Brigadoon (1954) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error | Fantasy , Musical , Romance | 8 September 1954 (USA) Two Americans on a hunting trip in Scotland become lost. They encounter a small village, not on the map, called Brigadoon, in which people harbor a mysterious secret, and behave as if they were still living two hundred years in the past. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 45 titles created 24 Aug 2012 a list of 49 titles created 10 Nov 2013 a list of 42 titles created 01 Sep 2015 a list of 30 images created 26 Sep 2015 a list of 44 titles created 3 months ago Search for " Brigadoon " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 win. See more awards » Videos A girl is engaged to the local richman, but meanwhile she has dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. A traveling singer falls in love with her and to impress her he poses as the pirate. Director: Vincente Minnelli The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. ... See full summary » Director: Busby Berkeley Three sailors on a day of shore leave in New York City look for fun and romance before their twenty-four hours are up. Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly Stars: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett Two sailors, one naive, the other experienced in the ways of the world, on liberty in Los Angeles, is the setting for this movie musical. Director: George Sidney A small-town farmer, down on her luck, finds her homestead invaded by a theatrical troupe invited to stay by her ne'er-do-well sister.

Director: Charles Walters Three soldiers meet 10 years after their last meeting in New York, and find out that they have little in common now. Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly Stars: Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse After writing a tell-all book about her days in the dance troupe "Barry Nichols and Les Girls", Sybil Wren (Kay Kendall) is sued for libeling her fellow dancer Angele (Taina Elg). A Rashomon ... See full summary » Director: George Cukor Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI. Director: Busby Berkeley Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman. Director: Vincente Minnelli In 1850 Oregon, when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too. Director: Stanley Donen A pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it beyond recognition.

Director: Vincente Minnelli A musical remake of Ninotchka: After three bumbling Soviet agents fail in their mission to retrieve a straying Soviet composer from Paris, the beautiful, ultra-serious Ninotchka is sent to ... See full summary » Director: Rouben Mamoulian Edit Storyline Americans Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglas, on a hunting vacation in Scotland, discover a quaint and beautiful village, Brigadoon. Strangely, the village is not on any map, and soon Tommy and Jeff find out why: Brigadoon is an enchanted place. It appears once every hundred years for one day, then disappears back into the mists of time, to wake up to its next day a century hence. When Tommy falls in love with Fiona, a girl of the village, he realizes that she can never be part of his life back in America. Can he be part of hers in Brigadoon? Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net> The Musical Hit that Tops Them All! See more » Genres: 8 September 1954 (USA) See more » Also Known As: 4-Track Stereo | Mono (Western Electric Sound System) Color: Did You Know?

Trivia Gene Kelly wanted Moira Shearer to play the role of Fiona, however Shearer declined preferring to perform on the classical stage. See more » Goofs For only being enchanted for a period of less than two days (the day of the movie being only their second day awake since the enchantment), by their own time line, the villagers have developed a rather implausibly complex set of customs and beliefs related to their enchantment. See more » Quotes Charlie Chisholm Dalrymple : And may God bless me this evening as much as I would bless Him if I were He and He were Charles Dalrymple. The Heather On the Hill 4 June 2006 | by theowinthrop (United States) – See all my reviews This Vincent Minelli musical is usually considered a flop, which is unfair. Gene Kelly wanted to shoot it on site in Scotland (where Brigadoon is set), but it was vetoed as too expensive. So Minelli had to create a magical, 18th Century Scottish village on a studio set. He also was using cinema scope for the first time, and felt it lacked the compositional unity and beauty of the regular film he had been using.

It is apparent it's a set, but the story and music is so superior (despite the lack of two songs, including my favorite - "My Mother's Wedding Day") that one can actually forget the artificiality of the set. Moreover, the actual issue of artificial sets seems ridiculous when considering the story. If the set was actually realistic, the film would have had to be shot in one day, because the set would have vanished for a century at the end of the day (as the village does in the story)!! Except for one five minute sequence at the end of the film, set in a noisy New York City nightspot, most of the film is set in the Scottish highlands. Tommy (Gene Kelly) and Jeff (Van Johnson) are vacationing in Scotland, when they stumble into a village that is not on their maps. The village is Brigadoon. It is later explained by the village elder, Mr Lundie (Barry Johns) that the village was granted a special wish of it's very religious minister to preserve it forever by having it only reappear once a century, so the people in it would never be hurt.

