Singin' in the Rain (1952), Footlight Parade (1933), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Follow the Fleet (1936), A Damsel in Distress (1937), Dancing Lady (1933), Born to Dance (1936) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Tap Dance movies.
Storyline: 1927 Hollywood. Monumental Pictures' biggest stars, glamorous on-screen couple Lina Lamont and Don Lockwood, are also an off-screen couple if the trade papers and gossip columns are to be believed. Both perpetuate the public perception if only to please their adoring fans and bring people into the movie theaters. In reality, Don barely tolerates her, while Lina, despite thinking Don beneath her, simplemindedly believes what she sees on screen in order to bolster her own stardom and sense of self-importance. R.F. Simpson, Monumental's head, dismisses what he thinks is a flash in the pan: talking pictures. It isn't until The Jazz Singer (1927) becomes a bona fide hit which results in all the movie theaters installing sound equipment that R.F. knows Monumental, most specifically in the form of Don and Lina, have to jump on the talking picture bandwagon, despite no one at the studio knowing anything about the technology. Musician Cosmo Brown, Don's best friend, gets hired as Monumental's ...
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, classic, golden age hollywood, dance, broadway ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Chester Kent produces musical comedies on the stage. With the beginning of the talkies era he changes to producing short musical prologues for movies. This is stressful to him, because he always needs new units and his rival is stealing his ideas. He can get an contract with a producer if he is able to stage in three days three new prologues. In spite of great problems, he does it.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, great depression era, broadway, musical theater, warner bros ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Lucky is tricked into missing his wedding to Margaret by the other members of Pop's magic and dance act, and has to make $25000 to be allowed to marry her. He and Pop go to New York where they run into Penny, a dancing instructor. She and Lucky form a successful dance partnership, but romance is blighted (till the end of the film at least!) by his old attachment to Margaret and hers for Ricardo, the band leader who won't play for them to dance together.
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, classic, fred astaire, golden age hollywood, dance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Ballet star Pete "Petrov" Peters arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer he's fallen for but barely knows, musical star Linda Keene. By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie has churned through the rumor mill and turned into a hot gossip item: that the two celebrities are secretly married.—Diana Hamilton <hamilton@gl.umbc.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, musical film, romance, comedy, fred astaire, dance, hollywood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When the fleet puts in at San Francisco, sailor Bake Baker tries to rekindle the flame with his old dancing partner, Sherry Martin, while Bake's buddy Bilge Smith romances Sherry's sister Connie. But it's not all smooth sailing: Bake has a habit of losing Sherry's jobs for her; and despite Connie's dreams, Bilge is not ready to settle down.—Diana Hamilton <hamilton@gl.umbc.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, comedy, fred astaire, 1930s, golden age of hollywood, dance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Lady Alyce Marshmorton must marry soon, and the staff of Tottney Castle have laid bets on who she'll choose, with young Albert wagering on "Mr. X". After Alyce goes to London to meet a beau (bumping into dancer Jerry Halliday, instead), she is restricted to the castle to curb her scandalous behavior. Albert then summons Jerry to Alyce's aid in order to "protect his investment".—Diana Hamilton <hamilton@gl.umbc.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, fred astaire, 1930s, black and white, misunderstanding ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed by Patch. Tod thinks he can get what he wants from Janie, Patch thinks Janie is using her charms rather than talent to get to the top, and Janie thinks Patch is the greatest. Steve, the stage manager, has the Three Stooges helping him manage all the show girls. Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy make appearances as famous Broadway personalities.—Lisa Grable <grable@unity.ncsu.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, comedy, broadway, dance, golden age hollywood, joan crawford ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Sailor Ted meets at the Lonely Hearts Club of his friend Gunny's wife, Jenny, a girl, Nora Paige, and falls in love. Nora wants to become a dancer on Broadway. Ted rescues the Pekinese of Lucy James, a Broadway star during a public relations campaign on his submarine. Lucy falls in love with Ted, and Ted is ordered by his Captain to meet her in a night club, in spite of the fact that he has a date with Nora. Nora, who lives with Jenny and her and Gunny's daughter, doesn't want to hear anything from Ted, after she spotted a picture of Ted and Lucy in the morning paper. Lucy convinces her manager Dinehart to stop the press campaign and tells him that she would leave the production, if another photo or article of her and Ted is published. Nora has become her understudy, and she begins to think her behaviour to Ted over. Suddenly she is fired after Dinehart told her to dance a number Lucy James called undanceable. But when Ted is told the whole story, he knows what to do.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, broadway, musical theater, 1930s, american film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Ann Sothern wishes to marry a man her rich father disapproves of, so she concocts a scheme to get him on her side. She hires Raymond to act like an obnoxious French count, then pretends to take an interest in him in front of her father, hoping he will agree her first choice is better than the brash, selfish, insulting count.—dictracy23
