Brigadoon (1954)

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I adore Brigadoon.Won't quibble about the authenticity of the story, the sets, or the choreography. However inauthentic the movie may be, it WORKS. For me, it works better than any of MGM's other classics.The production is beautiful. The sets (however artificial) are beautiful. Kelly's choreography is beautiful. Cyd Charisse is BEAUTIFUL (honestly, my favorite woman in any musical, ever--masterful dance if I've ever seen it)."Heather on the Hill" is a highlight of musical cinema, period. Lovely song, spectacular dancing and choreography.The ending, however preposterous, still ranks among my favorites.

In this wonderful M-G-M musical from Lerner and Lowe, you can't keep from being taken with this place of happiness, romance, and love, even if the Scottish village of Brigadoon was artificial. (Because of existing budget problems when the movie was made about 1954, M-G-M could not film on location.) The songs were unforgettable, such as "Come Ye to the Fair", "The Heather on the Hill", "Go Home with Bonnie Jean", and "It's Almost Like Being in Love." The wedding-scene music, replete with Scottish bagpipes from eight Scottish clans, was extremely impressive. The cast was well-chosen. Gene Kelly did so well as the love-sick Tommy Albright, Van Johnson was definitely adept at playing the drunk friend of Albright named Jeff Douglas, Elaine Stewart was skillful in the role of Albright's snobbish and disgusting fiancée Jane, and truly, to be around Cyd Charisse would make a person be in love with the beautiful Fiona Campbell. Again, the scenery was beautiful as well as the songs. Far-fetched as it was, the story was wonderful. For many reasons, the fictitious Scottish town Brigadoon would render the town, again, an unforgettable "mind-sticker".

Originally, conceived as a closer adaptation of the Broadway hit. With the change in starring personnel from those best known for their singing to those (Kelly and Cyd) best known for their stage dancing, several songs in the stage version were cut, and more dancing added. Cyd's singing was always dubbed, and Kelly's singing voice, never his strongest talent, was often weaker than usual in this film. In fact, he ordered one of his songs canned for this reason. Even the supporting actors who sang were mostly dubbed. Cyd's dancing talent complemented Kelly's dancing style well, and I thought they had good chemistry, especially in their 2 dance sequences to "The Heather in the Hill".Versatile Van Johnson was great as the often humorously cynical alcoholic Jeff, representing a man so jaded by the artificiality and rat race mentality of modern big cities, that he cannot appreciate the rustic charm of this traditional European herding village that has essentially been frozen in time since the mid-18th century.His categorical rebuff of the persistent amorous advances of a comely lassie is particularly funny. Actually, this behavior was dictated by the plot, as he would have been a bad influence that the villagers were trying to exclude in their periodic disappearing act.Kelly, as Tommy, represents a man who, although from the same culture as Jeff,feels that this village offers a more desirable lifestyle than the one he has known, and seemingly with an abundance of lassies itching to land a husband.He's even willing to accept the fantastic story that this village only appears for a day every hundred years and is still ultimately willing to give up his present life to live in such a place for eternity. Let's see. If we assume the people in this village age only one day every century, he would have a good chance of being around on earth for the next million years or so, but with an important caveat! Not a bad prospect. Can heaven offer more? This periodic disappearing act was granted by God to a former minister who was concerned about the prevalence of sorcerers in the region who were leading the villagers astray into devil worship. He was also concerned about other bad influences seeping in from the big bad outside world. But this ability of the village to appear and disappear depends on no one leaving the village district. If someone does, the village will disappear and sleep forever(disappear into a Black Hole?). The spell maker must have had Buddhist sympathies! Harry, the jilted beau of Fiona's(Cyd's) sister, Jean, tries to leave the village to go to a university to make himself more attractive to a future beau.The efforts of the villagers and Tommy to stop him are ineffective. Ironically, it is unconcerned Jeff, who has been out hunting grouse, who accidentally shoots Harry instead, thus saving the village from oblivion. However, it is clear that everyone will perpetually be kept on edge with the certainty that others will want to leave in the future.From this perspective, this spell, as formulated, has more the look of a curse than an opportunity for a perpetual utopia, unless you are a Buddhist.Upon further thinking, I realized that this story bears a strong resemblance to the traditional European fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", who was put under a spell by a mischievous fairy to sleep 100 years(along with everyone else in the castle), before being awakened by the kiss of a prince, who had to cut his way through a thick tangle of thorny vegetation which had protected the sleeping castle inhabitants from evil outside forces all those years. The present story, with a village that disappears and reappears periodically, is a more extreme version of this story, but also with the difference that the long suspended animation feature is considered desirable, not a handicap. In place of the prince's kiss, Tommy's love for Fiona and the whole village is sufficient to cause the village to reappear well before its next scheduled reawakening.Kelly's extended solo dance in the bush around Brigadoon while intermittently singing "Almost Like being in Love" much reminds me of his previous famous 'umbrella' dance in "Singing in the Rain", and his subsequent 'roller skating' routine in "It's Always Fair Weather". In each case, the dance functions to express his exuberance in having established a new romantic relationship, in the absence of the beloved.I cannot appreciate all the fuss over the film being done on a sound stage instead of in bonnie ole Scotland or some more practical outdoor facsimile of such."The Wizard of Oz" wasn't shot in The Land of Oz" either, but the film was nonetheless a charming classic. Obviously, the stage version also required artificial scenery and props.I thought the backdrops generally were done with great care, and the rugged terrain at close range was effectively simulated. Real sheep and Highland shaggy cattle were included. Kelly was afraid of the latter and demanded that they be blindfolded, with artificial eyes, as a precaution! Some complain that the dancing should have been restricted to traditional Highland dancing, that the stylistic dancing of Kelly and Cyd was out of place. I agree with the producer that some of each was better. Most of the stylistic dancing was done in the bush, without other villagers as observers. Traditional Scottish dancing was featured at the festival and, again, at Jean's wedding.

