Singin' in the Rain (1952), Imitation of Life (1959), I Vitelloni (1953), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Stage Door (1937), Funny Girl (1968), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), The Phantom of the Opera (2004) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Chorus Girl 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: raincoat, recording studio, straw hat, pianist, femme fatale, pearl necklace, dancing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson, a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though, Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.
Plot Keywords: african american, housekeeper, race relations, melodrama, ambition, adolescence, friendship between women ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Fausto Moretti, having seduced Sandra Rubini, the sister of his friend and companion Moraldo Rubini, is forced to marry her. After their honeymoon, he takes a job as a salesman of religious objects in a small shop. He isn't changed by his marriage and still looks for women, with his friends, when and where they can find them. He even tries to seduce the wife of his boss and is fired. After each episode, Sandra forgives him. He and his friends of similar temperament are content to be idle, chase girls and leave the work and job-hunting to others. After spending the night away from home with a girl, Sandra cannot forgive anymore and runs off with their child. Fausto and his friends search all over for them, fearing the worst.
Plot Keywords: unfaithfulness, beauty contest, beauty queen, bicycle, boardwalk, boat, borrowing money ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Chorus girls Polly, Carol and Trixie are ecstatic when they learn that Broadway producer Barney Hopkins is putting on a new show. He promises all of the girls parts in the new show and even hires their neighbor Brad Roberts, an unknown composer, to write some of the music. There's only one problem: he doesn't have the money to bankroll it all. That problem is solved when Brad turns out to be quite rich but he insists that he not perform. When opening night comes, the juvenile lead can't go on forcing Brad to take the stage. He's recognized of course and his upper crust family wants him to quit. When he refuses, they tell him to end his relationship with Polly or face having his income cut off. When Brad's snobbish brother Lawrence mistakes Carol for Polly, the girls decide to have a bit of fun and teach him a lesson.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: dancing, great depression, chorus line, dancer, new york city, rehearsal, show business ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Terry Randall, rich society beauty, has decided to see if she can break into the Broadway theatre scene without her family connections. She goes to live in a theatrical boarding house and finds her life caught up with those of the other inmates and the ever-present disappointment that theatrical hopefuls must live with. Her smart-mouth roommate, Jean, is approached by a powerful producer for more than just a role. And Terry's father has decided to give her career the shove by backing a production for her to star in, in which she's sure to flop. But his machinations hurt more than just Terry.—Kathy Li
Plot Keywords: roommate, father daughter relationship, showbiz, dancing, boarding house, suicide, agent ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Early twentieth century New York. Fanny Brice knows that she is a talented comedienne and singer. She also knows that she is not the beauty typical of the stage performers of the day, she with skinny legs and a crooked nose among other physical issues. So she knows she has to use whatever other means to get her break in show business, that break so that she can at least display her talents. With the help of Eddie Ryan who would become her friend, Fanny is able to get a part in a novelty act in a vaudeville show, the renown from which eventually comes to the attention of famed impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. Fanny does become one of the Ziegfeld Follies most popular acts, despite she almost getting fired after her first performance by defying Flo's artistic vision for her closing number. Beyond stage success, Fanny also wants a happy personal life, most specifically with the suave Nicky Arnstein, a gambler in every respect of the word. Fanny loves him and loves that he loves her ...
Plot Keywords: singer, female protagonist, husband wife relationship, actress, male female relationship, card playing, celebration ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: 1920s Broadway. Playwright David Shayne considers himself an artist, and surrounds himself with like minded people, most struggling financially as they create art for themselves, not the masses. David, however, believes the failure of his first two plays was because he gave up creative control to other people who didn't understand the material. As such, he wants to direct his just completed third play, "God of Our Fathers", insider scuttlebutt being that it may very well make David the toast of Broadway. With David having no directing history, David's regular producer, Julian Marx, can't find any investors,... until a single investor who will finance the entire production comes onto the scene. He is Nick Valenti, a big time mobster, with the catch being that his dimwitted girlfriend, non-actress Olive Neal, get the lead role. A hesitant David and Julian, who are able to talk Nick into them giving Olive one of the two female supporting roles instead, go along with the scheme hoping ...
Plot Keywords: independent film, mob hit, nightclub, pool hall, shakespearean quotation, turkish bath, stage ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Begins when an opera ghost terrorizes the cast and crew of the French Opera House while tutoring a chorus girl. He finally drives the lead soprano crazy so she and her friend leave. The girl is able to sing lead one night but the soprano doesn't want her show stolen so she comes back. The ghost demands they keep giving his protégé lead roles. Meanwhile, His pupil falls in love with the Vicomte de Chagny, but the Phantom is in love with Christine, his student. The Phantom is outraged by their love and kidnaps Christine to be his eternal bride. Will Raoul, the Vicomte, be able to stop this dastardly plan?