Plot Keywords: comedy, musical, romance, dance, broadway, light comedy, romantic comedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In heaven, showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. fondly recalls his first Broadway revue, the Ziegfeld Follies of 1907. Even from heaven, he is hoping that he can, for one last time, create that same magic by mounting one last follies. As he thinks about who he would like to appear in these follies, he is assisted in realizing his fantasy, at least in his own mind, by such luminaries as Fred Astaire, Edward Arnold, 'Lucille Ball', Marion Bell, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Cyd Charisse, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, James Melton, Victor Moore, Virginia O'Brien, Red Skelton, Esther Williams, Keenan Wynn, and, of course, a bevy of beautiful girls.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: musical, song and dance film, golden age of hollywood, broadway, all-star cast, color film, mgm ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Jed Potter looks back on a love triangle conducted over the course of years and between musical numbers. Dancer Jed loves showgirl Mary, who loves compulsive nightclub-opener Johnny, who can't stay committed to anything in life for very long.—Diana Hamilton <hamilton@gl.umbc.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, comedy, dance, broadway, post-war, classic hollywood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The star of an upcoming Broadway production, Janet Hallson, walks out during rehersals. The producers of the show, Ted Sturgis, Leo Belney and Bob Dowdy begin to search a replacement. After a quick audition, each favors someone else: Madelyn Corlane, Joanna Moss, Suzie Doolittle. The rest of the movie tells in a series of musical and dance scenes how they finally pick ...—Gerhard Gonter <g.gonter@ieee.org>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, dance, broadway, hollywood, 1950s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Born charmer Sean Okden gave up tap-dancing when he started working in the steel mill, but as that's going down the hill he grabs his chance being the only candidate in his coastal Australian home town Newcastle selected for a Sidney show. Being sacked soon just for a row with the arrogant lead dancer, he returns to find his girlfriend in bed with his brother Mitchell, and decides to start his own tap-dance group wearing hardhats, which he soon gives an original edge when the steel mill inspires him to weld metal on their shoes and dance on industrial steel, so it the metallic acoustics fit well with a local rock group. Financing their local debut is so expensive, even when the mill allows them free us of its premises -opening some acrobatic perspectives- while even his father won't allow him to touch his mother's inheritance for the project, that the 'Bootmen' need to steal the cheerleaders' podium in a televised sports match to get media attention. Sean generously helps his brother when attacked, at the price of their motorbikes, only to learn his assailant Huey and Mitch rival as car (part) thieves, but still allows him into the group - only to see his fatal fall during an attack by Huey's goons. Even when the mill announces phasing out Sean continues, now as a benefit for the sacked workers' retraining.—KGF Vissers
Plot Keywords: dance, musical, australian film, drama, comedy, brotherhood, working class ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Broadway producer Jonnie Demming courts big-name talent for his upcoming musical show, oblivious to the talent all around him, in his family and friends. When Jonnie finally lands Hollywood star Helen Hoyt for his cast, Helen herself tries opening Jonnie's eyes to the talents of his dad and sister. But Jonnie remains adamant. Will his family and friends launch their own show, in competition with Jonnie's?—Dan Navarro <daneldorado@yahoo.com>
Plot Keywords: musical, song and dance film, romance, comedy, hollywood, 1940s, classic ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Junior Donal, an ex-vaudevillian now teaching music at Knickerbocker University in New York, enlists to help of patroness Peggy Portefield to persuade Sergei Alexandrovich, the director of the Russian Ballet, to stage a friend's jazzy "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet. Junior becomes involved with the company's prima ballerina, Vera Barnova, and even takes over the male lead in "Slaughter". This so enrages Vera's lover and regular dancing partner that he hires two thugs to kill Junior while he is performing on stage.—Alessandro Martini <alemartini@geocities.com>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, dance, broadway, theater, 1930s ...
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