Customer Reviews

Brigadoon

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When I first rented BRIGADOON from the public library last spring, I immediately fell in love with it. Just added the DVD to my collection yesterday. It is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. It is a 1954 film adaptation of the 1947 Broadway musical. The Lerner and Loewe score is one of the greatest ever written for the stage (or screen). The great cast includes Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse. Although certainly not the greatest singers in the world, Kelly's and Johnson's singing is more than adequate and is really quite lovely. Charisse's singing voice is dubbed for this film, and she works great as well.

When Brigadoon made the transition from Broadway to Hollywood, a good chunk of its score was dispensed with in order to make room to highlight the dancing abilities of its stars. This is, in fact, where many people find fault with this film; the lack of the rest of the Broadway score. To these people, I have this to say... ---This movie is not the Broadway play. It is a **film adaptation.**--- This is also the common complaint about MGM's "Show Boat" from 3 years earlier. Another common complaint about "Brigadoon" is that it was obviously shot in soundstages on the MGM lot in Culver City instead of the highlands of Scotland. This was due to the fact that producers were working with smaller budgets than they had been just 3 or 4 years earlier. This, coupled with the unpredictable weather in the British Isles, necesitated that the film be shot at the studio. This is also evident in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" from the same year. Although the sets are obviously painted backdrops, they are nicely done and work well. IMO, they do not demerit the film.

Brigadoon more than makes up for the missing songs by adding some spectacular dance numbers. "Heather on the Hill" is one of the most sweeping dance numbers I have ever seen in any film. Kelly's and Charisse's gracefulness really hits the spot.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the DVD, with its lush color, clear picture, and stereo sound. If you haven't seen "Brigadoon," you should see it. At the very least for some of the greatest dance numbers you will ever see.

I saw a high school production of BRIGADOON in San Francisco at the ICA (Immaculate Conception Academy) at 24th and Guerrero. These girls who played the parts had never been anywhere near Scotland, you could tell, and some had not been in the USA very long and the charming accents of South of the Border stood in for the strong Scots burr. Nevertheless they played the show beautifully and ever since then I have had a fondness for the music and the story. I feel that the makers of MOULIN ROUGE were probably trying to capture some of the big-hearted appeal of BRIGADOON when they created their fantasy world. Watching the movie I have always felt that a bit of the magic was lost because so much of Minnelli's canvas was spent on dance elements which, IMHO, are just not that interesting. So many dance numbers created to take advantage of Gene Kelly's and Cyd Charisse's astonishing abilities. Maybe too many! Thus some of the musical numbers had to be cut out, including some of the loveliest of the songs Lerner and Loewe wrote for the 1947 musical.

Imagine my surprise and delight when the new DVD came out this spring and I discover that, in fact, Minnelli did film three of the rejected songs (and recorded another, perhaps the greatest) and that all of this deleted material would be available on the disc. I was in hog heaven. However we are all familiar with some deleted scenes that you watch and then you say, "Well, I know why that sucker got deleted" and I was afraid that these scenes would be of inferior quality. (Like "Is It A Crime?" in BELLS ARE RINGING--forgive me, "Crime" fans!)

But it is my pleasure to report that all 3 numbers here are keepers. I wish somehow they had been re-integrated back into the main print of BRIGADOON and we could then judge the movie for once and for all the way Minnelli wanted it. If it is too long, then maybe shorten down the "Sword Dance." I feel sure that somewhere footage must exist for the exquisite "There But For You Go I"--or is that just a dream of mine? In any case we can now hear the track, and we can see the fully staged versions of "Come to Me, Bend to Me" and the marvelous "From This Day On" which is to BRIGADOON what "From This Moment On" is to KISS ME KATE. All in all, the plus factor makes this disc the one to buy if you're wanting the full BRIGADOON magic.

The reason I saw this is because I am a huge Gene Kelly fan and I love Cyd Charisse as well! This isn't the greatest MGM musical but it was one of the last ones from the "Golden Age" that make this movie very special. The movie is about two hunters named Tommy(Gene Kelly) and Jeff (Van Johnson) who are in Scotland. While they are lost they stumble into this little village that isn't on their map. The village happens to be Brigadoon and it happens to wake up for one day every one hundred years. Tommy starts to fall in love with Fiona (Cyd Charisse) but Fiona can't leave the village if she does the town will disappear forever. This movie has a lot of great music my favorites are "Heather on the Hill", "Waitin' for My Dearie", "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean", and "Almost Like Being in Love." This is really one the last great musicals! This a must see movie! I am very happy that Warner Bros. re-released this on DVD with good extras!