There is, however, another side to the deal: the citizens have to remain (as well as their livestock) within the boundaries of the town by sundown, because they go to bed early, and awake one hundred years later the next day. If any decides to leave the town's boundaries, that person will cause the wish and blessing to dissipate, and the town will be destroyed and it's citizens destroyed. BRIGADOON is a very colorful and tuneful show, and a nice blend of humor and tragedy. It also asks what people require for happiness: simplicity or sophisticated modern life. Jeff would opt for the latter (and he does quite strenuously up to the conclusion of the movie), but he is a confirmed alcoholic - some advertisement for modern civilization and it's benefits! Tommy is more inquisitive and easier - and he finds he is not so happy with modern life. But the search for happiness is not an easy one, and it takes a tragedy and much soul searching for Tommy to reach his conclusion. And there is the music, especially Learner and Lowe's "The Heather On the Hill" (attractively sung and danced by Kelly and Charisse), and "It's Almost Like Being In Love." A failure by Minelli?

Well it's not MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, or GIGI, or THE PIRATE but it is far better than many other musicals. 28 of 34 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Tommy Albright (Character) Tommy Albright (Character) from Brigadoon (1954) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview (as Tommy Albright in 'Brigadoon') Additional Details Quotes: From Brigadoon (1966) (TV) Tommy Albright : [referring to Charlie's enthusiasm over his upcoming wedding] Well, I'm getting married next month and I've managed to contain my exuberance. Fiona McLaren : You're getting married? Tommy Albright : Yes. Yes, to a soap heiress. Fiona McLaren : Well, I think it's very important for a wife to be able to make good soap.

[Sarcastically] ‎Brigadoon (1954) directed by Vincente Minnelli • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd Review by RyanSmallwood Very sweet story, though unfortunately the CinemaScope format is not well utilized here and holds the films back a bit as all the characters are drowned out in long shots. Still the earnestness and magic of the story manages to shine through and it still is quite an experience. A few moments are very well done such as the way Cyd Charisse's ballet dancing melds with the scenery and fluid camera movements. Probably one to look out for theatrical showings of to get the full impact. Review by Antonio Quintero ★★★½ SAW IT AT BNAT 18 It was the pallete cleanser after watching a cure of wellness. Its the history of a town that goes to sleep for 100 years. The film is a beautiful musical with really fun numbers. Review by Ben Thomas ★★½ I thought Rivette was exaggerating when he said that Minelli didn't seem to work with his actors, but now I understand what he meant.

Whenever Brigadoon attempts to tell a story, they're merely throwing lines at each other or the scenery, hardly paying attention to what their partners or the camera are up to. A real waste. If the film weren't also reactionary, sentimental, naïve, sexist, and a bit thick, Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse's numbers might have been enough for me to overlook his indifference to whatever most of the performers thought they were doing. I've been wanting to like this ever since I heard Gina Telaroli enthuse over it on Labuza's podcast. Ah well. Gene Kelly | The Stars | Broadway: The American Musical | PBS Performers Gene Kelly This buoyant American film star of the 1940s and ’50s was a renowned dancer-choreographer, the embodiment of proletariat good-guy cheer, and a key figure in shaping the golden age of the Hollywood musical. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Kelly was the son of a theatrical manager and an actress. He and his brother Fred performed a dance act for the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair.

