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Brigadoon (film)
Encyclopedia
Brigadoon is a 1954 MGM
musical
feature film
made in CinemaScope
and Ansco Color
based on the Broadway
musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner
and Frederick Loewe. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli
and stars Gene Kelly
, Van Johnson
, and Cyd Charisse
. Brigadoon has been broadcast on American television and is available in both VHS and DVD formats.
) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson
) are on a hunting trip in Scotland
and become lost in the woodlands. They happen upon Brigadoon, a miraculously blessed village that rises out of the mists every hundred years for only a day. (This was done so that the village would never be changed or destroyed by the outside world.) Tommy falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse
). When he learns his love for Fiona will make it possible for him to remain in Brigadoon forever, he initially is willing to commit himself but backs down as the day ends and Brigadoon disappears. Back in New York City, he can think only of Fiona. He returns to Scotland. There, his great love causes Brigadoon to materialize before its appointed time. He crosses the bridge to the village and is united with Fiona forever.
"paid a fortune" for the rights, and Gene Kelly
and Kathryn Grayson
were named in the leads a month later. By the time they were cast, a script was not written yet, although it was reported that Alan Jay Lerner
was expected to start on the script a week later. Furthermore, Alec Guiness was also set for a role and David Wayne
, Moira Shearer
and Donald O'Connor
were under consideration for one.
According to the film's director, Vincente Minnelli
, O'Connor competed with Steve Allen
and Bill Hayes for the role of 'Jeff'. Cyd Charisse
replaced Grayson in March 1953. Elaine Stewart
was cast in the fourth lead in November 1953, and it was reported that she was more enthusiastic about working with Minnelli than with Kelly.
Because of Kelly's commitments to other film projects, production was delayed for a while, and it did not begin until 1953. MGM considered shooting the film on location in Scotland, but due to its unpredictable climate and high production costs, the idea was canned. Kelly and producer Arthur Freed
traveled to Scotland to confirm for themselves if the weather was too unreliable, and they agreed with the studio. In Kelly's biography it was stated that "the weather was so bad that we had to agree with the studio. So we came back to the United States and started looking for locations here. We found some highlands above Monterey [in Big Sur] that looked like Scotland. But then the studio had an economy wave, and they clamped the lid on that idea." Much to the disappointment of the cast and crew, filming had to take place on the sound stages at MGM instead.
In addition, rather than being filmed in the expensive original three-strip Technicolor
process with the 1.33:1 square-frame aspect ratio, the film was shot in single-strip Metrocolor
and utilized CinemaScope
, the newly patented 20th Century Fox
2.55:1 anamorphic widescreen
process to add clarity and presence to the picture.
Four of the stage show's musical numbers ("Come to Me, Bend to Me", "There But For You Go I", "From This Day On", and "The Sword Dance") were cut prior to the film's release. The Breen office
refused to allow the use of the two songs the Meg Brockie character sang in the stage version ("The Love of My Life" and "My Mother's Wedding Day"), as the lyrics were considered too risqué for general audiences. With the omission of these songs, the supporting role of Meg Brockie was reduced in the film to scarcely more than a bit part. The minor song "Jeannie's Packin' Up" was also omitted. Some of this was done because, after listening to Gene Kelly's pre-recordings of "There But For You Go I" and "From This Day On", the makers of the film felt that the results did not show his voice to its best advantage, but some was done because producer Arthur Freed
wanted to shape the two-and-a-half hour stage musical into a film that ran 108 minutes.
Complete sound and picture footage of three of the deleted musical numbers has survived, and it is included in the latest DVD release of the film.
The 1954 original motion picture soundtrack was originally incomplete, but was re-released with deleted songs, alternate takes, and undubbed vocals.
in the New York Times of September 17, 1954, described the film as "curiously flat and out-of-joint, rambling all over creation and seldom generating warmth or charm." Crowther admired the costumes, sets, and decor but deplored the omission of several musical numbers. He found fault with the film's two stars and its director, "...the personable Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse have the lead dancing roles. Even so, their several individual numbers are done too slickly, too mechanistically. What should be wistful and lyric smack strongly of trickery and style...Mr. Kelly's [performance] is as thin and metallic as a nail; Miss Charisse's is solemn and posey...Vincente Minnelli's direction lacks his usual vitality and flow." He concluded by noting the film was "pretty weak synthetic Scotch."
Leonard Maltin
in his reappraisal feels this adaptation was unfairly overlooked when it first appeared and particularly praises the lovely score, orchestrated mainly by Conrad Salinger
.
in 1955:
The film won a 1955 Golden Globe:
American Film Institute
Lists:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
made in CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
and Ansco Color
Agfacolor
thumb|An Agfacolor slide dating from the early 1940s. While the colors themselves hold up well after 60 years, damages visible include dust and [[Newton's rings]].Agfacolor is a series of color photographic products produced by Agfa of Germany...
based on the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
and Frederick Loewe. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
and stars Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
, Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
, and Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
. Brigadoon has been broadcast on American television and is available in both VHS and DVD formats.
