Back in 1927, The Jazz Singer entered the history books as the first true, sound-on-film talking picture, with Al Jolson uttering the immortal words, "You ain't heard nothing yet!" But even then it was a creakingly sentimental old yarn. By the time this second remake showed up in 1980 (there was a previous one in 1953) it looked as ludicrously dated as a chaperone in a strip club. Our young hero, played by pop singer Neil Diamond in a doomed bid for movie stardom, is the latest in a long line of Jewish cantors, but secretly moonlights with a Harlem soul group. When his strictly Orthodox father (Laurence Olivier, complete with painfully hammy "oya-veh" accent) finds out, the expected ructions follow. Though the lad makes it big in showbiz, it all means nothing while he's cut off from family and roots. But in the end-well, you can guess, can't you? Diamond comes across as likeable enough in a bland way, but unencumbered by acting talent, and the music business has never looked so squeaky clean-nary a trace of drugs, and precious little sex or rock'n'roll. As for anything sounding remotely like jazz, forget it. This is one story that should have been left to slumber in the archives. -Philip Kemp.

The 1956 screen adaptation of Carousel, like its immediate predecessor Oklahoma!, boasted then state-of-the-art widescreen cinematography, stereophonic sound, a starring romantic duo with on-screen chemistry, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein imprimatur. Adding to its promise was a source (the venerable Ferenc Molnar play Liliom) that had already been filmed three times. Contributing to the lustre are the coastal Maine locations where 20th Century Fox filmed principal photography. Yet unlike the original Broadway production, and despite evident craft, Carousel proved a box-office disappointment. Why? Hindsight argues that movie-goers of the 1950s may have been unprepared for its tragic narrative, the sometimes unsympathetic protagonist, and a spiritual subtext addressing life after death. Whatever the obstacle, Carousel may well be a revelation to first-time viewers. The score is among the composers' most affecting, from the glorious instrumental "Carousel Waltz" to a succession of exquisite love songs ("If I Loved You"), a heart-rending secular hymn ("You'll Never Walk Alone"), and the expectant father's poignant reverie, "Soliloquy". Top-line stars Shirley Jones (as factory worker Julie Jordan) and Gordon MacRae (as Billy Bigelow, the carnival barker who woos and weds her) achieve greater dramatic urgency here than in the more successful Oklahoma!. MacRae in particular attains a personal best as the conflicted Billy, whose anxiety and wounded pride after losing his job are crucial to the plot. It's Billy's impatience to support his new family that drives him to an ill-fated decision, which transforms the fable into a ghost story. [+]

Irving Berlin's classic stage musical Annie Get Your Gun finally reached the big screen in 1950, four years after it had taken Broadway by storm. The irresistible combination of the story of ground-breaking sharpshooter Annie Oakley, fantastic songs like the rousing anthem "There's No Business Like Show Business" and the setting of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, made most people feel it was worth the wait. More than half a century on, the book creaks audibly and the treatment of the "Indians" who make up the bulk of the troupe is inevitably embarrassing. But in glorious Technicolor, this in-your-face spectacular defies you not to get sucked in. Quite simply, the show is a winner. Ethel Merman's performance on Broadway became an immediate show business legend, but she was largely ignored by Hollywood. Here, Betty Hutton's whirlwind Annie is, on its own terms, an explosive and hugely entertaining turn, matched by Howard Keel in his first starring part as Frank Butler. But Judy Garland was the first choice for the role and had already filmed several numbers before MGM fired her for her erratic behaviour. It seems almost cruel to include a couple of her songs as extras; even a 40-watt Garland makes the otherwise incandescent Hutton look merely adequate. They certainly add a frisson to this celebration of all-American entertainment at its boldest and brassiest. [+]