After an unsuccessful screen test for RKO in 1935, Kelly turned to stage work, making his Broadway debut in the chorus of “Leave It to Me” in 1938. After a dramatic turn in William Saroyan’s “The Time of Your Life” (1939), he scored his biggest stage triumph as Joey Evans, the antihero of the Rodgers and Hart/John O’Hara musical “Pal Joey.” The latter caught the attention of film producer David O. Selznick, who signed Kelly to a seven-year contract. Selznick immediately loaned his new star to MGM for Busby Berkeley’s FOR ME AND MY GAL (1942), a musical romp about a vaudeville couple (Kelly and Judy Garland) determined to play the Palace Theater. Kelly’s star was on the ascendant and MGM bought out his contract with Selznick. He was cast in the all-male THE CROSS OF LORRAINE as a prisoner of war.

In 1944, Kelly added choreographer to his resume when he created the dance sequence for the “Alter Ego” number in the stylish COVER GIRL, in which he was a Brooklyn club owner romancing an up-and-coming actress-model (Rita Hayworth). This marked the beginning of a long string of MGM musicals that starred Kelly, including 1945’s ANCHORS AWEIGH (notable for the sequence in which Kelly dances with cartoon mouse Jerry of TOM AND JERRY fame), and two directed by Vincente Minnelli, ZIEGFELD FOLLIES (1946), in which he dances “The Babbitt and the Bromide,” which had been popularized onstage by Adele and Fred Astaire, and THE PIRATE (1948), which reteamed him with Garland and featured a lively Cole Porter score, including Kelly’s tours de force, “Nina” and “Be a Clown.” Kelly and Vivienne Segal in the original production of Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey." Kelly branched out into directing with ON THE TOWN (1949), which he co-helmed with Stanley Donen.

Adapted from the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green Broadway hit, ON THE TOWN followed the adventures of three sailors (Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) on leave for one day in New York City and the women (Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen, and Betty Garrett) they encounter. Kelly and Sinatra reteamed for Busby Berkeley’s TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME (also 1949), as turn-of-the-century ballplayers coping with a new female owner (Esther Williams). Kelly and Donen co-directed the “Strictly USA” segment and received an overall story credit. But it was the Oscar-winning AN AMERICAN IN PARIS that marked Kelly’s artistic triumph. Directed by Vincente Minnelli and written by Alan Jay Lerner, the musical was an original story that interpolated a lushly arranged Gershwin score. While the plot was fairly standard (American man, Kelly, torn between wealthy Nina Foch and gamine dancer Leslie Caron), the staging was imaginative, including a spectacular 18-minute ballet sequence that still ranks as one of the best ever filmed.

The film won a total of eight Oscars as well as a special award for Kelly, citing his “brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.” Kelly was the son of a theatrical manager and an actress. Gene Kelly Cole Porter Richard Rodgers Kelly followed with what many consider to be the greatest film musical — SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952). Set in the 1920s, just as talking films are being introduced, the film follows the romance of silent screen star Kelly and newcomer Debbie Reynolds. Featuring the rubbery Donald O’Connor and an uproarious Jean Hagen, the film contains some of the movie musical’s best-remembered sequences, including his signature routine to the title song and the “Broadway Rhythm” ballet. Throughout the ’50s, Kelly continued to appear in musicals (e.g., BRIGADOON, 1954 and the underrated IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, 1955) but most were forgettable.

An attempt to make a strictly dance film, INVITATION TO THE DANCE (1956), which Kelly wrote, directed, choreographed, and starred in, received mixed reviews; most cited the final “Sinbad the Sailor” sequence as the most successful as it displayed the novel mixing of live action and cartoons. Increasingly from the late ’50s, Kelly began to play nonmusical roles, notably as a skeptical reporter in Stanley Kramer’s INHERIT THE WIND (1960). He also worked more behind the camera, helming such diverse fare as THE HAPPY ROAD (1956), A GUIDE FOR THE MARRIED MAN (1967), and the overblown version of HELLO, DOLLY! (1969). Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, Kelly worked less frequently, often as host or narrator of TV specials or compilation films (THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!, 1974, its two sequels from 1976 and 1994, and their companion piece, THAT’S DANCING!, 1985).

