Brigadoon

Despite all of the critical bashing of Brigadoon, I thought it was very nicely presented. Before I go any further, be forwarned that I have never seen Brigadoon on stage - only on screen - so I can't make comparisons. IMHO, MGM couldn't have casted a better Tommy; Gene Kelly is perfect and (although I agree that he may not be the best singer ever) I didn't doubt his ability to play the part a bit. Van Johnson steals the show as well. As well, Cyd Charisse was wonderful as Fiona, she made the character seem so believeable and was perfect for the part.

Granted, Brigadoon would have been much better had it been filmed on location in Scotland, but due to budget cuts MGM was forced to film it in beautiful, sunny Culver City. The painted backgrounds are obvious (the same injustice was done to "7 Brides" which, like Brigadoon, was to be done on location but was ultimately filmed at the studio) but the backdrops are not meant to be the centerpiece of the show; why are we placing so much fault on these? I agree that the dance sequences got to be a bit long, but with Gene Kelly, who cares?

We can, however, be thankful that MGM didn't cast Howard Keel or Kathryn Grayson in Brigadoon. As much as I love Keel's work in his other MGM endeavours (such as Show Boat and 7 Brides), he would have been totally wrong in Brigadoon and Grayson's operatic singing would have done Fiona a terrible injustice.

Overall I thought Brigadoon to be a wonderful screen interpretation of one of Broadway's crown jewels. It will definately be getting a second viewing here!. Rate 8/10

The story is one that is very fanciful and enjoyable. Two incongruous friends, Tommy and Jeff (Gene Kelly and Van Johnson) are hunting in Scotland when they come upon a town not on any map. Brigadoon is a lovely village but it soon becomes obvious it's a town out of time. Actually, it's a magical town that is stuck in the 18th century and it appears and then disappears every 100 years--which is a serious problem as Tommy has fallen in love with one of the residents (Cyd Charisse).

I liked this film quite a bit, though it did have two flaws. The sound stage was too often an obvious sound stage--with obviously painted mountains as a backdrop. Also, I think it might have benefited if they'd made Jeff less of a completely cynical jerk. It was odd seeing a nice-guy actor like Van Johnson playing a nasty little alcoholic and they part could have been better without the crabby aspects of the character. However, the music is lovely, the story sweet and there is still a lot to admire in this film.

I happened to watch the 1966 made for TV version of "Brigadoon" a week ago--and I enjoyed it enough that I sought out the original theatrical version from 1954. Both, naturally, are very similar though there are a few differences. First, because Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse were in this Hollywood production, naturally there would be more dancing than singing. Second, oddly, the story of how Brigadoon came to be was changed for the 1954 version. I have no idea why. And, finally, the 1954 version was made to look like a typical Hollywood production that was, as I mentioned above, made in a sound stage--and the 1966 version had a few actual outdoor scenes and much of the rest looked like it was on a theater stage. Both are very watchable, though I prefer the 1954 film. If you would like to see the 1966 version (starring Robert Goulet), it is available to watch free at archive.org.

I think this movie is one of the better musicals to come out of the '50s. Gene Kelley and Van Johnson make such a great team, it's a shame they didn't do more movies together. Johnson's timing and sarcastic remarks are truly funny. Cyd Charrise is also enjoyable in her Scottish role. This movie is very enjoyable for the whole family.

And that is exactly the story BRIGADOON tries to tell. Two urbanites from New York, Tommy (Gene Kelly) and Jeff (Van Johnson), are grouse-hunting in Scotland--yes, they've come all the way to Scotland to shoot grouse, if you can believe that to begin with!--when they happen upon the tiny magical little Scottish village of Brigadoon, a (very literal) throwback to the mid-18th century in customs, livelihood and people. The Campbells are holding a wedding for their daughter Jean, whose sister Fiona (Cyd Charisse) is the first person who doesn't treat the strangers like... well, strangers. It doesn't take long, just a walk through 'The Heather On The Hill', for Tommy and Fiona to fall deeply in love. The only problem is that Brigadoon, thanks (or not) to their eager chaplain Mr. Forsythe, surfaces once every hundred years--it's been two hundred since Mr. Forsythe made his 'contract with God', and only two days have passed for the villagefolk in that same year in 1754. The question becomes one of love, of whether one is able to give up everything for a miracle: just as Mr. Forsythe has to give up his beloved Brigadoon to bring it its miracle, Tommy and Fiona, because 'if you love someone deeply enough, anything is possible', get their miracle as well.

There is certainly charm aplenty in BRIGADOON: the morning fair 'Down On MacConnachy Square' is lively and bustling; the beautiful dance between Kelly and Charisse as they gather 'The Heather On The Hill' is tender and beautiful, with more balletic romance than any choreography of Kelly's to date; even the forward girl who tries to turn Jeff's head (only to disappear from the movie thereafter) is cute in her way and her fervent belief that she might actually have a romance like that of her parents. BRIGADOON most certainly sets out to charm--even the general dodginess of the Scottish accents does not really detract from the rest of the film.

