Best Music Movies of 1955

A workman finds a singing frog in the cornerstone of an old building being demolished. But when he tries to cash in on his discovery, he finds the frog will sing only for him, and just croak for the talent agent and the audience in the theater he's spent his life savings on.

Gambler Nathan Detroit has few options for the location of his big craps game. Needing $1,000 to pay a garage owner to host the game, Nathan bets Sky Masterson that Sky cannot get virtuous Sarah Brown out on a date. Despite some resistance, Sky negotiates a date with her in exchange for bringing people into her mission. Meanwhile, Nathan's longtime fiancée, Adelaide, wants him to go legit and marry her.

This joyous celebration of frontier life combines tender romance and violent passion in the Oklahoma Territory of the 1900s with a timeless score filled with unforgettable songs. Rodgers and Hammerstein's hit Broadway musical.

Three World War II buddies promise to meet at a specified place and time 10 years after the war. They keep their word only to discover how far apart they've grown. But the reunion sparks memories of youthful dreams that haven't been fulfilled -- and slowly, the three men reevaluate their lives and try to find a way to renew their friendship.

A fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom.

Ruth and her beautiful sister Eileen come to New York's Greenwich Village looking for "fame, fortune and a 'For Rent' sign on Barrow Street". They find an apartment, but fame and fortune are a lot more elusive. Ruth gets the attention of playboy publisher Bob Baker when she submits a story about her gorgeous sister Eileen. She tries to keep his attention by convincing him that she and the gorgeous, man-getting Eileen are one and the same person.

Rick Todd is a struggling artist who lives with his pal Eugene Fullstack who happens to be a writer of children's stories. Rick would like to break in the comic book industry but he has one problem, he can't write. However, Eugene's overactive imagination as well as his obsession with comic books causes him to have wild dreams of a super hero named Vincent the Vulture and Rick uses Eugene's dreams to create a comic book featuring Vincent. Living in the same building as the boys is Abigail Parker and her roommate Bessie Sparrowbush. Abigail happens to be the author of Eugene's favorite comic book, Bat Lady, and Bessie is her model. During one of Eugene's dreams, he comes up with the formula for a secret rocket fuel, which happens to be an exact copy of half of a formula the government is working on. Soon, a group of enemy agents are after Eugene in order to get the rest of the formula.

Wealthy American, Jervis Pendleton has a chance encounter at a French orphanage with a cheerful 18-year-old residen, and anonymously pays for her education at a New England college. She writes letters to her mysterious benefactor regularly, but he never writes back. Several years later, he visits her at school, while still concealing his identity, and—despite their large age difference—they soon fall in love.

A playful exercise in intermittent animation and spasmodic imagery. Playing with the laws relating to persistence of vision and after-image on the retina of the eye, McLaren engraves pictures on blank film creating vivid, percussive effects.

Musical adaptation of the story of Cinderella and her magical trip to the prince's ball.

An actress flirt demurely with a swinging Manhattan bachelor who thinks he has it made.

Interrupted Melody is the inspirational filmed biography of world-renowned Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence. She’s a foremost Wagnerian, equal to the vocal and physical demands of the composer’s oeuvre. And she’s a beacon of triumph to anyone who fights back when personal tragedy strikes.

In 1927, a Kansas City, Missouri cornet player and his band perform nightly at a seedy speakeasy until a racketeer tries to extort them in exchange for protection.

Live television version of the classic musical.

This musical version of the tale of the boy who wouldn't grow up aired live on television on March 7, 1955. It was so popular that it was restaged the following year, and again four years later.

A musical starring 3 Japanese pop music and TV stars.

While touring a museum, Rodney Hatch, an unremarkable barber, places an engagement ring intended for his girlfriend on the hand of a statue of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. From Mount Olympus, Venus witnesses the event and decides to visit Rodney on Earth by magically inhabiting the statue. Hilarity ensues when she starts to fall in love with Rodney and competes with his girlfriend for his attentions. This television version of Kurt Weill's successful Broadway musical is much more faithful to the stage version than the 1948 Ava Gardner film, which changed the story considerably and cut most of the songs.

Ballet performed to Dukas' "The Sorceror's Apprentice".

A jazzy riff on 'Fantasia' from the creator of Gumby.

Walt Disney animation animated cartoon musical compilation ("The BIG Parade of MIRTH and MELODY"; "Offering hits re-released from 'Make Mine Music' and 'Melody Time'"; featuring cartoons from the 1946 musical, "Make Mine Music," and the 1948 musical "Melody Time") featuring Donald Duck, Joe Carioca, and other Disney cartoon characters, and also songs by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Frances Langford, Roy Rogers and Trigger, The Andrews Sisters (Laverne, Maxene, and Patty Andrews), Freddy Martin and his orchestra, Sons of the Pioneers, Jerry Colonna, and Ethel Smith

The suburban peace of the Bentley household is shattered when John Bentley is informed by his wife Stella that their two married daughters, Pat and Corrine are in trouble and need funds to come home and bring their husbands, Peter, a penniless Parisian artist and Barnaby, a Texas cowboy, with them. And the youngest daughter, Gwen, has tricked an American singer, Bobby Denver, into visiting them on the pretext that it is the home of a noted British film magnate. When all the women in the household --- including the maid --- fall for the singer's charms, Bentley consults a crackpot psychiatrist, Dr. Schneider, who almost succeeds in ousting, not the singer, but Bentley's wife, with his advice to Bentley to make her jealous by living it up with Pearl, a showgirl recruited for the purpose.

