Introduction: The following listing (in multiple parts, organized alphabetically) is a collection of many of the Greatest Song and Dance Musical Movie Moments in film history. Many of the greatest musical moments were accompanied by a well-staged production number, a lavish set, or a great memorable tune. Though the list appears to be dominated by musicals, other genres were examined and included. See also this site's writeup of the Musicals Film Genre.

Key to Iconic Symbols:

Exceptional examples of the development of song/dance

Entries in AFI's 25 Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time with ranking number (#)

Entries in Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Movie Musicals of All Time with ranking number (#)

Carmen Jones (1954)

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Carousel (1956)

This downbeat yet ambitious Henry King-directed 20th Century Fox film was the filmic release of a Rodgers/Hammerstein musical adaptation that opened on Broadway in 1945 - it was the only Rodgers and Hammerstein film to be completely devoid of Academy Awards nominations; the film's soundtrack was extremely popular, but the film's box-office take was not impressive. The film reunited the co-stars of Oklahoma! (1955) - Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. It told about Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae) - a fast-talking circus barker in 1870s New England who attracted the attention of lovely mill-worker - as both love interest and future wife Julie Jordan (Shirley Jones) - and friend Carrie Pipperidge (Barbara Ruick); its main songs were the energetic and exuberant June Is Bustin' Out All Over (pictured) (shot on location at a dock harbor in Maine), the seven-minute meditative, operatic and moving Soliloquy, the beautiful and melodious duet between MacRae and Jones titled If I Loved You (pictured), This Was a Real Nice Clambake, the opening's Carousel Waltz, and the memorably inspirational You'll Never Walk Alone; the best song/dance was Louise's Ballet that featured dance legend Jacques d'Amboise as a seductive carnival barker.

Casablanca (1942)

Chicago (2002)

# 12
# 17

Rob Marshall's Best Picture-winning musical and box-office smash was adapted (screenwritten by Bill Condon) from Bob Fosse's long-running 1975 Broadway stage musical and its later revival in 1996. The same story was previously filmed as Chicago (1927) and Roxie Hart (1942). The many showstopping numbers included seductive vaudeville star diva Velma Kelly's (Oscar-winning short bobbed Catherine Zeta-Jones) spectacular opening song All That Jazz after she murdered her sister and her lover, matron Mama Morton's (Queen Latifah) When You're Good to Mama, and Roxie's naive husband Amos' (John C. Reilly) woeful Mr. Cellophane while dressed like a vaudeville clown; also the wildly fantastic and satirical We Both Reached for the Gun in which slimy, high-priced Chicago lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) was imagined as a ventriloquist and God-like puppet master (with Roxie as his dummy) who was defending both Kelly and murder suspect Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger), Razzle Dazzle ("Even if you're stiffer than a girder, they'll let you get away with murder / Razzle dazzle 'em, and they'll make you a star!"), and the show-stopping blazing finale Hot Honey Rag in which bitter rivals Roxie and Velma teamed up as a popular act.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

A Chorus Line (1985)

This over-dramatic modern-day backstage musical directed by Richard Attenborough, an adaptation of Michael Bennett's highly-successful stage production, opened with the Broadway audition number I Hope I Get It where dozens of hopeful dancers tried to impress choreographer and ruthless director Zach (Michael Douglas) - who viewed them from the audience's seats in the darkness - for a spot in the 8-person chorus line; it also included the slightly bawdy song about plastic surgery titled Dance 10, Looks 3 sung by Val (Audrey Landers) ("Tits and ass / Bought myself a fancy pair / Tightened up the derriere"); other numbers included the soulful Who Am I, Anyway? by ill-fated auditioner Paul (Cameron English) and Zach's former girlfriend Cassie's (Alyson Reed) desperate Let Me Dance For You - performed as a sensual dance solo, both in present day and flashback; Cassie also delivered the torch song What I Did For Love; there were two renditions of One - first as a robotic, menacing vision of conformity, then reprised in the showstopping finale, featuring over a hundred identical chorus members, multiplying geometrically on stage.

Cinderella (1950)

Citizen Kane (1941)

During the newspaper office party scene, the Charlie Kane Song number was a rousing, intricately-edited song and dance production featuring a line of marching band members dressed in the costumes of Catherine the Great's Russia followed by dancing chorus girls carrying rifles; the stage show was led by a baton-wielding comic named Charles Bennett (in a white-striped blazer and a straw hat) who provided a singing tribute to Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles): ("There is a man - a certain man / And for the poor you may be sure / That he'll do all he can! / Who is this one? / This fav'rite son?...") who soon joined the chorus girls in the dance routine; the film also portrayed Kane's wife Susan Alexander's (Dorothy Comingore) disastrous debut playing the lead in the unsuccessful Salaambo (with a stagehand's wordless review high up in the theatre - holding his nose in disgust at the embarrassing performance).

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

In Stanley Kubrick's futuristic sci-fi film's chilling rape scene, Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) and his "droogs" beat up an old man and raped his wife while Alex incongruously sang Singin' in the Rain (the original Gene Kelly version would be reprised during the end credits with a memorably dark subtext).