Film buffs and critics can argue until their faces turn blue about whether this lavish Dickensian musical deserved the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1968, but the movie speaks for itself on grandly entertaining terms. Adapted from Dickens's classic novel, it's one of the most dramatically involving and artistically impressive musicals of the 1960s, directed by Carol Reed with a delightful enthusiasm that would surely have impressed Dickens himself. Mark Lester plays the waifish orphan Oliver Twist, who is befriended by the pickpocketing Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and recruited into the gang of boy thieves led by Fagin (played to perfection by Ron Moody). The villainous Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) casts his long shadow over Oliver and his friends, but the young orphan is still able to find loving care in the most desperate of circumstances. Full of memorable melodies and splendid lyrics, Oliver! is a timeless film, prompting even hard-to-please critic Pauline Kael to call it "a superb demonstration of intelligent craftsmanship", and to further observe that "it's as if the movie set out to be a tribute to Dickens and his melodramatic art as well as to tell the story of Oliver Twist. " -Jeff Shannon Film buffs and critics can argue until their faces turn blue about whether this lavish Dickensian musical deserved the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1968, but the movie speaks for itself on grandly entertaining terms. Adapted from Dickens's classic novel, it's one of the most dramatically involving and artistically impressive musicals of the 1960s, directed by Carol Reed with a delightful enthusiasm that would surely have impressed Dickens himself. Mark Lester plays the waifish orphan Oliver Twist, who is befriended by the pick-pocketing Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and recruited into the gang of boy thieves led by Fagin (played to perfection by Ron Moody). The villainous Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) casts his long shadow over Oliver and his friends, but the young orphan is still able to find loving care in the most desperate of circumstances. Full of memorable melodies and splendid lyrics, Oliver! is a timeless film, prompting even hard-to-please critic Pauline Kael to call it "a superb demonstration of intelligent craftsmanship," and to further observe that "it's as if the movie set out to be a tribute to Dickens and his melodramatic art as well as to tell the story of Oliver Twist". [+]

Ned Beatty stars as legendary singer Jospeh Locke who fled to Ireland to escape the clutches of the taxman and Plice Chief Jim Abbot (David McCallum). Now Micky O'Neill (Adrian Dunbar) is desperate to save his ailing nightclub. The solution? To SOMEHOW bring the infamous Joseph Locke back!.

A pioneering film within Animation, Musicals and Fantasy, Walt Disney's Mary Poppins is possibly one of the warmest and dearest films ever made. Based on a story by PL Travers we find Julie Andrews on fine form in her debut lead role (for which she would win the "Best Actress" Oscar). She is practically perfectly teamed with Dick Van Dyke as the lovable chimney sweep Burt, whose cockney accent is endearingly inaccurate. Along with a fine supporting cast, where even the child actors hold their own without appearing like stage school wannabes, Poppins and her crew take you on a magical ride through chalk pictures, the roof tops of London and show you that laughter is not always the best medicine (even with a spoon full of sugar) when you can't get down. In total Mary Poppins clocked up five Academy Awards including Best Song and Best Visual Effects and has made it into the staple diet of family viewing across the world. On the DVD: Mary Poppins has certainly cleaned up a treat, restoring her to 1. 85:1 widescreen glory and 5. 1 Dolby digital sound-which is guaranteed to be music to your ears. The special features are "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" with the "Sing Along with the Movie" subtitles for all your favourite songs when they appear in the movie and the "I Love to Laugh" game offering Uncle Albert flying high in his parlour once more. "The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins" lets you look behind the scenes at how the magic was done and is fun, informative and easily understandable-pity the same cannot be said about the narrator. [+]

The most widely seen movie produced by a Hollywood studio, The Sound of Music grows fresher with each viewing. Though it was planned meticulously in pre-production (save for the scene where Maria and the children take a dipping in an Austrian lake that nearly cost a life), on each viewing one is struck anew by the spontaneous almost improvisatory air of the acting, notably of Julie Andrews under Robert Wise's direction. There are also the little human touches he brings to, for instance, the scene where Maria leads the children to the hills, over bridges and along tow paths where the smallest boy trips up and momentarily gets left behind: it creates a feeling that most of us have encountered. From the opening pre-credit sequence of muted excitement as the camera roves over the Austrian Alps (photographed in magnificent colour), where little phrases from the wind instruments on the soundtrack are flung as if on the breeze, foreshadowing the title song to follow, the production never puts a foot wrong.

The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, brought to lush life by the director of the original stage version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) "as corny as Kansas in August" and a wealthy French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi), the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was still daring in 1958, and so was director Logan's decision to overlay emotional moments with tinted filters-a technique that misfires as often as it hits. The comic relief tends to fall flat and an overly spunky Mitzi Gaynor is a poor substitute for the stage original's Mary Martin. But the location scenery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is gorgeous and the songs are among the finest in the American musical catalogue: "Some Enchanted Evening", "Younger than Springtime", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair", "This Nearly Was Mine". That's Juanita Hall as the sly native trader Bloody Mary, singing the haunting tune that launched a thousand tiki bars, "Bali H'ai". The movie is based on stories from James Michener's book Tales from the South Pacific. -Robert Horton, Amazon. com.