His last major onscreen appearance was in the poorly executed XANADU (1980). He worked as an uncredited supervisor of the musical sequences in Francis Ford Coppola’s misbegotten ONE FROM THE HEART (1982). Kelly’s final screen appearance was as host of a segment of THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT! III (1994). When film dancers are considered, two usually come to mind: Astaire and Kelly. Astaire represented refinement; Kelly, athleticism. Kelly was a swaggeringly virile dancer of incomparable grace and charm. He pushed the boundaries of film dancing beyond the established limits, particularly with AN AMERICAN IN PARIS and INVITATION TO THE DANCE. Source: Excerpted from Baseline. BaselineStudioSystems — A Hollywood Media Corp. Company. Photo credits: Photofest and Culver Pictures Brigadoon | DVD Review | Slant Magazine Comments (0) The Scottish village of Brigadoon only magically awakens for one day every 100 years, which works out just fine for Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly). He falls in love with one of the townspeople, Fiona (Cyd Charisse), and has the opportunity for a guilt-free one-night stand.

Not that this MGM musical has any sexual innuendo; it manages to make Tommy's song about enjoying the “Heather on the Hill” so tame that one never suspects the couple is doing anything more than holding hands while frolicking in the heather. But Tommy wonders whether he can give up his modern life in the name of romance. Brigadoon never mines its conflicted situation for all its worth, since Tommy never has to face up to his dilemma until the film is racing toward its third act conclusion, the outcome never in doubt. At least the dancing is good, and Vincente Minnelli's restless camera gooses a plodding story into liveliness. As usual, Kelly and Charisse are gracefully swoon inducing, even amid the fake looking “highland” sets and garish Technicolor (Kelly's bright red socks almost successfully upstage him). But Brigadoon indulges in drawn-out hokum with the townspeople going about their quaint daily routine (“Down on MacConnachy Square”), cow milking, and grand spectacle wedding dancing.

No wonder Tommy's sidekick (played by Van Johnson) spends the entire movie getting drunk, and town villain Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing) wants to break free of the rigorous social constrictions and escape the town. As he climbs from tree to tree, pursued by an angry mob (“I'll go down/To the creek/If he's there and I see him/I'll throw him in it!”), the modern viewer might hope he actually makes it beyond the town line, enabling “tomorrow to never, never come.” One can easily imagine the Lars von Trier version of Brigadoon, where single-minded Harry is the hero trying to escape this oppressive, conservative Squareville. Image/Sound For a movie musical that's middling at best, Warner Home Video does a completely outstanding widescreen transfer that makes full use of the eye-popping Technicolor. Unlike old prints where the Technicolor bleeds into hideous nitroglycerine, this Brigadoon is a visual feast-as long as you respond to Vincente Minnelli's overripe color scheme. The audio track is similarly crystal clear, so Kelly and Charisse fans can rejoice at their decent singing while admiring their extraordinary dancing.

Extras Slim offerings include an audio outtake of the lovely "There But For You Go I" and a theatrical trailer. Three outtake musical numbers are smartly photographed but quite expendable. Overall Brigadoon looks splendid, tastes bland. Image Brigadoon Plot and Cast | Movies.com DVD FULL SYNOPSIS Reportedly, Vincente Minnelli turned down the opportunity to film Brigadoon on location in Scotland insisting that MGM's studio mockups looked more Scottish than the genuine article. This lavish adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe Broadway musical stars Gene Kelly as an American tourist who stumbles upon an enchanted Scottish village. Every 100 years, the people of Brigadoon awaken for a 24-hour period, then go back to sleep for another century while Brigadoon itself vanishes in the mists. Tommy Albright (Kelly) falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse) while his hard-drinking pal, Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson), dismisses the legend -- and indeed the existence of Brigadoon as a result of delirium.

