Film musicals, notably Oscar winners My Fair Lady, Chicago and Cabaret, get the brush-off and only six make the Daily Mail’s top 100 greatest classic films ever list.
Only The Wizard Of Oz, runner-up to top-rated The Godfather, rates a mention in the top ten and only one more, Singin’ in the Rain (13th), makes the top 20.
And of the next 80, only The Sound of Music in 21st place, Top Hat (42), the original West Side Story (65th) and propping up the list at 100, Oliver! are musicals.
No Cabaret, pipped by The Godfather in 1972 for Best Picture but with eight Oscars – including Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography – the most garlanded film not to win the biggest gong; no My Fair Lady, Best Picture of 1964 as well as seven more Oscars; no Chicago, Best Picture of 2003, plus Oscars in five other categories.
The list, in the Mail’s Saturday Weekend magazine, is the personal choice of their film critic Brian Viner, clearly not the greatest fan of musicals although he does tell us that The Wizard of Oz is “deservedly the most-seen picture of all time and, according to a recent poll, one of the most influential (narrowly ahead of Star Wars and Psycho)”.
And to quote him on The Sound of Music: “I’m not ashamed to say I enjoyed every cheesy minute and once queued for over an hour at the Venice Film Festival to hear Julie Andrews reminiscing about it.” Re-viewing it over Christmas with his wife and grown-up children, he adds: “We all agreed for the umpteenth time that it’s an utterly peerless treat of a musical.”
One is tempted to ask, if it is so peerless, Brian, how come it’s rated behind Oz and Singin’ in the Rain? By the same token, if The Godfather really is the GOAT, how come The Godfather II, regarded in some quarters as superior to the original, can’t make the top 100?
The low ranking of West Side Story will also come as a surprise to many and those who thought the recent Spielberg revamp superior will want to make a case for that to be in the top 100.It’s all a matter of opinion. There is no right or wrong. Why don’t you let us know what you think?
Viner’s Daily Mail Weekend top ten: 1 The Godfather, 2 The Wizard Of Oz, 3 Psycho, 4 Jaws, 5 Some Like It Hot, 6 Casablanca, 7 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 8 Lawrence of Arabia, 9 The Graduate, 10 Citizen Kane.
Jeremy Chapman
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