There were more than a few musicals of the 'hip' Sixties that were produced by old survivors of MGM, most notable was Vincente Minnelli, George Sidney, Charles Walter and Gene Kelly. Out of these, Walters with Jumbo (1962) and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) and Kelly with Hello Dolly in 1969, remained the most traditional of the set, with nonetheless satisfactory results. Sidney met the challenge of youthful material with a brash energy in 1963's Bye-Bye Birdie and the subsequent Viva Las Vegas (1964), though his less swinging Half a Sixpence (1967) was infinitely more inventive. It would be Mr. Minelli who would show a real ability to adapt - the formal innovations of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) is still seemingly fresh today.
If these directors were representative of a specialized approach to the genre, the Sixties and Seventies musical is really notable for its lack of emphasis on the need for specifically musical talent, in both directors and performers. this was owing partly to a drying-up of reserve musical talent from Broadway, which Hollywood had ever relied upon, and partly to a new stress in the genre on such elements as characterization and narrative. Directors and stars were often associated with more apparently realistic genres.
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| How very ironic that I'm a Doolittle now shouldn't I be Dr Higgins I assume.(Rex Harrison in Doctor Doolittle (1967) |
With regard to directors, the results were on the whole surprisingly satisfying. William Wyler known chiefly for prestigious drams, proved great skill with Funny Girl in 1968. To prove how easily two already adaptable directors picked up a feel for music, Francis Ford Coppola's 1967 Finian's Rainbow was particularly stylish and Norman Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof (1971) was imaginatively conceived for the screen in 1977. Martin Scorsese the Italian-American resident poet of New York street life, made the marvelous New York, New York. Perhaps the most noteworthy in this strain of cross-over directors was Robert Wise. Identified with astringent thrillers, he would leave his mark up on the 1960's musical with two film versions of stage hits; West Side Story (1961) which won eleven Academy Awards, and The Sound of Music (1965), one of the most popular and successful films ever made. But on the debit side must be set Carol Reed's Oliver! (1968) admittedly a colossal hit, and still worse of Richard Fleischer in the hamfisted Dr. Dolittle (1967).