Xanadu

Caught this one late one recent night, on TCM of all things, after having not seen it in decades. The verdict, upon re-viewing so much later in life: it's weird. Very weird. It's also probably ill-conceived, overly ambitious, rather clueless, and ultimately a failure. And it probably deserves a HISS, but...There's someting in its strangely innocent ambition--trying to tie together big band and classical musicals to the roller-disco era, among other things--that elicits a certain amount of sympathy. The presence of an absolutely radiant Olivia Newton-John aids the proceedings immensely; she's a dream girl in every frame of the thing, where as her co-stars look profoundly unimpressive in comparison (Michael Beck is a nobody, and even Gene Kelly just looks foolish through most of the proceedings). Ultimately, the whole thing is preposterous, but just entertaining enough that you don't want to find every extant reel of the film and burn it. But I can't exactly say it's recommended, either.

The Three Musketeers

This is the version from the ‘40s with Gene Kelly as D’Artagnan. The film makes good use of Kelly’s dancing talents; his D’Artagnan is athletic and agile and makes his swordplay sequences a lot of fun to watch. The plot seems to careen wildly all over the place, with a few too many climaxes--but I suspect the filmmakers hewed fairly closely to the source material, so it’s hardly their fault for that. There’s almost a bit too much bonhomie between the Musketeers; sometimes the movie comes across as more parody than comedic adventure, but that’s a minor quibble, as is the fact that it runs just a bit too long. But this is one of those classic, old-style Hollywood adventures that you don’t see much of anymore, so it’s definitely worth a look for that alone.

An American In Paris

Another reminder of why musicals are dead (or nearly so). This is not to say that the Gershwin tunes aren't great, or that Gene Kelly's choreography is not in and of itself an artistic achievement. There are moments of joy here. But the demands of the set musical pieces upon the storyline are so onerous that the overall effect is weird and disjointed. And don't even get me started about that half-an-hour-of-ballet ending. A review this negative is practically heresy given this film's reputation as a classic, but...go ahead and burn me at the stake.