Plot
Americans Tommy Albright (Gene KellyGene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
) are on a hunting trip in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and become lost in the woodlands. They happen upon Brigadoon, a miraculously blessed village that rises out of the mists every hundred years for only a day. (This was done so that the village would never be changed or destroyed by the outside world.) Tommy falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
). When he learns his love for Fiona will make it possible for him to remain in Brigadoon forever, he initially is willing to commit himself but backs down as the day ends and Brigadoon disappears. Back in New York City, he can think only of Fiona. He returns to Scotland. There, his great love causes Brigadoon to materialize before its appointed time. He crosses the bridge to the village and is united with Fiona forever.
Cast
- Gene KellyGene KellyEugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
as Tommy Albright - Van JohnsonVan JohnsonVan Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
as Jeff Douglas - Cyd CharisseCyd CharisseCyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
as Fiona Campbell - Elaine StewartElaine StewartElaine Stewart was an American actress and model.-Life:Stewart was born in Montclair, New Jersey as Elsy Steinberg. She was one of five children born into a German Jewish family. In 1961, nearing the end of her television career, she married actor Bill Carter...
as Jane Ashton - Barry JonesBarry Jones (actor)Barry Jones was an actor seen in British and American films, on American television and on the stage.-Biography:...
as Mr. Lundie - Hugh LaingHugh LaingHugh Laing was one of the most significant dramatic ballet dancers of the 20th-century. He was the partner of choreographer Antony Tudor.- Biography :...
as Harry Beaton - Albert SharpeAlbert SharpeAlbert Sharpe was an Irish stage and film actor. His most famous roles were those of Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People and as Finian McLonergan in the Broadway stage production of the musical Finian's Rainbow...
as Andrew Campbell - Virginia Bosler as Jean Campbell
- Jimmy Thompson as Charlie Chisholm Dalrymple
- Tudor Owen as Archie Beaton
- Owen McGiveney as Angus
- Dee Turnell as Ann
- Dodie Heath as Meg Brockie (as Dody Heath)
- Eddie QuillanEddie QuillanEdward "Eddie" Quillan was an American film actor whose career began as a child on the vaudeville stages and silent film and continued through the age of television in the 1980s.-Vaudeville and silent films:...
as Sandy - Michael Dugan as Townsman
- Barrie Chase as Dancer
Production
Producer J. Arthur Rank acquired the rights of the official play in February 1951. According to the press, Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
"paid a fortune" for the rights, and Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
and Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals...
were named in the leads a month later. By the time they were cast, a script was not written yet, although it was reported that Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
was expected to start on the script a week later. Furthermore, Alec Guiness was also set for a role and David Wayne
David Wayne
David Wayne was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years.-Early life and career:...
, Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer
Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy , was an internationally famous Scottish ballet dancer and actress.-Early life:She was born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, the daughter of actor Harold V. King...
and Donald O'Connor
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...
were under consideration for one.
According to the film's director, Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
, O'Connor competed with Steve Allen
Steve Allen
Steve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...
and Bill Hayes for the role of 'Jeff'. Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
replaced Grayson in March 1953. Elaine Stewart
Elaine Stewart
Elaine Stewart was an American actress and model.-Life:Stewart was born in Montclair, New Jersey as Elsy Steinberg. She was one of five children born into a German Jewish family. In 1961, nearing the end of her television career, she married actor Bill Carter...
was cast in the fourth lead in November 1953, and it was reported that she was more enthusiastic about working with Minnelli than with Kelly.
Because of Kelly's commitments to other film projects, production was delayed for a while, and it did not begin until 1953. MGM considered shooting the film on location in Scotland, but due to its unpredictable climate and high production costs, the idea was canned. Kelly and producer Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
traveled to Scotland to confirm for themselves if the weather was too unreliable, and they agreed with the studio. In Kelly's biography it was stated that "the weather was so bad that we had to agree with the studio. So we came back to the United States and started looking for locations here. We found some highlands above Monterey [in Big Sur] that looked like Scotland. But then the studio had an economy wave, and they clamped the lid on that idea." Much to the disappointment of the cast and crew, filming had to take place on the sound stages at MGM instead.
In addition, rather than being filmed in the expensive original three-strip Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
process with the 1.33:1 square-frame aspect ratio, the film was shot in single-strip Metrocolor
Metrocolor
Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were actually shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film.-External links:* at Internet Movie Database...
and utilized CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
, the newly patented 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
2.55:1 anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
process to add clarity and presence to the picture.
