It is Sunday morning and I went to Prime for today’s Genre-ary DailyView, and I head for the world of baseball and the classic musical Damn Yankees. 

I did not know that this was a twist on the Faustus legend, where a character sells their soul to the devil in exchange for some kind of success on earth.

In this case, Applegate (Ray Walston), who was the Devil in disguise, approached middle aged man Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) and offered him a chance to reclaim a youthful desire to become the greatest baseball player for his beloved Washington Senators and help them win the pennant. Applegate turned Joe into a younger man and named him Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter). Hardy goes to the Senators for a try-out and impresses everyone.

One of my favorite musical songs appeared in this film. I have a connection to “Heart” (which was performed on General Hospital at their Nurses’ Ball). It is such an upbeat and energetic song and this performance was enjoyable.

I loved Ray Walston’s performance in this movie. He was very much over the top and funny with his evilness. 

I’m not sure I loved how the final scene played out because I am not sure it made any sense in what happened, but I was happy that it turned out as a happy ending. I’m just not sure about the execution of the decision.

Lola (Gwen Verdon) was Applegate’s demonic servant, who was brought to corrupt Joe, who was still in love with his wife (Shannon Bolin).

It was also fun to see Jean Stapleton as one of Joe’s wife’s friends. 

I liked this one. It was a lot of fun and engaging performances, with some good music. 

I decided to watch Man of La Mancha today on Amazon Prime for the Genre-ary DailyView. Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren starred in this tale of Don Quixote, an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same title.

I liked the initial set-up of the m0vie, with Cervantes (Peter O’Toole) thrown in prison awaiting the Spanish Inquisition. Once there, he was forced to defend himself as the other prisoners tried to put him on trial. Cervantes is an actor and so he put on a defense by telling the story of Don Quixote.

Though the premise of the film was intriguing, it failed to keep my attention as it progressed. Neither Peter O’Toole or Sophia Loren were much in way of singers and the overall silliness of the tone seemed to work against the tale.

Both O’Toole and Loren did a decent job with their performances. James Coco is likable as Sancho Panza/Cervantes’ servant. 

“The Impossible Dream” is a well-known song that I was unaware originated in this musical. 

The mix of tones kept me from enjoying the film and there was no music with that musical that truly engaged me. Overall, this was disappointing.

This morning, the Genre-ary DailyView pulled another well-known musical film, the 1979 film, Hair. Hair was based on the 1968 Broadway musical  Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. 

Hair focused in on the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s/early 70s. It was an anti-Vietnam play, though the movie rolled that back somewhat. 

The film featured a rollicking debut performance from Trick Williams as George Burger, the main hippie from the group in the film. Burger’s friends met Army draftee Claude Bukowski (John Savage) and they bonded in the last few days before Claude needed to report.

There was really not much of a plot here. It felt more like a compilation of misadventures of the group than it was any sort of real throughline. There was a connective tissue involving higher class woman named Shelia (Beverly D’Angelo) and she had some kind of relationship with Claude, kind of.

The music is great. ”Aquarius” is a classic that started off the film and ended up with “Let the Sunshine In.” Everything is catchy and the performance inside the movie were enjoyable and the choreography was well done too.

The success of this film is absolutely on the back of Treat Williams and he carries it through some ridiculousness, especially the final scenes of the movie which are so silly that it removes any of the emotional stakes of the film.

In the end, I am glad I watched the movie, and it does have positives to it, but there are just too many drawbacks for me to full recommend it.

If I am being honest, it is pretty clear that Zac Efron has come a long way to his role as Kevin Vin Erich in The Iron Claw. He is a legitimate Oscar contender for that role, while he was, let’s say, less than that for High School Musical.

However, while he may not have been too deep here, he had some energy and he did have some chemistry with his co-stars, in particular with Vanessa Anne Hudgens, which helped to elevate this ridiculous high school film.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), the star athlete at a small-town high school, falls for nerdy beauty Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) at a holiday karaoke party. When they return to campus, Troy and Gabriella audition for the upcoming school musical. Meanwhile, the jealous Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) conspires to squelch their chances. The two must struggle to make it to auditions while also meeting their existing obligations to the basketball team and the academic decathlon.“

I mean… story-wise, this thing is terrible. The high school is pure fantasy, and things happen here that just never would happen in any high school in the world. And I am not just talking about the choreography. It is predictable and the characters are all weak.

