Brigadoon: From Stage to Screen

Gene Kelly .... Tommy Albright
Van Johnson .... Jeff Douglas
Cyd Charisse .... Fiona Campbell
Elaine Stewart .... Jane Ashton
Barry Jones .... Mr. Lundie
Hugh Laing .... Harry Beaton
Albert Sharpe .... Andrew Campbell
Virginia Bosler .... Jean Campbell
Jimmy Thompson .... Charlie Chisholm Dalrymple
Tudor Owen .... Archie Beaton
Owen McGiveney .... Angus
Dee Turnell .... Ann
Dody Heath .... Meg Brockie
Eddie Quillan .... Sandy

Directed by
Vincente Minnelli

Writing credits
Alan Jay Lerner

Produced by
Arthur Freed

Original music by
Frederick Loewe

Choreography
Gene Kelly

Lyrics by
Alan Jay Lerner

Cinematography by
Joseph Ruttenberg

Film Editing by
Albert Akst

Art Direction
Preston Ames
Cedric Gibbons

Set Decoration
Keogh Gleason
Edwin B. Willis

Costume Design by
Irene Sharaff

Makeup Department
Sydney Guilaroff .... hair stylist
William Tuttle .... makeup artist

Frank Baur .... assistant director
Warren Newcombe .... special effects
Alvord Eiseman .... color consultant
Johnny Green.... musical director
John Gustafson .... singing voice: Charlie Dalrymple
Wesley C. Miller .... recording supervisor
Conrad Salinger .... orchestrator
Robert Tucker.... choral arrangements

Once in the
Highlands

Following the Overture, done in the standard "credit card" so often used in early film, we are thrust into the story of 2 travellers who stumble upon the lost city of Brigadoon. This first song sets the stage for that story to begin. The fog machines were in heavy use on the MGM lot when this scene was filmed. The short song acts as a prologue to the song Brigadoon but does its part to immediately date the piece. The vocal stylings are so standard 50's musical fare that it could use a rethinking.

The title song, like the song preceding it, is performed off screen by the standard movie musical chorus of 1954. But, this song works well with the artisans at the MGM scene shop who have created a wonderfully detailed town of Brigadoon, especially as it 'awakens" from its centennial slumber.

Down on
MacConnachy
Square

This group number introduces the people of Brigadoon, they as a whole are a strong character in the story of Brigadoon. Presented in startling Technicolor, and filled with enough performers to fill the soundstage, it is great fun. I do wonder though why every village in teh 50s musical is built on a perfectly flat neuteral dance floor. What I really mean is, in the middle of the wonderful artisan work of the set creators is an unpainted flat dance floor. And they make no bones about it. In fact they film it quite often here... Suprisingly people dance on it...

Waitin' for
My Dearie

This lyrical song brings Cyd Charisse and her ballet talents and her vocal dubber and her plesant voice to the forefront. The song of yearning is pleasantly interupted by a girl in 'drag' pretending to be Charisse's legendary unnamed dearie. A clever but suprisingly unenergetic piece. And I know I can make a load of enemies by saying this, but, the hair styles and make-up used in this and several other movies of the time certainly puts many years on performers. To this day, the perfomers look like very attractive people fifteen years older than I but in reality they are ten years younger than I...

I'll Go Home With
Bonnie Jean

Now the guys get a chance to have a fun little ditty. One of my personal favorite sets of lyrics in a fun scottish song. On screen though, Liza's dad chose (with little exception from the MGM brass) to focus on the dancing ability of the likes of Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly. So, in the middle of the village men's song, the 2 visitors do an extended soft shoe. I guess its well done but its existence is practically jarring.

The Heather
on the Hill

Stunning set painting and fluid camera work are a highlight of this hauntingly beautiful vocal piece turned prologue to dance number perfomed to beautiful music. Yes, the artistry of the technical staff working on the film is brilliant and is finely featured here. And Kellys voice is extremely soothing but the screen focus on the dance speaks little of the importance of the song.

Almost Like
Being in Love

Attack of the dance musical. This sounds a bit harsh, but, here the filmmakers have cut out a few more songs, all vocally rich and dancingly barren. One of the casualties is the love ballad "Come to me, Bend to me" So, once again with "Almost Like Being in Love", a wonderful song is replaced by an excuse for a dance number... Kelly does an almost impressive singing' in the rain-esque solo tagged onto the song. He is loaded with talent.

