When thinking about the Hollywood studio era and the many (great and not so great) musicals that were made, one typically remembers performances by Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, and later Julie Andrews – or Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Doris Day, maybe even Elvis and Esther Williams. If asked to recall the directors, most would likely list Vincente Minnelli, Kelly, Stanley Donen, Robert Wise, Ernst Lubitsch for those gems starring Maurice Chevalier, or Bob Fosse. While Minnelli did direct films from other genres, including some top comedies and dramas, his only two Best Director Oscar nominations were received for the musicals An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958), the latter for which he took home the Academy Award. Wise received his only Oscars for musicals – West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965) – as well, despite having a fairly diverse portfolio. I find it fascinating that many of the other men considered to be our best directors also stuck their toe into this genre’s waters at least once, with fairly good results.

Billy Wilder directed The Emperor Waltz (1948), which he co-wrote with producer Charles Brackett; the film earned Oscar nominations for its Color Costume Design and Score. Playing an American Victrola salesman in Austria, Bing Crosby sings to woo a Countess played by Joan Fontaine while several others do the dancing in this pretty average Technicolor comedy musical filmed in Canada (the Canadian Rockies substituted for the Alps). In addition to the conflict of classes that their romance entails, the rest of the plot involves a planned breeding between two royal poodles – the Countess’s bitch Scheherazade with the Emperor’s – which is interrupted by Crosby’s Nipper-like terrier Buttons. Roland Culver plays Fontaine’s financially strapped father Baron Holenia, who needs the dog’s match to keep from having to marry a rich old battle-ax of a princess played by Lucile Watson. An unrecognizable Richard Haydn plays the title role and Sig Ruman plays the breeder.

Crosby also helped Frank Capra make his comedy musical Here Comes the Groom (1951), and received unexpected assistance from another Academy Award winner – actress Jane Wyman; she sang the duet “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening”, which earned Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer an Oscar for Best Song that year. The original Motion Picture Story – by Robert Riskin and Liam O’Brien – was nominated. Bing plays an easygoing unflappable character that’s always ready to smooth things over with a song, which typified many of his roles. As a foreign correspondent that’s idolized by two French war orphans, he has to find a wife within 5 days of arriving home in Boston in order to adopt them. Enter Wyman, his longtime (though ring-less) fiancee who, unbeknownst to him, has recently become engaged to her real estate mogul boss, played by Franchot Tone. Undaunted by this complication, Crosby conspires with his editor (Robert Keith) to stop Wyman’s wedding. The fact that Tone’s fourth cousin (Alexis Smith) has always had a crush on him helps these coconspirators. The director’s next (and second to last) film – A Hole in the Head (1959) – was NOT a musical (despite what IMDb.com says), though it stars Frank Sinatra and features the Academy Award winning song “High Hopes”.

John Ford – What Price Glory (1952) – was intended to be a musical, but the director refused to shoot all thirteen original songs (I haven’t seen it); IMDb.com lists only three musical numbers.

Though Virginia Mayo performs a couple of numbers (her voice dubbed by Jeri Sullavan) in the Balls of Fire (1941) remake A Song Is Born (1948), it’s really Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) that qualifies as the only musical directed by Howard Hawks. Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe (and chorus) perform the Hoagy Carmichael and Jule Styne composed numbers – with lyrics by Leo Robin and Harold Adamson – from “Two Little Girls from Little Rock” and “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (#12 on AFI’s 100 Top Movie Songs of All Time) to “When Love Goes Wrong” and “Anyone Here for Love?”.

To be continued (the best are yet to come) …