Best Music Movies of 1959

Dixieland cornetist Red Nichols runs into opposition to his sound, but breaks through to success. He marries a warm, patient woman and even finds time to raise a family. Then tragedy strikes when their daughter contracts polio.

Set in the early 1900s in the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina, which serves as home to a black fishing community, the story focuses on the titular characters, crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, and the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.

A comedy musical based on the comic strip charcters created by Al Capp. When residents of Dogpatch, USA are notified by the government that they must evacuate because of atomic bomb testing, they try to persuade the government that their town is worth saving. Meanwhile, Earthquake McGoon wants to marry Daisy Mae; Daisy Mae wants to marry Li'l Abner, and Li'l Abner just wants to go fishing.

An impractical widower tries to hang onto his Miami hotel and his 12-year-old son.

An European princess visiting America helps a record producer organize a big concert.

A Peng meets a girl named Jinhua at a festival and they agree to meet the next year but she fails to turn up. He searches for her and finds other girls named Jinhua.

The story of young Tchaikovsky through the premiere of his "Sleeping Beauty" ballet.

Neagle stars a Frances Baring, a socialite widow attempting to keep her late husband's symphony orchestra going. Reluctantly she enlists the help of a young pop singer (Frankie Vaughan) who has fallen for Baring's daughter Joanna, played by a young Janette Scott.

Filmed in Chicago & finished in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's polemical essay on the politics of music and race - a forecast of what he called "the death of jazz." A landmark moment in black film, foreseeing the civil unrest of subsequent decades, it also features the only known footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his beloved Chicago period. Featured are ample images of tenor saxophonist John Gilmore and the rest of Ra's Arkestra in Windy City nightclubs, all shot in glorious black & white.

Rock-n-roll promoter Alan Freed holds a talent search to develop a new rock star, then must find the elusive, mystery contestant (Jimmy Clanton) who doesn't know he has won.

Father Conroy has a parish which serves the acting and performance community. When one of his parishioners gets too sick to work, his daughter Holly finds a job working for a dance club of questionable character, which is run by Tony Vincent. Vincent never made the big time, and Father Conroy tries to look after Holly.

At the beginning of the program, Peter Lawford explains that Frank Sinatra's plans to film his TV special outdoors in sunny Palm Springs have foundered because an extended rainstorm has turned their desert location into a morass of mud. The company is forced to move inside a stark studio instead and delivers their songs with a minimum of props but a maximum of verve.

The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in the French seaside city of Cannes. It was the first time France hosted the event. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF), the contest was held at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on Wednesday 11 March 1959. It was the first Eurovision Song Contest held in a coastal town and in the Mediterranean Basin.

Luigi, Jerry, and Mike are in boot camp when they are presented with a chance to represent their unit in competition on a national television show. The three guys are up to the challenge, which begins a chain of unusual circumstances that not only have them singing and dancing at the proper times, but also running into a trio of alluring young women.

Meant primarily as TV fare, this standard, song-filled romantic drama stars Louis Prima as himself, and his real-life wife Keely Smith as Dorothy Spencer, a devout woman with a good singing voice. Dorothy is active in her local parish which like all parishes, is constantly thinking of ways to raise funds. One of the needy projects is a boys' camp, so when Dorothy is approached by Louis Prima to sing with his band she agrees only on one condition -- that he perform a concert benefit for the parish church and boys' camp. The interactions between Dorothy and Prima lead toward romance and a happy ending, as well as a popular album with the same title song featured in this film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi (NY Times Review).

The first Timex Show from Frank Sinatra with friends Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and others.

A film profile of Healey Willan, composer, conductor, choirmaster, organist and teacher. In this film you see Dr. Willan at his favourite organ in the church where he is choirmaster, at work in his study, and dropping in for a visit with students at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

This adaptation of the classic 1944 film musical explores the lives of the close-knit Smith family -- mother, father, grandfather, and five children -- who live in St. Louis in the year 1903.

A Chinese screen opera