Entrance of
the Clans

The Wedding begins with the arrival of all the different families wearing their tartan colors. This is not so much a song but to this viewer it is the most respectable moment in the film...

The Wedding culminates in a large scottish dance perfomed on the perfectly smooth wide open dance floor conveniently located on the side of a hill. A nice use of costuming and color but the melody is carried by bagpipes which is not always the most pleasant sounding. Fortunately, the song is cut short by some horrible acting by a jealous young man of the village.

One of the most ridiculous pieces in the movie. A nicely realized chase through the enormous and beautiful soundstage design is horribly marred by the offscreen voices singing 'commentary' on the hunt

The Heather on
the Hill (reprise)

This dance reprise is beautiful in execution and a highlight of the film. But, it would have been stronger as a unique dance in the film, not one in a messy sea of many dances.

From Stage to Screen

Following two basically unsuccessful musicals, WHAT'S UP? and THE DAY BEFORE SPRING, Lerner and Loewe found their first major "hit" with BRIGADOON, the story of two young Americans abroad who stumble upon a secluded village in the Scottish Highlands. The village of Brigadoon has been "blessed" by the town's clergyman, and appears only one day every hundered years. The time of the play is 1947, two hundred years after the "blessing" took place. Of course, to the citizens of Brigadoon, only two days have passed...

The story itself, while charming, is a basically simple boy meets-loses-regains girl formula plot. There are two main subplots, one involving the leading man's best friend, a cynical New Yorker who must avoid the amorous advances of the town's milkmaid (apparently there were very few single men in Brigadoon?) and another involving the ingenue's sister, who is getting married against the wishes of an ill-faited suitor.

On stage, BRIGADOON is clearly a singer's musical, providing such Lerner and Loewe staples as "Almost Like Being in Love " and "There But For You Go I." It isn't hard to see why Lerner and Loewe scored BIG with this show. The original Agnes DeMille choreography (which I have seen in re-creation) was spectacular, and the music itself artfully bridges the gap between operetta and musical theatre. (Note: I particularly recommend the Rebecca Luker concert recording from the early 1990's, especially to anyone hearing the show for the first time.)

Once the play becomes a film, however, some "ideas" change the show considerably. Apparently, the film-makers decided to make a "dancing" show out of a "singing" play, hiring Gene Kelley and Cyd Charise, two of the foremost film dancers of the day to play the two young lovers. As talented as they were, they were basically "fish out of water" in this adaptation. An extended ballet sequence in the song "The Heather On The Hill" seems jarringly out of place, and the rousing drinking song "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean" becomes a soft-shoe spotlight for Kelley and co-star Van Johnson. Oddly enough, the character of Maggie Anderson, who danced the traditional Highland mourning dance in the stage version of BRIGADOON has been eliminated from the film. Other "missing in action"
moments are the beautiful "Come To Me Bend To Me" ballad (sung by the male juvenile lead) and two comic numbers for Meg the Milkmaid, "My Mother's Wedding Day" and "The Real Love Of My Life." The absence of these two numbers largely robs the film of the light-hearted counterpoint to the dramatic moments which made the stage version so enjoyable. The characters in BRIGADOON the film are either sighing dreamily over new (or lost) love, or brooding over some unrealized dream. Another "what were they thinking" decision was to film BRIGADOON on a soundstage rather than on location in Scotland. The sets are adequate, but look roughly comparable to those of a better-than-average community
theatre production. Other lowlights include:

The all-but-full-darkness lighting design for the "Chase Sequence" in which the entire town chases the villain of the show through the woods. es, we know it's night time, but please...

Cyd Charise's inability to hit the high note on her first song, "Waitin' For My Dearie." (..."I feel the night is longer when the lad's not right...") If the film makers had her dubbed, couldn't they have found a soprano who could hit the note?

The TOTAL lack of any romantic chemistry between the two leads. If you haven't seen the film, trust me...there's no attempt at passion here.

The truly laughable makeup and beard on "Sandy" the candy-seller. He looks like he should be selling Lucky Charms cereal.

In all, I must dub the film "One of the biggest massacres of a great stage musical." However, even in the worst of disasters, there are occasional gems. If nothing else, this film provides the basic story and most of Loewe's score. There are even a FEW genuinely inspired moments, but far too few...While better than absolutely nothing, the film version of BRIGADOON is very much a poor cousin to the stage version.

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