Rhythm and Blues Revue is a plotless variety show, one of several compiled for theatrical exhibition from the made-for-television short films produced by Snader and Studio Telescriptions, with newly-filmed host segments by Willie Bryant. Originally 86 minutes, the "short" version available on public domain collections and websites is missing a reel

Director Charles Lamont's 1955 comedy, about a girl from the sticks doing drudge work at a hotel and dreaming of a better life, stars Judy Canova, Robert Lowery, Jacqueline de Wit, Richard Deacon, Robert Burton, James Bell, Marjorie Bennett, Leon Tyler, William Fawcett and Mimi Gibson.

In post-war Vienna, Rosalinda and her husband become embroiled in a series of complicated escapades that puts their marital bliss at risk.

Sailors on leave in San Francisco get mixed up in love and show business.

This musical reworking of Too Many Husbands (1940), features Grable as a top singer and dancer who's been widowed by WW II. She marries her late husband's songwriting partner, Gower Champion, but the new marriage is thrown for a loop when Lemmon, her first husband, turns up very much alive and eager to see Grable.

Two Broadway showgirls, who are also sisters, are sick and tired of New York as well as not getting nowhere. Quitting Broadway, the sisters decided to travel to Paris to become famous.

Framed in flashback, The Man Who Loved Redheads is an anecdotal comedy about a man (John Justin) whose life is defined by his first romantic experience. That liaison occurred in Justin's youth, when the young man matures and enters the diplomatic world, he spends the rest of his career searching for his first love.

Nancy Willows (Constance Towers), pretty blonde high school teacher, writes song lyrics which spark the careers of struggling young pianist-composer Martin Adams (Keefe Brasselle')and would-be singer Jerry Dennis (Frankie Laine). When Nancy and Martin fall in love but quarrel over her old flame, David Parker (William Leslie), Nancy returns to her teaching job. Jerry reunites Nancy and Martin and, in turn, succumbs to the charms of his new secretary Marge Stevenson (Lucy Marlow).

Rock'n Roll Revue is a 1955 American film directed by Joseph Kohn. The film was compiled for theatrical exhibition from the made-for-television short films produced by Snader and Studio Telescriptions, with newly-filmed host segments by Willie Bryant

A young man seeks his father's killers among lumberjacks, and discovers that they are actually timber barons who also seek to control lumber mills. Based on the novel of the same name.

When her compulsive-gambler father dies, leaving her with an inheritance that amounts to zip, single gal Kim Halliday jumps at a caller's claim that she's part-owner of a Las Vegas "hotel." But hilarity ensues when she flies to Sin City to see it. While a wealthy casino owner eyes her dilapidated property, she takes a chance and tries to sell it to an hotelier's wealthy son.

A young girl becomes lost in a department store during the Christmas shopping rush. The frightened child is comforted by a department store Santa Claus who tells her a tale of storybook characters brought to life - of Tommy Tucker's love for the lovely Jane Piper and the cold-hearted villainy of evil Silas Barnaby. Through the girl's dreams, the viewer is transported to Toyland. Based on the classic Broadway operetta by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, this was its second live television special production, with some new cast members and some returning.

TV goes Hollywood when Steve Allen visits Universal-International to prepare for his upcoming title role in "The Benny Goodman Story."

Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century. People grow up, get married, live, and die. Milk and the newspaper get delivered every morning, and nobody locks their front doors. This musicalization of Thornton Wilder's classic play stars Frank Sinatra who introduces the song, "Love and Marriage," which would go on to be immortalized as the theme song to the sitcom Married with Children.

Hand painted directly onto film stock by Margaret Tait, this film features animated dancing figures, accompanied by authentic calypso music.

An animated segment from the film Melody Time which includes the two shorts "Bumble Boogie" and "Trees".

Rowdy young girl crashes high society when wealthy older man falls for her.

Trouble ensues when a new theatre-restaurant owner discovers the backer to be a harmless and moneyless lunatic.

Judy and her grandpa run a trolley between a train depot and a ghost town in Nevada, near the California border. Three spies intent of tracking down an atomic missile gone astray arrive. When the trolley breaks down, Judy and Grandpa unwittingly install the engine from the nearby crashed missile.

Musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

An impressionistic study of the celebrated tap dancer.

This CinemaScope Terrytoon presents a symphony orchestra, composed entirely of birds, giving a performance in a woodland grove. The musical instruments are natural props, such as flower-horns, twig violins and harps composed of heron's legs. The conductor is a woodpecker. A couple of cats are on the prowl and try to capture the birds through the use of various disguises.

A modern dance solo interpretation of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring created by dancer/choreographer Jim Huntley and filmed and edited by Pieter Van Deusen.

This live TV adaptation of the Broadway musical "Dearest Enemy" from 1925 is based on an American Revolutionary War incident in September 1776 when Mary Lindley Murray, under orders from General George Washington, detained General William Howe and his British troops by serving them cake, wine and conversation in her Kips Bay, Manhattan home long enough for some 4,000 American soldiers, fleeing their loss in the Battle of Brooklyn, to reassemble in Washington Heights and join reinforcements to make a successful counterattack.