Melody in the Dark: British Musical Films, 1946-1972

Melody in the Dark is a comprehensive reassessment of British musical films from 1946-1972, including King's Rhapsody, Beat Girl, The Tommy Steele Story, Rock You Sinners, The Golden Disc, and Oliver!. It explores how British studios sought to reflect changing social attitudes and compete with American competition, with Hollywood stars such as Errol Flynn, Vera-Ellen, Jayne Mansfield, and Judy Garland brought in to provide glamour. The operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan were represented in three productions, and studios occasionally attempted adaptations of British stage musicals. Towards the end of the period, British cinema aspired to more grandiose projects such as Oliver! and Oh! What a Lovely War.

Format: Hardback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 14 March 2023
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

A comprehensive reassessment of British musical films 1946-1972, including King's Rhapsody, Beat Girl, The Tommy Steele Story, Rock You Sinners, The Golden Disc, and Oliver!

Acting as a sequel to Adrian Wright's Cheer Up! British Musical Films, 1929-1945 (Boydell, 2020), Melody in the Dark offers the first major reassessment of the British musical film from the end of Second World War up to the beginning of the 1970s. In the immediate post-war world, British studios sought to reflect fast-changing social attitudes as they struggled to create inventive diversions in an effort to rival American competition. Hollywood stars Errol Flynn, Vera-Ellen, Jayne Mansfield, and Judy Garland were among those brought in to provide Hollywood glamour.

Embedded in the British consciousness, the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan were represented in three productions. Studios occasionally attempted adaptations of British stage musicals, among them King's Rhapsody and Expresso Bongo, and sexploitation movies turned musical via Secrets of a Windmill Girl and Beat Girl. It was left to minor studios to acknowledge the impact of rock n roll on social change in three early films, The Tommy Steele Story, Rock You Sinners, and the iconic The Golden Disc.

Through the sixties, British cinema seemed intent on flooding the market with entertainments promoting pop singers and rock groups such as Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, and The Beatles. Towards the end of the period, it aspired to more grandiose projects such as Oliver! and Oh! What a Lovely War.

Weight: 938g
Dimension: 164 x 241 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781783277490