ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

JohnHowardReid Winner of the New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Play of the Year, the original 1947 Broadway production had the journalists cheering. The public loved the show too. It ran a sensational 581 performances. Directed by Robert Lewis, with dances staged by the legendary Agnes De Mille, this original "Brigadoon" starred David Brooks, Marion Bell and George Keane. In a featured role was Virginia Bosler, the only member of the original cast to be hired for the movie. (Miss Bosler made only one other film — Oklahoma!). On the other hand, the film "Brigadoon" pleased almost no-one except me. Even Gene Kelly had serious reservations. He thought it a mistake to stage all the village scenes as if they were being presented in a theater. A very large, extremely well-equipped theater, but a theater nonetheless. Personally, I think this decision not only adds to the picture's charm, but contrasts well with the super-realistically filmed New York sequences.But just about everyone disagrees with me. Even the score is not highly regarded, especially by comparison with "My Fair Lady". But I think it's marvelous. The singers are absolutely out of this world too, particularly John Gustafson and Carol Richards. And as for the zest and sheer exuberance dancers — seventh heaven! The big surprise is Van Johnson. We all forget that he got his start in the chorus line of "Too Many Girls". Good to see him singing and dancing once more—and acting with such caustic vigor in what I feel is his best role ever!Gene Kelly certainly shines at his vibrant best and even the normally bland Cyd Charisse strikes more sparks than usual. A pity the lovely Elaine Stewart is confined to a small, unsympathetic role as Kelly's New York fiancée, and maybe Barry Jones comes over as a bit too preachy a schoolmaster, but otherwise the casting seems perfect.One notable inclusion I must commend is Hugh Laing, a principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, here making his only film appearance. Oddly, Laing is actually required to do very little dancing, but turns in a fascinating and engrossing performance in a pivotal role. I'd also salute Albert Sharpe as the father, Dody Heath as the village siren, and Archer MacDonald as a noisome flannel-suit.In their first CinemaScope venture, Minnelli and Ruttenberg have taken great pains to fill the wide, anamorphic screen to overflowing with action, movement and drama. Congratulations, men!

gkeith_1 Some parts were slow. Things just seemed to drag on and on.Van Johnson didn't have much of a story, or much to do. He was being chased by one of the local man-hungry females, and he was mightily offended.Of course, Gene Kelly had the romantic lead part. Dancing with Cyd Charisse in the Heather on the Hill segment, collecting heather for the wedding, was just too smarmy IMO. They were getting too sensually/sexually close for having just met. I realize all the village single women were starved for affection, but this was a bit much. Fiona Campbell was just too pretty not to have tons of the local single men chasing her, BTW.The wedding dance was lovely, with the bride and groom leading off. Hugh Laing as the ticked off ex-suitor of Bonnie Jean was way too smoldering, with a hell-bent strange behavior and so self-destructive. That he jumped into the big dance scene and started almost manhandling Jean was weird, yet I was almost cheering him on to sweep her away out of there. I did feel sorry for Harry Beaton, and wish I could have seen more dancing from the great Hugh Laing.Gene Kelly's pants were way too tight. Ugh.

Claudio Carvalho The New Yorkers Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) travel in a hunting trip to the highlands of Scotland. Tommy and Jeff are best friends and Tommy is taking a break from his engagement with his fiancée Jane Ashton (Elaine Stewart).Tommy and Jeff get lost on the hills and out of the blue, they see a small town that is out of the map. When they arrive in town, Tommy meets the local Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse) and they learn that the place is called Brigadoon. Further, it is the wedding day of her younger sister and they are invited to stay to the party. Meanwhile Tommy and Fiona fall in love with each other. Later Tommy and the skeptical Jeff discover that a local preacher had prayed to God on the Eighteenth Century asking for a miracle to protect Brigadoon from witches that lived in Scotland. From that day on, when the locals go to sleep in the night, they wake up 100 years later. However, if a dweller leaves Brigadoon, the town and the citizens would all disappear forever. But an outsider could stay forever in Brigadoon provided he or she loves someone in the enchanted town."Brigadoon" is a fairy tale that combines "Lost Horizon" with "The Sleeping Beauty". The plot is silly and the songs are dated, but the romantic story and Cyd Charisse are delightful and the final message ("when you love someone, everything is possible, even a miracle") is very beautiful. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Lenda dos Beijos Perdidos" ("The Legend of the Lost Kisses")