This restored, animated valentine to the Beatles offers viewers the rare chance to see a work that's been substantially improved by its technical facelift, not just super-sized with extra footage. Recognising that its song-studded soundtrack alone makes Yellow Submarine a video annuity, United Artists has lavished a frame-by-frame refurbishment of the original feature, while replacing its original monaural audio tracks with a meticulously reconstructed stereo mix that actually refines legendary original album versions. What emerges is a vivid time capsule of the late 1960s and a minor milestone in animation. The music represents the quartet's zenith-Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The story line, cobbled together by producer Al Brodax and a committee of writers, is a broad, feather-light allegory set in idyllic Pepperland, where the gentle citizens are threatened by the nasty, music-hating Blue Meanies and their surreal arsenal of henchmen, with the Beatles enlisted to thwart the bad guys. Visually, designer Heinz Edelmann mixes the biomorphic squiggles, day-glo palette and Beardsley-esque portraits of Peter Max with rotoscoped still photographs and film; Edelmann's animated collages also nod to Andy Warhol and Magritte in properly psychedelic fashion, which works wonderfully with such terrific songs. High-orthodox Beatlemaniacs can still grouse that the animated Fab Four are (literally) flat archetypes, but that's missing the sheer bloom of the music or the giddy, campy fun of the visuals. Making sense of the story is second to submerging blissfully in the sights and sounds of this video treat. -Sam Sutherland.

Following the successful video release of Cats comes another Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and it's a savvy choice. It hasn't been represented on film before, it's short enough (78 minutes) to present without cuts and it has the star-power of former teen icon Donny Osmond, who played over 1,800 performances across North America. Rather than record a live performance, Cats director David Mallet conceived Joseph as a film, though one that is based strongly on co-director Steven Pimlott's 1991 London revival and relies more on camerawork than venturing beyond its stagelike sets. Lloyd Webber's first project with lyricist Tim Rice was originally written in 1968 as a school cantata; accordingly, this film uses a framing sequence of a school recital, with an audience of clapping, singing kids and members of the faculty playing the roles. The Old Testament tale of Joseph and his coat of many colours gets a splashy, vigorous treatment with an energetic cast, Las Vegas-style glitz and catchy, eclectic songs, including "Any Dream Will Do", "Close Every Door", the peppy "Go, Go, Go Joseph" and various bits of country, calypso and Elvis. Osmond is perfect in the title role, with a strong voice and winning persona, while London stage veteran Maria Friedman performs well in the central role of the narrator. Richard Attenborough appears (and sings a little) as Jacob, and Joan Collins makes a brief, non-singing cameo. Joseph certainly isn't revolutionary musical theatre, but if you view it as a kids' show, it's a silly good time (though there are poignant moments too). Parents should note, however, that this production might warrant a little discretion due to one suggestive scene and some risqu&ecute; costumes. -David Horiuchi, Amazon. [+]

This remastered, pan-and-scan 30th-anniversary edition of that kiddie-car caper is flawed, but nevertheless a solid family fare. It retains a quaint charm while some of the songs-including the title tune-are quite hummable. A huge plus is Dick Van Dyke, who is extremely appealing as an eccentric inventor around the turn of the century. With nimble fingers and a unique way of looking at the world, he invents for his children a magic car that floats and flies. Or does he? The special effects are tame by today's standards and the film is about 20 minutes too long-but its enthusiasm is charming. The script was cowritten by Roald Dahl and based on the novel by Ian Fleming, best known for his James Bond adventures. -Rochelle O'Gorman Chitty Chitty Bang Bang entranced and thrilled children and their parents when it puttered into the cinema in 1968. More than three decades later, and despite the eventual arrival of a stage version that throws the full weight of blockbuster effects at the story, the original remains the real thing for fans of all ages. The flying car is the star and it's impossible not to feel a surge of thrilling relief as the wings kick in when she plunges over the cliff and soars off on her great adventure. The songs might not be the greatest in musical history, but they are delivered with great charm by Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts (a toned-down version of his infamous Bert in Mary Poppins), Sally Ann Howes (Truly Scrumptious) and the children. [+]

Remember that scene in Jerry Maguire where the title character suddenly realises the foolhardiness of his impulsively written manifesto? That's how director Alan Parker (The Commitments, Fame) ought to feel every day of his life since making this dopey, 1976 musical featuring an all-kid cast playing Prohibition-era gangsters and molls. What was Parker thinking? The cuteness of the concept never did hold up for more than 10 minutes, but the film extends it impossibly into a feature. Jodie Foster is on hand, lip-synching a Paul Williams song (Williams wrote the score), but even she can't detract from the film's overall silliness. It's a toss-up as to whether children will enjoy watching it, since the characters and the milieu are based on adult situations. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night. " Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. -Tom Keogh.