Here are the extras:

First-ever New Digital 16x9 Transfer (2:55:1)
Soundtrack Remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
Three Outtake Musical Numbers: Come to Me, Bend to Me, From this Day On and Sword Dance
Audio Outtake: There But for You Go I
Theatrical Trailer
Languages: English & French
Subtitles - English, French and Spanish

Go out and get lost and fall in love with Brigadoon!

Originally, Brigadoon was a german short story called "Germelshausen". Frederick Loewe (Fritz to his friends) told Alan Lerner the story of a young artist, Arnold, who was sketching woodland scenes, when he meets a pretty girl, Gertrud, is struck by her beauty and curiously antiqued dress, and sketches her. She invites him to dine at home in the village of Gremelshausen, where she lives with her father (the local mayor), her step mother, and siblings. She has been waiting for her sweetheart but is resigned to the fact that he will not come. During the meal there is singing and dancing by the family membery, all interrupted by the sight on the street outside of a somber funeral procession.

After lunch, Arnold and Gertrud stroll through the village with its ancient buildings and strangley dressed residents. They finally arrive at a cemetery, where the girl begins to weep at the grave of her mother. When Arnold notices that the death date on the stone reads 1224, he questions Gerturd, who is evasive about this anomaly.

Attracted to each other, the couple return to her house to change clothing for a festive dance to be held that evening at the inn. Though a stranger, Arnold is welcomed by all the young people. One man, sensing that Arnold might want to remain in the village, mentions cryptically that the intervals pass fast enough, a point of curiosity to the visitor.

There is much dancing and merriment, broken each time the town bell tolls the hour. At eleven, Arnold begins to think longingly of his faraway mother and raises a glass to toast her. When Gertrud see this, she realizes how much he misses his mother and escorts the young man out of the inn, back to her home, where she hands him his traveling bag, and brings him to a nearby hilltop. She tells him to wait until the church bell strikes midnight and then come to the back door of the inn, where she will be waiting to leave the village with him. She runs off toward the village and disappears in a dense for that has suddenly risen.

As the bell tolls midnight, all sounds and lights from Gremelshausen vaporize. Arnold walks to its former site but can find no trace of the village. He searches until the first light of dawn but to no avail. An older hunter appears and informs Arnold, who asks of Gremelshausen, that according to legend such a village once stood centuries ago in that nearby swamp, but was cursed and sank beneath the earth, supposedly to reappear just one day every hundred years. Arnold slowly leaves, carrying his traveling sack with the sketch of Gertrud.

This poignant fable of fantasy and lost love fascinated Lerner, who promptly embraced it as the inspiration for his next show. With WWII having just ended, the locale was shifted from Germany to Scotland, Home of Sir James M. Barrie, a favorite writer of Alan's. The new show was dubbed Brigadoon.

Although painted backdrops and cyclorama stand in for the "heathered hills" of Scotland, M-G-M's film version of BRIGADOON (directed by Vincente Minnelli) does feature Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly in some of their finest work on screen. Charisse in particular dazzles as Fiona with some fancy footwork in "The Heather on the Hill", the memorable pas de deux with Kelly. Dody Heath and Van Johnson provide the cute secondary romance. The Broadway score of Lerner and Loewe ("Waitin' for My Dearie", "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean", "Almost Like Being in Love", etc.) is justly-delivered by the renowned M-G-M Studio Orchestra under the baton of Johnny Green (with arrangements by Conrad Salinger).

Originally this film was to have been shot on location in Scotland, but budget cuts under the new studio head Dore Schary prevented this. The fake sets combined with the CinemaScope ratio spelled disaster for the film technically. Artistically, BRIGADOON's heart was in the right place and the sincerity of the performers overcomes any of the bigger problems. Still wonderful.

I wonder why the beautiful Lerner-Loewe meoldies and lyrics and the movie itself are not more popular than they are - I'll go home with Bonnie Jean, The heather on the Hill, Almost like being in love. The movie itself is a serious production, meticulous in costumes, design and choreography.

This is a fairy tale, almost a charming ghost story, which is so unreal that it only happens in old places like the Scottish highland. Something beautiful that emerges beneath the fog only once in a while.

The story is also rich in Scottish culture - bagpipes, kilts, market place and folklore.

I also wonder why Van Johnson, with a big build and yet such a nimble tap dancer, did not have more dancing roles in other movies. And Cyd Charisse ballet dancing is simply an eye candy.