Steffi_P The fairy tale has never gone out of fashion. In an era looked back on as one in which Hollywood was maturing and story lines were becoming more serious, the Arthur Freed unit at MGM could still see its way to producing a work of such dreamy make-believe as Brigadoon. Brigadoon is far more than a syrupy love story, and even goes beyond the light fantasy elements of It's a Wonderful Life. With its story of a "blessed" village that only appears once ever hundred years, it is more in the line of an old world folk tale, and as such it's bound to come across as slightly silly when realised in a modern medium acted out by real people. In anticipation of this writer Alan Jay Lerner created the character of Jeff Douglas, a world-weary cynic who could pre-empt any audience objections in the form of comic relief. And yet even a shameless sentimentalist like me has enough of a mischievous streak to find herself wondering how the inhabitants of Brigadoon will react when they wake up in 2054 to find Scotland has been covered in tarmac or flooded by global warming.So what is there to defend the credibility of Brigadoon? Well, for a start the music happens to be rather good. The original stage production was the one of the first collaborations between celebrated duo Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. As he often did, Loewe shows his ability to take up the musical style of another culture and come up with some authentic-sounding yet catchy tunes. Here he takes Celtic folk music as his basis, but with a little hint of Broadway brass in the arrangements, yet never enough to sound discordant or inappropriate. Lerner shows touches of the wit that would later become his trademark, for example rhyming "knows'll" with "proposal" mid-line in "Waiting for My Dearie". The music is not quite geared as much to emphasise his lyrics as would be their later and better-known scores, which is a shame, and yet it doesn't matter much as it still contains many of Loewe's most beautiful musical moments.Then there is the direction of Vincente Minnelli, shooting his first picture in cinemascope. He shows no awkwardness with new aspect ratio, probably because he was always adept at balancing lots elements on the screen. His staging of musical numbers is incredibly sensitive as always, using bits of background business to match the subtleties of the orchestral arrangements. In the first chorus of "Waiting for My Dearie" Cyd Charisse is relatively still, but there is just a little bit of movement from another lass glimpsed through a doorway, which is not enough to distract attention from Charisse but just enough to give the song some life visually. It's an effective cross between realistic activity and dancing. You can see examples of it in every number, from the massive complexity of "Down on MacConnachy Square", where hundreds of actions are all part of one meticulously arranged dance, to the simplicity of "The Heather on the Hill" where the only extra movement is the occasional twitching of branches in the breeze.As the Freed unit's hottest young male lead, it was more or less inevitable that Gene Kelly would get cast in the lead role for Brigadoon. However this picture makes far less use of his dancing skills than do the more worldly musicals he was used to starring in. Still, he was always a decent actor and competent singer, and his breezy personality seems apt for the desperate romanticism of Brigadoon's story. As his grouchy sidekick Van Johnson seems to have found a niche in the sort of role that usually went to Oscar Levant, and he's in fact so likable despite his cynicism it's a shame his character's arc doesn't really get finished off. While not a great actress Cyd Charisse brings a balletic gracefulness to the role of the leading lady, and she certainly does a better job of being Scottish than she does of being Russian in Silk Stockings. And though many in the supporting cast vie for the title of Worst Scots Accent, there is a clear winner in Jimmy Thompson. Thompson had been a bit player in a couple of previous MGM musicals, and it's a mystery why we have to endure him bumbling his way through a major role here. Still, given that the whole picture is steeped in such an atmosphere of cheery innocence, it's perhaps better that the acting performances don't get too earnest.Perhaps the most phoney thing of all about Brigadoon is its scenery. Shot on sound stages, complete with painted backdrops of mountains and gloomy skies, billows of piped mist and the occasional goat wondering where it can get some fresh air, this is Scotland as you see it on a souvenir shortbread tin. But this is again something that works in the movie's favour. If the story is like something out of those early Disney features, then perhaps so too should be its presentation. In an animated picture the artists have complete control over every element on the screen, and it's almost the same for Minnelli and Freed with this artificial outdoor landscape and those worthy but stilted acting performances, making everything more like paints on a palette than players on a stage. It somehow makes the plot more acceptable because the world it takes place in is never allowed to become too real in the first place. It is ultimately the utter and obvious fakery of Brigadoon that bridges the gap between its cinematic realisation and its fairytale roots.