However, there is an element of uneasiness in BRIGADOON, perhaps conscious, perhaps not, that somewhat undermines its message. It wants us to believe that it really is the humanity, the *kind* of humanity that one gets in Brigadoon and in New York that makes one place preferable to the other. This is quite unsubtly displayed in the merry dreaminess that surrounds Brigadoon, in contrast with the almost *too* loud chattering that goes on in the New York bar teeming with humanity. Yet one is never quite sure whether Brigadoon is really the utopia it appears to be: this is underscored by the fact that (despite Kelly's pleas for on-location filming in Scotland) the scenery is obviously constructed on a set. It's still eerily beautiful in a fake way, and this is the trouble with the village portrayed in the film. Everything *seems* perfect, idyllic--happy and charming and easy and light. But then you learn the real history of the village, and the aura surrounding it doesn't look so much as magic but as *black* magic. Mr. Forsythe sounds more like an authoritarian dictator obsessed with his Brigadoon than a benign sweet old chaplain, and when Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing) tries to make a break for it, the hunt for him and the subsequent covering up of his death has such sinister undertones that one really starts to feel uncomfortable about what the people have become in the two short days (for them) that they have known about their village's uniqueness.

Of course, the film itself actually states this uneasiness that the audience will feel, not merely suggests it. This is evident in how Tommy performs a gentle reprise of his courtship dance with Fiona and rushes off, full of glee and love, to tell Jeff that he is staying in Brigadoon... only to be persuaded by a few curt sentences from Jeff that he should really give up the love of his lifetime to return to reality, to return to New York. Jeff plays the cynical, hard-headed pragmatist in all of us, and is then immediately depicted as a drunkard who spends all his days lounging in a bar, broken by his own inability to have faith in a 'miracle'. It's fitting for this film full of contradictions that the person who saved Brigadoon was the one who refused to believe it, and that the people of Brigadoon were saved by the death of one of its number.

Perhaps this is far too much analysis than BRIGADOON can bear. If one doesn't poke beyond its shiny, lavish MGM surface (and there really is no need to), then it is merely a star vehicle for Kelly, not a particularly good one, but one that is moderately entertaining and does allow him to showcase his talents (though again, not too effectively). The best number is probably the most famous song in it, 'Almost Like Being In Love', sung by a heart-light and foot-merry Kelly as he dances through a Scottish farm. The runner-up would be the beautiful 'Heather On The Hill' couples ballet--Kelly's ballet training really comes to the fore in BRIGADOON, his other films having been more influenced by tap dancing.

All in all, a charming package with a sinister underside, if one can believe that this shadowy underside to BRIGADOON--both village and film--could exist. 7/10.

I'm sure that when Gene Kelly and Van Johnson wandered into that quaint Scottish village called Brigadoon they must have thought they were entering a Scottish theme park. Certainly no modern conveniences around and everyone dressed in costume. But there's a reason for it, a most enchanting reason, the heart and secret of Brigadoon.

Brigadoon ran in the 1947-1948 season on Broadway for 581 performances in the initial production. It was Alan Jay Lerner's and Frederick Loewe's first really big Broadway success though it was their second collaboration. MGM bought the property for the Arthur Freed unit and it lay dormant for a few years while a lot of creative and financial differences got worked out.

Gene Kelly curiously enough had the reverse problem with this that his Broadway hit Pal Joey had. The original production of Pal Joey was his first big musical hit and he never went back to Broadway after. But when the film for Pal Joey finally got made it was with Frank Sinatra in the lead and the part was changed to a singer's as opposed to dancer's role.

Similarly the original Broadway Tommy Albright was a singer named David Brooks and Fiona was played by Marion Bell both pretty good singers. Kelly who could carry a tune had a whole lot of trouble with some of the songs, in fact he himself asked that his version of There But For You Go I be cut from the final film.

Changing over to dancing leads, Kelly got Cyd Charisse as his partner and as was usual, Cyd's singing was dubbed with Carole Richards's voice. They did do some mighty nice dancing though, especially The Heather on the Hill ballet and Kelly's lighthearted romp to Almost Like Being in Love which was the big hit from Brigadoon.

Kelly wanted to shoot the film on location in Scotland, but MGM eying budgetary problems and director Vincente Minnelli's desire to do it on their sound stage the film was shot indoors with Brigadoon recreated at Culver City.

One of my favorite numbers from Brigadoon is My Mother's Wedding Day which the character Meg Brockie sings. It was eliminated by the Breen office censors would you believe. They thought it inappropriate for drunken Scotsmen to be cavorting about on a solemn occasion like a wedding. As a result the character of Meg Brockie was cut down to nothing. A pity because Pamela Britton won rave reviews for her Broadway performance and Dody Heath is left with next to nothing in the role.

Still there's enough of Brigadoon for audiences to still enjoy and dream about an enchanted Scottish village we might all like to escape the travails of the world to.