Today TCM airs Bob Fosse’s 1969 musical, Sweet Charity, starring Shirley MacLaine and Sammy Davis, Jr. It’s a loose – very loose – musical adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 1957 masterpiece, Nights of Cabiria, starring Giulietta Masina in what is, to my mind, one of the greatest performances ever captured by a motion picture camera. Now here’s the thing: I like Sweet Charity on its own, or I should say, I like it well enough. I’m not crazy about it but I think MacLaine is, as usual, terrific and I can watch Davis’ Rhythm of Life number over and over and over. Like I said, on its own, I like it. As a remake of Nights of Cabiria, I am, shall we say, unimpressed. When a team of artists decide to remake a non-musical as a musical, they take a huge risk, as they would with even a straight ahead remake, but sometimes the risk pays off. And sometimes it doesn’t.
Let me first state, for the record, and I’ve written about it here and elsewhere, I’m not against remaking anything. If you want to remake The Godfather, The Rules of The Game, Citizen Kane, or The Bicycle Thief, be my guest. I’ll go see it with high hopes and an open mind. I’m not one to think a classic movie’s legacy has been destroyed because someone decided to make it again. As long as the original is there for me to see, I’m fine with it. And if, by rare chance, the remake is better than the original, even better. Now we have two great versions of the same story. Win/win. But for the most part, I almost never like the musical version of a story better. I’m not really sure why because I love musicals though the type of musicals I love may hold the answer.
When it comes to musicals I love, I’m much more into the Smiling Lieutenant/Swing Time/Singin’ in the Rain type of guy and not so much an Oklahoma/West Side Story/Fiddler on the Roof kind of guy. In other words, musicals from the early thirties through the early fifties are more my speed. Bigger budget later musicals from the mid fifties onward tend to drag for me or feel somehow bigger than they need to be. I can’t justify it in any way, nor make even a reasonably comprehensible argument for it, but in the vague, murky, “I like what I like” waters of my mind, I think musicals should light and breezy and fun. So the 1938 Pygmalion, starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hillar, and clocking in at 89 minutes, feels about right to me. The 1964 musical adaptation, My Fair Lady, with its huge budget, endless pageantry, and a running time of nearly three hours, feels leaden and slow and epic. I’ll take the non-musical version any time.
There are times, however, when I like the musical version more even if it is big and long and over-budgeted. I wrote a whole piece here once on how much I liked Carol Reed’s musical Oliver!, the Best Picture winner of 1968, and I stand by that. There have been many versions of the classic novel Oliver Twist made but to pick the most famous, David Lean’s 1946 classic with Alec Guinness, as the representative of the non-musical versions, I’d have to say that even though I think it’s the better film, I still like the musical better. Here’s my explanation: I have none. Maybe it has something to do with nostalgia. I saw the musical a lot as a kid, learned all the songs, and had a bit of a crush on Shani Wallis. Also, as much as I love Alec Guinness, I honestly think Ron Moody is the best Fagin going.
On rare occasions, the musical version is so awful that I almost like it in spite of itself. For instance, no version of Lost Horizon that anyone ever makes will replace the original for me because it is, truly, an all time favorite. I don’t have an absolute favorite movie ever but Lost Horizon is in my top 25 without a doubt. But the musical remake is so God-awful, I swear, I kind of like it. The same goes for Xanadu, a sort-of remake of Down to Earth, which I like a lot, mainly because I love Rita Hayworth in it so much. But Xanadu is just horrid, so much so that it’s almost good. I would slide Peter O’Toole’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips into this category, too, though it’s plenty better than either of the other two.
Then there are the washes. The cases where the original and the remake exist on pretty much the same plane for me. I’ll take either The Philadelphia Story or High Society, quite frankly, but would lean towards the original thanks to the cast more than anything else.
Anna and the King of Siam and The King and I? Again, either one is fine with me and neither is a personal favorite. I’d probably lean towards the musical remake, thanks to Yul Brynner.
Little Shop of Horrors? I like the Roger Corman original and the musical remake. No preference, really.
Kismet? I like them both but like Marlene Dietrich more than I like most actresses ever so the original gets the edge.
There are plenty of movies that have been adapted to musicals where I haven’t even seen the remake, nor do I want to. For instance, I’ve never seen the 1974 musical Mame and I’d like to keep it that way. Others I wish I hadn’t seen. Case in point, Hello Dolly! I love a lot of the talent in that musical remake of The Matchmaker but, hoo-boy, I just can’t stand the movie itself.
In the 1989 romantic comedy, The Tall Guy, Jeff Goldblum plays an American actor in London cast as the lead in the musical remake of The Elephant Man, appropriately titled Elephant! with the requisite exclamation point. It’s the best part of the movie for me (witness the awesome musical number, He’s Packing His Trunk, in all its glory) and pretty much illustrates what I don’t like about musical remakes of non-musicals: Over the top production numbers and overbearing self-importance. Today’s offering, Sweet Charity, is better than a lot of them, if only for that previously mentioned Rhythm of Life number as well as Big Spender. But sometimes, when someone wants to take favorite characters from one movie and make them lift up their voice in song in another, I’d rather they just keep their mouths shut.