herself to look "aflame".
Cabaret (1972) # 5	This multiple Oscar-winning film by Best Director-winning Bob Fosse, one of the greatest and most unconventional musicals of the 70s, opened with a bawdy but cheerful dance number Wilkommen by Berlin's seedy Kit Kat Club's androgynous, leering, devilish, white-faced emcee/master of ceremonies (Oscar-winning Joel Grey); then followed the sexy, energetic number Mein Herr by hedonistic American dancer/singer expatriate Sally Bowles (Oscar-winning Liza Minnelli) wearing a black derby hat and a deep V-necked costume reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich; they performed a duet of Money, Money ("Money makes the world go round"); the film was also noted for the chilling scene at an outdoor German beer garden cafe in which a seemingly innocent pastoral ode to Germany sung by a fresh-faced, tenor-voiced blonde youth, Tomorrow Belongs to Me turned into a Nazi rally - it was revealed that he was wearing a brown uniform and his arm was wrapped with a Nazi swastika armband - and the patrons joined in the triumphant Nazi anthem; also memorable was Sally's show-stopping, forcefully sung song of defiance - the title song Cabaret ("Life is a cabaret, old chum / Only a cabaret, old chum / And I love a cabaret!"); in the final reprise of Wilkommen, the MC grinningly asked: "Where are your troubles now?" before singing: "Auf wiedersehen! A bientot..." - afterwards, he bowed, disappeared behind a curtain, and then a camera pan (with a drum roll and cymbal crash) found a Nazi swastika reflected on a twisted, mirrored mylar-silver wall.
Cabin In the Sky (1943)	This Arthur Freed-produced MGM musical fantasy adaptation (Vincente Minnelli in his directorial debut) of the 1940 Broadway hit show, an all-black musical, featured the radiant Ethel Waters reprising her stage role as loving wife Petunia Jackson although Dooley Wilson (as her sinning husband "Little Joe" Jackson) was replaced by the more recognizable Eddie "Rochester" Anderson; Lena Horne portrayed the wicked, satanic and seductive temptress Georgia Brown, along with the other characters: the devilish Lucifer Jr. (Rex Ingram) and the angelic, white military-uniformed General (Kenneth Spencer); this sepia-toned, all-black musical featured Waters' and Anderson's duet of the title song, her moving performance of the Oscar-nominated Best Original song Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, and Waters' joyful Takin' a Chance on Love (pictured), while Lena Horne performed the sexy Honey in the Honeycomb.
Caddyshack (1980)	In this infamous comedy, the golf caddies performed a Busby Berkeley-styled synchronized pool dance; the film also featured the famous animatronic gopher who danced to Kenny Loggins' I'm Alright.
Calamity Jane (1953)	This rousing Warner Bros.' musical, loosely based on historical facts and set in the Old West in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, starred Doris Day (in her best musical appearance) as the Wild West's fast-shootin', tough-talkin', cross-dressin', buck-skinned stagecoach driver/cowboy, in a story about the Golden Garter saloon and her romance with Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel in a role similar to the one he played in Annie Get Your Gun (1950)); musical numbers written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster included The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away!) (pictured), Just Blew In from the Windy City (pictured), The Black Hills of Dakota (pictured), Higher Than a Hawk, A Woman's Touch, and the Oscar-winning Best Original Song Secret Love (pictured) sung by Day; there was also the competitive duet of I Can Do Without You between Keel and Day.
Camelot (1967)	Joshua Logan's big-budget and cumbersome film adaptation of the Lerner-Loewe Broadway musical hit (based on T.H. White's The Once and Future King) starred non-singing performers, including actor Richard Harris (replacing Richard Burton) as King Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave (replacing Julie Andrews) as Queen Guenevere, who sang such songs as the charming Camelot, What Do The Simple Folk Do? and I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight; also, French knight Lancelot (Franco Nero replacing Robert Goulet and with singing voice Gene Merlino) performed If Ever I Would Leave You, and the members of the court sang The Lusty Month of May.
Can-Can (1960)	Fox's flat and lifeless version of the Cole Porter-Abe Burrows musical play, with an Oscar-nominated Best Score (by Nelson Riddle), starred Shirley MacLaine in one of her earlier films as Simone Pistache - the owner/operator of an 1895 Paris Night Club that specialized in the forbidden, skirt-lifting dance alongside miscast Frank Sinatra as her lawyer boyfriend François Durnais; it also starred Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan (from MGM's Best Picture-winning Gigi (1958)), and exuberant dancer Juliet Prowse as a can-can girl; one of the best numbers was Sinatra's It's All Right With Me.
Can't Stop the Music (1980)	This infamous musical (a Razzie Awards winner) starred the Village People with their notorious gay-themed Y.M.C.A. number, the knock-off Busby Berkeley-like Milk Shake number, and the finale Can't Stop the Music.
Captain January (1936)	Shirley Temple provided a memorable dance/song rendition of At the Codfish Ball with partner Buddy Ebsen on the street of a New England fishing village.