Brigadoon (film)

Brigadoon
French film poster
Directed by	Vincente Minnelli
Produced by	Arthur Freed
Written by	Alan Jay Lerner
Starring	Gene Kelly Van Johnson Cyd Charisse
Music by	Alan Jay Lerner (Lyrics) Frederick Loewe (Music) Conrad Salinger (orchestrator)
Cinematography	Joseph Ruttenberg
Editing by	Albert Akst
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	September 8, 1954 (1954-09-08)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,352,625

Brigadoon is a 1954 MGM musical feature film made in CinemaScope and Ansco Color based on the Broadway musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli and stars Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse. Brigadoon has been broadcast on American television and is available in both VHS and DVD formats.

Plot

Americans Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) are on a hunting trip in Scotland and become lost in the woodlands. They happen upon Brigadoon, a miraculously blessed village that rises out of the mists every hundred years for only a day. (This was done so that the village would never be changed or destroyed by the outside world.) Tommy falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse). When he learns his love for Fiona will make it possible for him to remain in Brigadoon forever, he initially is willing to commit himself but backs down as the day ends and Brigadoon disappears. Back in New York City, he can think only of Fiona. He returns to Scotland. There, his great love causes Brigadoon to materialize before its appointed time. He crosses the bridge to the village and is united with Fiona forever.

Cast

• Gene Kelly as Tommy Albright
• Van Johnson as Jeff Douglas
• Cyd Charisse as Fiona Campbell
• Elaine Stewart as Jane Ashton
• Barry Jones as Mr. Lundie
• Hugh Laing as Harry Beaton
• Albert Sharpe as Andrew Campbell
• Virginia Bosler as Jean Campbell
• Jimmy Thompson as Charlie Chisholm Dalrymple
• Tudor Owen as Archie Beaton
• Owen McGiveney as Angus
• Dee Turnell as Ann
• Dodie Heath as Meg Brockie (as Dody Heath)
• Eddie Quillan as Sandy
• Michael Dugan as Townsman
• Barrie Chase as Dancer

Production

Producer J. Arthur Rank acquired the rights of the official play in February 1951. According to the press, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer "paid a fortune" for the rights, and Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson were named in the leads a month later. By the time they were cast, a script was not written yet, although it was reported that Alan Jay Lerner was expected to start on the script a week later. Furthermore, Alec Guiness was also set for a role and David Wayne, Moira Shearer and Donald O'Connor were under consideration for one.

According to the film's director, Vincente Minnelli, O'Connor competed with Steve Allen and Bill Hayes for the role of 'Jeff'. Cyd Charisse replaced Grayson in March 1953. Elaine Stewart was cast in the fourth lead in November 1953, and it was reported that she was more enthusiastic about working with Minnelli than with Kelly.

Because of Kelly's commitments to other film projects, production was delayed for a while, and it did not begin until 1953. MGM considered shooting the film on location in Scotland, but due to its unpredictable climate and high production costs, the idea was canned. Kelly and producer Arthur Freed traveled to Scotland to confirm for themselves if the weather was too unreliable, and they agreed with the studio. In Kelly's biography it was stated that "the weather was so bad that we had to agree with the studio. So we came back to the United States and started looking for locations here. We found some highlands above Monterey [in Big Sur] that looked like Scotland. But then the studio had an economy wave, and they clamped the lid on that idea." Much to the disappointment of the cast and crew, filming had to take place on the sound stages at MGM instead.

In addition, rather than being filmed in the expensive original three-strip Technicolor process with the 1.33:1 square-frame aspect ratio, the film was shot in single-strip Metrocolor and utilized CinemaScope, the newly patented 20th Century Fox 2.55:1 anamorphic widescreen process to add clarity and presence to the picture.

Musical numbers

1. "Once in the Highlands/Brigadoon/Down on MacConnachy Square" –Eddie Quillan, Villagers, and Offscreen M-G-M Chorus
2. "Waiting for My Dearie" – Cyd Charisse (dubbed by Carol Richards) and Dee Turnell (dubbed by Bonnie Murray)
3. "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" – Jimmy Thompson (dubbed by John Gustafson), Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Chorus
4. "The Heather on the Hill" – Gene Kelly, Danced by Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse
5. "Almost Like Being in Love" – Sung and Danced by Gene Kelly
6. "The Wedding Dance" – Danced by Jimmy Thompson and Virginia Bosler
7. "The Chase" – Sung by men pursuing Hugh Laing
8. "The Heather on the Hill" – Danced by Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse
9. "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" (reprise) – Sung offscreen by Jimmy Thompson, Carol Richards and Chorus
10. "The Heather on the Hill" (reprise) – Sung offscreen by Jimmy Thompson, Carol Richards and Chorus
11. "Waitin' for My Dearie" (reprise) – Sung offscreen by Jimmy Thompson, Carol Richards and Chorus
12. "Finale: Brigadoon" – M-G-M Chorus

Source:IMDB

Four of the stage show's musical numbers ("Come to Me, Bend to Me", "There But For You Go I", "From This Day On", and "The Sword Dance") were cut prior to the film's release. The Breen office refused to allow the use of the two songs the Meg Brockie character sang in the stage version ("The Love of My Life" and "My Mother's Wedding Day"), as the lyrics were considered too risqué for general audiences. With the omission of these songs, the supporting role of Meg Brockie was reduced in the film to scarcely more than a bit part. The minor song "Jeannie's Packin' Up" was also omitted. Some of this was done because, after listening to Gene Kelly's pre-recordings of "There But For You Go I" and "From This Day On", the makers of the film felt that the results did not show his voice to its best advantage, but some was done because producer Arthur Freed wanted to shape the two-and-a-half hour stage musical into a film that ran 108 minutes.

Complete sound and picture footage of three of the deleted musical numbers has survived, and it is included in the latest DVD release of the film.

The 1954 original motion picture soundtrack was originally incomplete, but was re-released with deleted songs, alternate takes, and undubbed vocals.

Reception

Bosley Crowther in the New York Times of September 17, 1954, described the film as "curiously flat and out-of-joint, rambling all over creation and seldom generating warmth or charm." Crowther admired the costumes, sets, and decor but deplored the omission of several musical numbers. He found fault with the film's two stars and its director, "...the personable Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse have the lead dancing roles. Even so, their several individual numbers are done too slickly, too mechanistically. What should be wistful and lyric smack strongly of trickery and style...Mr. Kelly's [performance] is as thin and metallic as a nail; Miss Charisse's is solemn and posey...Vincente Minnelli's direction lacks his usual vitality and flow." He concluded by noting the film was "pretty weak synthetic Scotch."

Leonard Maltin in his reappraisal feels this adaptation was unfairly overlooked when it first appeared and particularly praises the lovely score, orchestrated mainly by Conrad Salinger.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1955:

• Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color - (Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason)
• Best Costume Design, Color - (Irene Sharaff)
• Best Sound, Recording - Wesley C. Miller (MGM)

The film won a 1955 Golden Globe:

• Best Cinematography, Color - (Joseph Ruttenberg)

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • Almost Like Being in Love - Nominated
• AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Fantasy Film

External links

• Brigadoon at the Internet Movie Database
• Brigadoon at AllRovi