Musical numbers
- "Once in the Highlands/Brigadoon/Down on MacConnachy Square" –Eddie Quillan, Villagers, and Offscreen M-G-M Chorus
- "Waiting for My Dearie" – Cyd Charisse (dubbed by Carol Richards) and Dee Turnell (dubbed by Bonnie Murray)
- "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" – Jimmy Thompson (dubbed by John Gustafson), Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Chorus
- "The Heather on the Hill" – Gene Kelly, Danced by Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse
- "Almost Like Being in Love" – Sung and Danced by Gene Kelly
- "The Wedding Dance" – Danced by Jimmy Thompson and Virginia Bosler
- "The Chase" – Sung by men pursuing Hugh Laing
- "The Heather on the Hill" – Danced by Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse
- "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" (reprise) – Sung offscreen by Jimmy Thompson, Carol Richards and Chorus
- "The Heather on the Hill" (reprise) – Sung offscreen by Jimmy Thompson, Carol Richards and Chorus
- "Waitin' for My Dearie" (reprise) – Sung offscreen by Jimmy Thompson, Carol Richards and Chorus
- "Finale: Brigadoon" – M-G-M Chorus
- Source:IMDB
Four of the stage show's musical numbers ("Come to Me, Bend to Me", "There But For You Go I", "From This Day On", and "The Sword Dance") were cut prior to the film's release. The Breen office
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
refused to allow the use of the two songs the Meg Brockie character sang in the stage version ("The Love of My Life" and "My Mother's Wedding Day"), as the lyrics were considered too risqué for general audiences. With the omission of these songs, the supporting role of Meg Brockie was reduced in the film to scarcely more than a bit part. The minor song "Jeannie's Packin' Up" was also omitted. Some of this was done because, after listening to Gene Kelly's pre-recordings of "There But For You Go I" and "From This Day On", the makers of the film felt that the results did not show his voice to its best advantage, but some was done because producer Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
wanted to shape the two-and-a-half hour stage musical into a film that ran 108 minutes.
Complete sound and picture footage of three of the deleted musical numbers has survived, and it is included in the latest DVD release of the film.
The 1954 original motion picture soundtrack was originally incomplete, but was re-released with deleted songs, alternate takes, and undubbed vocals.
Reception
Bosley CrowtherBosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
in the New York Times of September 17, 1954, described the film as "curiously flat and out-of-joint, rambling all over creation and seldom generating warmth or charm." Crowther admired the costumes, sets, and decor but deplored the omission of several musical numbers. He found fault with the film's two stars and its director, "...the personable Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse have the lead dancing roles. Even so, their several individual numbers are done too slickly, too mechanistically. What should be wistful and lyric smack strongly of trickery and style...Mr. Kelly's [performance] is as thin and metallic as a nail; Miss Charisse's is solemn and posey...Vincente Minnelli's direction lacks his usual vitality and flow." He concluded by noting the film was "pretty weak synthetic Scotch."
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
in his reappraisal feels this adaptation was unfairly overlooked when it first appeared and particularly praises the lovely score, orchestrated mainly by Conrad Salinger
Conrad Salinger
Conrad Salinger was an American arranger, orchestrator and composer, who studied classical composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He is credited with orchestrating nine productions on Broadway from 1931 to 1938, and over seventy-five motion pictures from 1931 to 1962...
.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for three Academy AwardsAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
in 1955:
- Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color - (Cedric GibbonsCedric GibbonsAustin Cedric Gibbons was an Irish American art director who was one of the most important and influential in the field in the history of American film. He also made a great impact on motion picture theater architecture through the 1930s to 1950s, the period considered the golden-era of theater...
, E. Preston AmesE. Preston AmesE. Preston Ames was a famous Hollywood art director.Ames first made inroads into Hollywood when he was a draftsman working on The Wizard of Oz in 1939...
, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh GleasonF. Keogh GleasonFrancis Keogh Gleason was a resident set decorator at MGM studios for over 40 years. In that time he won 4 Academy Awards and was nominated an additional 3 times.-External links:...
) - Best Costume Design, Color - (Irene SharaffIrene SharaffIrene Sharaff was an American costume designer for stage and screen. Her work earned her five Academy Awards and a Tony Award.- Background :...
) - Best Sound, Recording - Wesley C. MillerWesley C. MillerWesley C. Miller was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for four Academy Awards, three in the category Sound Recording and one for Best Effects, Special Effects.-Selected filmography:* Brigadoon...
(MGM)
The film won a 1955 Golden Globe:
- Best Cinematography, Color - (Joseph Ruttenberg)
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists:
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- Almost Like Being in Love - Nominated
- AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- Nominated Fantasy Film