The melodies are so sweet and chorus so pure that the movie is worth watching over and over again, even if it is only for the songs.

I could watch this movie over and over again, and I have whenever I've rented it! Gene Kelly and pal Van Johnson lose their way on their shooting vacation in the Scottish Highlands and stumble upon Brigadoon, a magical town that only appears for one day every hundred years. In its way, very similar to "Lost Horizon", another story about enchanted fantasy places. Like Ronald Colman in that movie, Gene is not happy with his life back home and finds peace and contentment during his day in Brigadoon, not to mention love with the fetching Cyd Charisse. Van Johnson is like the character of Colman's brother, never seriously entertaining the idea of settling in Brigadoon. And like the petulant Maria in "Lost Horizon", we see an inhabitant of Brigadoon who wishes to leave and see the world outside. The difference between these two characters, though, is that we don't really know why Maria hates Shangri-La; we have pity for the fellow however, since he must see the woman he loves get married that night to another wealthier townsman and has no opportunity to meet anyone else or better his position in society. His decision to escape from Brigadoon opens up the most exciting scene in the movie, when all the townsmen must follow in pursuit to keep him from breaking the enchantment and causing Brigadoon to disappear forever. While there are the usual dance numbers for Gene, I particularly enjoy the highland fling dances of the ensemble, which are genuinely thrilling. By all means, settle yourself down in a comfy chair with some loved ones and take in "Brigadoon"--you won't regret it.

"Brigadoon," (1954), a fantasy/musical/romance, was another triumph for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's busy music division, under the stewardship of Arthur Freed. It was based on the 1947 Broadway hit of the same name, the first hit, and second collaboration of those devoted anglophile partners Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe - see "Camelot" and "My Fair Lady." The film was directed by Vincente Minelli, in his first venture into Cinemascope.

The plot, of course, is somewhat reminiscent of "Shangri-La," just moved to the United Kingdom. It's pretty well-known: two vacationing New Yorkers, Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly), and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) are grouse-shooting in Scotland when they stumble into Brigadoon, a town not on any map. That's because, as the result of a previous enchantment, it's disappeared into the Scottish mist, to reappear for only one day every hundred years. So Albright, the Kelly character, of course meets a girl Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse.) Kelly, as it happens, was kind of bemused to find himself starring in this movie. He hadn't starred in it on Broadway, but the studio had decided to change the emphasis of the entertainment from singing to dancing. Thus Kelly was signed. He had made his Broadway debut, and become a star in "Pal Joey," but had lost that part to Frank Sinatra, when Columbia, the studio that filmed that little item, decided to shift the emphasis there to singing, rather than dancing. However, Kelly had an acceptable voice. Cyd Charisse is one of the great dancers, but she couldn't sing: she's dubbed by Carole Richards in "Almost like Being in Love," biggest hit of the stage and screen versions. Johnson plays his usual, cynical best bud to the star.

Kelly and Minelli were known to be disappointed that budget problems -- and the fickle Scottish weather, another way of saying possible budget problems-- prevented them from filming on location in Scotland, as had been planned. Instead, they filmed before studio sets, that are, however, quite detailed, and fantastical in feeling: they actually add to the movie's ambiance. The Scots accents are wavering, however; they might have turned out better on location. No matter, Kelly and Charisse memorably dance up hill and down dale in "Heather on the Hill," and few viewers will really care whether the landscape is actual, or painted. As for "Go Home to Bonnie Jean," it's a rousing, all-singing, all-dancing, grand spectacle of the kind that MGM made its name on. The studio might not have spent its bottom dollar on this film, but when Kelly and Charisse dance, who cares?

I first saw this movie some 20 years ago (I'm 29 now) when I was a kid and I loved it. It took quite a lot of time for me to have the chance to see it again, but it hasn't lost its magic. A beautiful film, good songs, great actings and a magical touch. It may not be as good as a musical like Singing in the Rain, My fair lady, 7 brides for 7 brothers or Les Miserables (just to quote some of them), but still is a must see...and there will always be mr. Kelly.

After seeing a breathtaking color dance number in the recent DVD release of That's Entertainment III, I was really looking forward to the 3/15/05 release of Brigadoon. While this new disc has sharper clarity thanks to the 16x9 transfer, someone has seen fit to reduce the color levels dramatically. Not only is the new pressing less vibrant than the 'Entertainment' clip, but noticably weaker than the older DVD. Note the grey heather on the hills! This marks the third try on DVD for this title. Here's hoping they get it right on HD!