OVP: Brigadoon (1954)

Film: Brigadoon (1954)
Stars: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Elaine Stewart, Barry Jones, Hugh Laing
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Art Direction, Costume, Sound)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2019 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress of Hollywood's Golden Age.  This month, our focus is on Cyd Charisse-click here to learn more about Ms. Charisse (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

There are four quintessential Cyd Charisse films that I have never seen, and am excited to say that (provided Netflix delivers the final one), we'll get through all of them in the next few weeks for this project.  Brigadoon, however, was the one I was looking forward to the least of the bunch.  Easily maligned in pop culture, even in references I'd never known were paying tribute (the famed "Donny Most" sequence on Family Guy is a direct homage to the picture), I kind of figured this would be one of those musicals that's too silly for modern audiences to take seriously.  Well...I was wrong.  I loved Brigadoon.  The costuming, the dancing, the incredibly romantic lighting (where the hell was that Cinematography nomination for Joseph Ruttenberg?!?) all completely worked for me.  Silly or not (and it is indeed a little silly), this is one of the best films so far in the Saturdays with the Stars list, one that I will surely revisit in the future.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers around two men Tommy (Kelly) and Jeff (Johnson) who chance upon a small Scottish town while grouse-hunting.  The village is odd, but lovely, and very excited about a wedding that is taking place between two of the citizens.  While there, Tommy falls in love with the bride's sister Fiona (Charisse), but learns that Brigadoon only exists as a result of a miracle; the town, thanks to the sacrifice of a priest, appears in the mists only once every 100 years, unspoiled by the world around it.  As a result, Tommy must choose whether he will stay with Fiona and become a citizen of Brigadoon, forever giving up a traditional existence, or whether he will leave without her, potentially giving up the great love of his life.  Initially Tommy leaves, unhappy that he made the wrong decision and returning to his old life, but then a miracle happens where Brigadoon briefly returns again, just so that Tommy & Fiona can be reunited before the city slips into the mists, to return 100 years later.

That plot sounds silly, and it admittedly is, but it's also so sweet and wonderful, and thanks to this being the 1950's, it's played straight-we don't get the sorts of winks a modern audience would require that would make the picture less earnest.  As a result, you get a genuinely moving love story.  I adored the charming side characters int the film, particularly Barry Jones's Mr. Lundie, whose lilting Scottish accent was heaven, and he lands his Friar Laurence-like character with great fervency.  Best of the bunch, though, is weirdly Van Johnson's Jeff, a drunken louse who is pretty much miserable the whole film but also hilarious; Johnson was famously closeted and ill-tempered in real life-as a result this character may be the closest you'd find to the former leading man playing himself onscreen but I've never seen him be better.

Our leading lady of the month is fine, though never more than that when it comes to her acting.  Charisse is going to be an odd conundrum for me-Brigadoon is the third of her films that I've seen for the project this month (I had to catch one of out order because Netflix has been jumpy lately), and I've genuinely liked all of the movies so far, but she's not a particularly compelling actress.  A brilliant dancer, and she surely gets moments for that (I adored her scene collecting heather for the wedding), but between her not doing the singing and her rather stiff approach to the conversational scenes, it's hard to get into her performance.  Kelly, who was always reliant upon his costar's to spring his chemistry (unlike Fred Astaire, who seemed to have chemistry with literally anyone), suffers as a result, coming across as too ardent.  It feels weird to love a movie so much without really adoring the leads (except for when they're going full-tilt into the romance), but that's Brigadoon for me, I guess.

The movie received three Oscar nominations, and all are well-earned.  Though it would have been lovelier in Scotland, the MGM sound lot still makes the set design look expansive and lush.  The sound work is divine, with the great "voices from the mist" being a highlight, as well as all of the well-staged musical numbers.  Best of all are the costumes, ornate and with just a few touches of the modern to remind you that it's the 1950's-Cyd Charisse's simple dress adorned by a Scottish tartan is a big highlight.  I probably would have made room for at least three more nominations for Supporting Actor, Cinematography, and Scoring (I haven't seen all of the major films from the year, but these will be high on my list if someone wants to knock them off), as all-in-all Brigadoon was a delight.