However, the music is catchy and fun to listen to. I won’t be remembering it much or buying it on iTunes, but it was fun and enjoyable during the movie. The dancing was great, in particular the big lunch room number. 

It may be way too sugary and these kids would never exist anywhere, but it does have a positive message about doing what makes you happy and acceptance of it. That is an important message to the youth of the world.

I really thought that I would be rolling my eyes at this thing throughout, but it was more engaging than I thought it was going to be. I’m not saying that this was a good movie, but it was not a terrible one either. The weak parts and strong point kind of balance out here. I did not hate myself for watching it, and that is a bonus.

I was a big fan of the two seasons of Schmigadoon on Apple TV +. I came on it late, but binged the two seasons quickly, really enjoying the set-up and the parody of the musical genre. I had not seen the film that Schmigadoon was originally parodying, but this morning, that changed as I watched 1954’s Brigadoon starring Gene Kelly and Van Johnson.

Two men went to Scotland to go grouse shooting, but they stumbled from out of the mist into a mysterious village called Brigadoon. 

Gene Kelly is very charismatic and his singing and dancing is, again, top notch. Van Johnson played the more grumpy of the two. 

There are few songs that I recognized from the film. The one that I had heard before was “Almost Like Being in Love.” 

The film is romantic and lovely. Good music and good choreography. The storytelling is solid. 

I chose not to save this on for the June Swoon and include it in the Genre-ary.

I’m not sure how I feel about that decision.

Dicks: The Musical is raucous, dirty, profane, obscene, potentially blasphemous, and offensive, but there were some scenes that were surprisingly full of heart and that may have won me over from completely crushing this movie in this review and, instead, hemming and hawing about the picture.

Two identical (that term being used in a non-identical way) twins, separated at birth, find each other and make lots of dick and sex jokes and innuendo. Then they try to reunite their parents who had each taken one of the boys to raise.

Yeah, there is not much of a plot here. 

If you like musicals and movies that are crude and profane, this is the film for you. I do like musicals, but, honestly, I have never been much of a fan of the real raucous and abrasive type of movies and this is one of the most brazen films of that type I have ever seen.

Honestly, I disliked the two main characters, Trevor (Aaron Jackson) and Craig (Josh Sharp). These characters are designed to be unlikeable, though. In that manner, they did a great job.

Their parents, Harris (Nathan Lane) and Evelyn (Megan Mullally), are definitely the best parts of the movie. Nathan Lane, in particular, really rises above the material and gives that standout performance that you expect from him. There is a joke with Megan Mullally’s character’s vagina that is borderline hilarious, yet amazingly offensive.

I did find the songs to be fun and catchy, albeit also obscene. 

I really did hate this for awhile, but by the end, I would be lying if I said that I did not have sort of a smile on my face. 

“Tommy, can you hear me?”

That is a repeated line throughout the rock band The Who’s film version of their rock opera Tommy. 

Tommy is a psychadelic trip of a film based on The Who’s album from 1969. 

Apparently. the film is very different than the album, with songs in different orders and others performing some of them.

The film was filled with stars including Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John, Jack Nicholson, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend. The music played throughout the entire film with the only dialogue being sung as well. 

It was a real bizarre film that was engaging. You had to watch this thing closely if you wanted to keep up with what was happening. ”Pinball Wizard” was easily my favorite song from the movie.

Ann-Margret played Tommy’s mother and wound up winning a Golden Globe for the role. She was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress, though she did not win the award.

I did enjoy this movie, but it was not one that I would consider watching again.

Today’s Genre-ary DailyView musical goes back to 1935 with the iconic pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

This was a classic comedy with the old mistaken identity trope was very cute and charming. Both Astaire and Rogers were very fun to watch. Their dancing was on point every time. 

There were some iconic songs that I did not know came from this. ”Cheek to Cheek,” “Top Hat, White Tie and Tail,” and “Isn’t This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain).”

Though Astaire and Rogers were wonderful, I do think the best comedic performance of the movie was provided by Eric Blore, who played Edward Horton’s ‘man-servant’ Bates. He was just silly enough running around the film and I laughed every time.

I also enjoyed the comedic performance of Helen Broderick, who played Madge Hardwick, too. 

This was light and fun, charming as could be. I can see why Top Hat received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.