Out of MGM, Brigadoon is a CinemaScope production filmed in Ansco Color. It's directed by Vincente Minnelli and adapted to screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner from the Broadway play of the same name. It stars Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charise. Musical numbers are by Lerner and Frederick Loewe, with orchestration by Conrad Salinger, and cinematography is by Joseph Ruttenberg. Plot has Kelly and Johnson as two Americans on a hunting trip in Scotland, who after becoming lost in the woods happen upon a village called Brigadoon. A strange place that's not on any map of Scotland……… Kicked by the critics and receiving moderate funds at the box office, Brigadoon is evidently one of the lesser lights from the musicals branch of MGM. Genuine complaints about no outdoor location work and scrimping on the songs from the play hold up under scrutiny. As does the charge that it is in fact a bit lifeless in direction and acting performances. But it's far from the dreary flop it has often been painted as. As colourful entertainment the film has enough about it to not waste the viewers time. The central idea is lovely, a mystical place inhabited by ebullient Scots that pops up once every hundred years, existing as a social comment that other parts of the world have gotten themselves into one big noise laden hurry, while a sweet finale provides the notion that love can indeed conquer all. The songs and routines, too, are enjoyable, notably Kelly doing deft harmony for "Almost Like Being In Love", the foot tapping delight of Celtic strong "The Wedding Dance" (danced by Jimmy Thompson & Virginia Bosler) and the heartily sang "The Chase" (various men during the pursuit of rebel Hugh Laing). While Ruttenberg's Scope/Color photography is most pleasing, putting vim and vigour into the very standard painted sets that form the back drops to the story.However, it's impossible not to yearn for more from Minnelli and MGM. Producing it all on the sound stage means it lacks air, vitality, and they must have known this would be the case because the film was originally going to be filmed on location in Scotland. The nasty weather and eventual cost cutting exercises meant the production would ultimately be surrounded by false countryside and billowing mist machines. A shame, because if ever a story called for vibrant snatches of Mother Natures Earth to realise the whimsy, then this is it. The cast are also a mixed bag, with Charise and Kelly going thru the motions and a host of iffy accents puncturing the air. Johnson is an odd casting choice, but I'm in the minority that doesn't mind his performance. He's the sarcastic cynic to Kelly's dreamy optimist, with Johnson content to rightly play in Kelly's shadow. His scenes back in the bar in New York are good value. Kelly and Minnelli were not singing from the same page, this would be common knowledge further down the line, as would the revelation that Minnelli was never a fan of the play anyway! It does show, but in spite of the obvious flaws there's enough warmth and hummable whimsy to lift it comfortably above average in the pantheon of MGM musicals. 6.5/10