Golden Age Of Musicals (DVD)

Considered the Golden Age of musical film, the 1930s through the early 1950s saw the genre's popularity at its highest in the Western world. The musical film genre was a natural development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Songs were sung by the characters and interlaced into the storyline, sometimes accompanied by dancing and elaborate choreography. The multiple camera angle shots and the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater, is what marginally differentiated film from stage musicals of the era. The taste in musicals increased dramatically in the mid 1930s when director Busby Berkeley began to enhance the traditional dance number in his unique style that typically begin on a stage, but gradually transcended the limitations of theatrical space. His creative routines involved human bodies forming patterns like a kaleidoscope, with the intended perspective being viewed from straight above. As the motion pi