Byrdz

This potentially good documentary look at movie musicals starts off with a pretty amateurish narration but then moves on to being clips only. There is a brief shot of a poster for each film BUT the clips lack information about who is in the scenes and doing the singing and dancing. It's fine for those totally in the know of the early (and lesser) film musicals but everyone else is left in the dark.

Nice selection of movies and musical numbers. Fred Astair dancing on the ceiling in "Royal Wedding", however, certainly is NoT a "forgotten film.

Looked forward to seeing Pauline Collins BUT should have stuck with the Shirley Valentine version of Shirley Valentine's story of older woman going out and finding her freedom and her life ! This was a convoluted and messy film with way too many closeups of overly made up Joan Collins and a plot that seemed forced and uninteresting. The humor simply was not funny and the family relationships seemed fake from start to finish.

Franco Nero as Tom Conti substitute was pleasant enough but the instant romance, such as it was, made little sense.

Recommendation is to skip this one and watch Shirley Valentine ... where the obnoxious "friend" is just a small part of the film and not the co0star.

Two hours and ten minutes and when it is finished I was left frustrated and wondering what in heck it was about and why was it in English and Italian. Acting fine but the plot was a total mess with nothing settled ot clarified. Would have been better off watching just about ANYTHING else rather than this mess of a film ... even Ishtar was a better showcase for Dustin Hoffman than this and why reviews need to be novel length is beyond me !