SUMMERFEST '22: BNAT Fave Double Features I -- Musical Double

Whatever my feelings (and I have many) about the person who founded Butt-Numb-A-Thon, the fact is that the times I went were some of my favorite moviegoing experiences ever. So I wanted to do a week of rewatches of some of my favorite movies that screened there. Of course, with somewhere around 200 movies that played BNAT over the years, there's a lot to narrow down. So I picked one movie from each year and paired them up into double features -- which left four movies out in the cold, so sorry to BNATs 3, 10, 13 and 14 that I couldn't represent you.

I'm kicking off today with a Musical Double.

Phantom of the Paradise (1974) (rewatch)

Played at BNAT 1 (1998)

Trailers: Phantom of the Opera (1962), This Is Spinal Tap

I love this movie more every time I see it. The music, the style, Jessica Harper’s weirdo dancing … everything is just on my wavelength. While this is William Finley’s story, Paul Williams is the real star of this show. He’s not only the co-star but he composed all of the music, including several incredible songs (not a new thing for the guy who wrote Rainbow Connection, Evergreen, and We’ve Only Just Begun, among many other classics). Maybe my favorite bit (and one of the most impressive musical moments) is when his character, Swan, is auditioning acts to sing Leech’s cantata at the Paradise. We see five or six different artists/groups and Williams is deliberately parodying all of these very specific musical styles of the time. The story is part Phantom of the Opera, part Faust, part Dorian Gray, and I love once the story is finished, the movie just spins into decadent chaos. That’s the hell of it.

Wonder Bar (1934) (rewatch)

Played at BNAT 2 (1999)

Trailers: Grand Hotel, Dames

This movie was ahead of its time in a lot of ways and incredibly backward in at least one ginormous one. It reminds me a lot of Grand Hotel, which came out two years before, in that it has several disparate characters and storylines -- some melodramatic, some comedic, some heartbreaking -- that all converge on one central location. This, however, is also a musical, with a handful of musical numbers choreographed and directed by Busby Berkeley. And hoo boy, the last one of those is unforgettable. “Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule” is one of the most staggeringly racist things you’ll ever see in a movie, with basically a laundry list of Black stereotypes – dancing watermelons, pork chops growing on trees, and oh yeah … lots of blackface (including on CHILDREN). I don't think there is a single actual Black person in this movie, just dozens of white people in blackface. I mean, I love this movie as a whole, but sometimes you see something and you have to take a minute to process that yes, this is a thing that exists.