Plot Keywords: opera, singer, mask, unrequited love, sword fight, graveyard, disfigurement ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In this gritty film noir, cynical ex-RAF flyer Morgan, bored with civilian life, joins a break-in gang led by Narcy. On his first job, the getaway car crashes after killing a policeman. Morgan is framed as the driver and sent to jail. Seeking revenge, he escapes and heads for London. Along the way he's helped by a woman (Mrs. Fenshaw), who wants him to murder her husband. In London, Morgan is sheltered by Sally, who falls in love with him. He confronts Narcy and the gang in an abandoned warehouse. Brazilian Director Cavalcanti's crime drama should not be confused with the totally unrelated "They Made Me a Criminal" (1939).—Mike Rogers <MICHAELPEM@aol.com>
Plot Keywords: british noir, drug dealing, drunkenness, dying, eating, face slap, face wound ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The Acunas, a rich Argentine family, have the tradition that the daughters have to get married in order, oldest first. When sister #1 gets married, sisters #3 and #4 put pressure on Maria, sister #2, because they have their husbands picked out already. But Maria hasn't yet met a man she likes. Eduardo Acuna, believing that men aren't romantic enough these days, sends his daughter flowers and anonymous love letters, creating a "mystery man" for her to fall in love with. He intends to pick out an appropriate beau for her later, to fill the role. But Robert Davis, an American dancer looking for work, stumbles into the picture. Maria falls for him, but the father does not approve.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>
Plot Keywords: actor shares first name with character, actress name in tagline, actor's name in tagline, actress billed above the title, actor billed above the title, actor shares last name with character, actor shares first and last name with character ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Mary Keaton, Vivian Kirkwood (née Revere), and Ruth Westcott have just run into each other having not seen each other in ten years since they graduated from Public School 62 together, and become friends of sorts in their re-acquaintance. Their intervening lives went much as probably would have been predicted when they were in public school: Mary, the troublemaker who almost didn't graduate with her class, spent some time in a reformatory but went straight and became a showgirl; Vivian, the popular beauty with a charmed life, married wealthy and renowned lawyer Robert Kirkwood, the two with an adolescent son, Robert Jr.; and Ruth, the quiet, hard-working, smart one, who became a stenographer. While Mary's life took a positive turn since her reformatory years, Vivian has come to the realization that she is unhappy with her life, its path a little too easy in its predetermination. She realizes she probably never loved Robert. Her quest for pleasure, with a blessing of sorts from Robert who doesn't want his wife, whom he still loves, to be as distant as she seems, will affect Mary, as well. Their collective destinies may be foreshadowed by an old wives' tale about three sharing a single match, from which the film takes its name.—Huggo (updated by R.M. Sieger)
Plot Keywords: pre code film, childhood friend, drug addiction, suicide, kidnapping, divorce, gangster ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Loose biography of actor Lon Chaney. Growing up with deaf parents, he learns what it is like to be different. As an actor, he puts that knowledge (together with lots of make-up and talent) to use playing a variety of strange, unusual characters, adopting their characteristics so thoroughly as to be called the Man of a Thousand Faces.—Ken Yousten <kyousten@bev.net>
Plot Keywords: drawing, father in law daughter in law relationship, father son estrangement, film within a film, fishing, foster child, foster home ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Murderesses Velma Kelly (a chanteuse and tease who killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together) and Roxie Hart (who killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her a star) find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.
Plot Keywords: prison, newspaper, bad girl, jazz age, reporter, marionette, ambition ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Seeking shelter from a pounding rainstorm in a remote region of Wales, several travellers are admitted to a gloomy, foreboding mansion belonging to the extremely strange Femm family. Trying to make the best of it, the guests must deal with their sepulchral host, Horace Femm and his obsessive, malevolent sister Rebecca. Things get worse as the brutish manservant Morgan gets drunk, runs amuck and releases the long pent-up brother Saul, a psychotic pyromaniac who gleefully tries to destroy the residence by setting it on fire.—Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net>
Plot Keywords: storm, horror movie remade, brother sister relationship, power outage, insanity, old dark house, based on novel ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A gangster movie where all the gangsters are played by children. Instead of real bullets they use "splurge guns" that cover the victim in cream. The story tells of the rise of "Bugsy Malone" and the battle for power between "Fat Sam" and "Dandy Dan".
Plot Keywords: gangster, new york city, 1930s, ice cream parlor, hotel, great depression, gang warfare ...
Movie Details Click Here!