Connianatu
How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.
Stephan Hammond
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Michelle Ridley
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
bschneid76
I was fortunate to view this at the NYC premiere. I was in total awe. After shaking hands with Kitty Carlisle Hart and saying Hi to the most recently departed Fay Wray, I was just amazed. It was an experience I will never ever forget. I also saw Miss Celeste Holm, Tommy Tune, Chita Rivera. It was totally wonderful! The film was excellent. I wanted to just sit there for hours and hours listening to what the actors and actresses had to say. Their stories were fascinating. Which is what a Documentary should be. Telling the story about what life was like. Giving the "Inside Scoop" I hope I will be able to see the sequel to it. Anyone who says this film is Amateurish obviously overlooks the fact that this film will be a classic and should receive an Oscar Nomination, if not the Oscar for best Documentary. Anyone guy who can go and interview over a hundred stars, has to be amazing.Go and buy this DVD!!!! It is worth every Penny!
livewire-6
Watching the documentary "Broadway: The Golden Age", I couldn't help thinking of Marie Dressler in the film "Dinner at Eight". She plays a faded, dowager stage actress, and young ingenues keep telling her how they saw her perform ... at their father's knees.The actors and actresses interviewed for this documentary are all well advanced in years. Some, in fact, are no longer with us -- as a poignant retrospective reminds us in the final reel. Some, like Nanette Fabray, are marvelously well preserved. Others, alas, have fallen prey to what Shakespeare's Hamlet called "the thousand ills that flesh is heir to". We see, in old film clips and black-and-white still photos, how they looked in their glory days. The contrast, in some cases, is heartrending.The documentary is full of nostalgic reminiscences of Broadway in the 1940s and 50s, and we are regaled with many a mirth-provoking anecdote. Gretchen Wyler, an actress I have never even heard of, had me in stitches with her All-about-Eve-style story of stepping in for an ailing leading lady -- and beating another understudy to the punch.We are also introduced to Laurette Taylor, who apparently had a profound impact and influence on virtually all of the actors and actresses interviewed for the film. The interviewees also speak in hushed and reverent tones about the thespian skills of Kim Stanley, who burned bright and burned out too soon. And, of course, Marlon Brando was nothing less than a god.The interviewees (and the director) mourn the passing of an era and an industry that fell victim to rising ticket prices and changing tastes. But, interestingly enough, no one suggests that perhaps live theatre was (and is) an elitist form of entertainment not available to the masses in the first place.Anyone can go to a local cinema to see stars light up the silver screen (and later the small screen through the medium of television). Indeed, most of the interviewees are known to us through their film and TV roles. But how many mortals can afford to go to New York City, and walk the Great White Way?
jotix100
Rick McKay is an invaluable source when it comes to what theater is all about. His other documentary, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, was excellent. In this new work, instead of concentrating on a single performer, he explores the best years of Broadway and the commercial theater during the era when it was at its peak.The strength of the film is the intimacy one feels whenever the stars, being interviewed, speak directly to the camera, and thus to us. It's just as if these performers are telling us their secrets. There is an immediacy that no other documentary on the subject ever projected before.In a way it is a world that is no longer here. The fact is that not only it's almost prohibitive to go to the Broadway theater, but it's also about the quality of what's being shown these days. When ticket prices for musicals go over $100.00, producers can only bring to the stage only those shows that might prove to be money makers. Then, of course, there is no guarantee for commercial success.Sadly, most so called stars working in musicals these days have no voices to fill a theater. Since everything is amplified, it's as though one is listening to the cast album of the show, not to a live performance. These days producers will import a Hollywood star to do a musical for the name and possible revenue that will be generated, rather than for artistic merit.It was delightful to hear actors talking about their peers. How a Laurette Taylor, a Marlon Brando, a Kim Stanley, were admired for their talent as well as for the integrity they brought to each performance. Since theater happens whenever actors are on a stage, most of the last century's historical performances can't be appreciated because they weren't done in front of a camera.This film is a must see for theater enthusiasts.
justgotothemovies-1
I saw this film at the Santa Barbara Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. We were the first audience to see the finished film on 35 mm in a theatre and the excitement was palpable. The fimmaker, Rick McKay, introduced the film and brought Eva Marie Saint (who won the Oscar for "on the Waterfront" with Brando) on stage with him afterwards for a question and answer session. I don't know when I have had a more exciting night in a movie theater. The film was brilliant and the filmmaker was wonderful in the film as he took us on a journey, but just as passionate and funny in person as he and Miss Saint warmly answered questions afterwards.The film is something very, very special. I don't honestly think a studio could have ever made this film - or a network either. It is such a personal, passionate and magical film. It is a mixture of more stars than I have *ever* seen in a movie - all telling their own personal stories of starving and starting out in New York - and old archival footage of perfomrances that have never been seen before. Not movie clips - but real, live perforances. It was staggering. It is about a time that is so cmpletely gone, but oddly enough, it was not sad, but very inspiring. It made me believe that if this kind of history could have been made in this century, and if this kind of movie can be made today, then anything is possible. what a wonderful feeling...The night I saw it there were people sitting on the floor in the aisles and standing room only in the back of the theater with people looking over each others shoulders. And nobody complained and nobody left. People did cry and they did laugh and they did applaud over and over during the movie though. When was the last time (if ever) that you saw that happen?We may have been the first audience to see this movie but we won't be the last. This movie is going to win an Oscar. Mark my words.