Fiona's betrothed Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing), upset by Kelly's intervention, threatens to leave Brigadoon -- an act that will spell doom for its residents. When this crisis has passed, Tommy is persuaded against his better judgment to escape Brigadoon himself and return to his own fiancée (Elaine Stewart) in New York. But the love between Tommy and Fiona results in a miraculous finale. Most of the Lerner-Loewe score remains intact, including the hit songs "Almost Like Being in Love," "Heather on the Hill," and "Come to Me Bend to Me." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi Release date:September 8, 1954 fliXposed: Brigadoon (1954) - Star of the month... Gene Kelly Wednesday, 15 August 2012 Brigadoon (1954) - Star of the month... Gene Kelly Brigadoon is a 1954 musical fantasy directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Gene Kelly, Van Johnson and Cyd Charisse. It is based on the successful musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.

Two New Yorkers, Tommy Albright (played by Kelly) & Jeff Douglas (played by Johnson) travelling in Scotland stumble across Brigadoon, a hidden village while hunting. Brigadoon is a magical village in the Scottish countryside, which comes to life once every one hundred years, for only one day. Whilst in Brigadoon, Tommy falls in love with local lass Fiona Campbell (played by Charisse). Tommy must decide before sundown whether he should stay in Brigadoon with Fiona, or return to New York.

Watch the trailer: Gene Kelly & Van Johnson put their best foot forward in 'I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean' "Once in the Highlands/Brigadoon/Down on MacConnachy Square" - Eddie Quillan, Villagers & MGM Chorus "Waiting for My Dearie" - Cyd Charisse & Dee Turnell "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" - Jimmy Thompson, Gene Kelly, Van Johnson & Villagers "The Heather on the Hill" - Gene Kelly (with Cyd Charisse) "Almost like Being in Love" - Gene Kelly "The Wedding Dance" - Jimmy Thompson & Virginia Bosler "The Chase" - The Village Men "The Heather on the Hill" (Dance Interlude) - Gene Kelly & Cyd Charisse "I'll Go Home with Bonnie Jean" - Jimmy Thompson, Cyd Charisse & Villagers "The Heather on the Hill" (Reprise) - Jimmy Thompson, Cyd Charisse & Villagers "Finale: Brigadoon" - MGM Chorus Song: "The Heather on the Hill" - Gene Kelly with Cyd Charisse Song: "Almost Like Being In Love" - Gene Kelly Song: "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean" - Gene

 Kelly, Van Johnson & Deleted songs The following four songs were filmed, but cut from the final film.

Only footage from the first three still survives today, with only a recording of Gene Kelly singing "There But For You Go I": "Come to Me, Bend to Me" "From This Day On" "There But For You Go I" Did you know...

Howard Keel and Jane Powell were initially considered to play Tommy & Fiona Kathryn Grayson was originally planned to star as Fiona Campbell Gene Kelly had originally wanted Moira Shearer to play the role of Fiona Donald O'Connor, Steve Allen and Bill Hayes were all considered for the role of Jeff Alex Guinness and David Wayne were considered for roles in 'Brigadoon' Cyd Charisse once said "Brigadoon" was her favourite of the films she made with Gene Kelly, and the pas de deux in "The Heather on the Hill" was her favourite dance with Gene Kelly MGM had originally wanted to film 'Brigadoon' on location in Scotland, however the film was filmed at MGM studios due to the unpredictable Scotland weather The Scottish highland backdrops were over 600 feet long, 60 feet high, and cost $382,280 to construct The Breen office wouldn't allow MGM to include two songs from the original stage play, "The Love of My Life" and "My Mother's Wedding Day", as the lyrics were considered to be too risqué - both songs were sung by the character Meg Brockie, and as a result Meg is a much smaller role in the film To get the effect of Brigado

on emerging from the mist, Vincent Minnelli filmed the sets with the fog being brought in, and then reversed the footage to make it appear as if the fog is moving away Cyd Charisse's singing is dubbed by Carol Richards Awards and nominations Masculinity, Credibility, and Gene Kelly: A Scotsman’s Quandary - Gene Kelly Fans Gene Kelly Fans Marc August 12, 2011 essays , featured , musicals , non-musicals This entry is part 7 of 13 in the series Essays / Analyses .

Being a fan of Gene Kelly, and film musicals in general, has burdened me with two formidable dichotomies since my childhood: how to defend my masculinity as a heterosexual male and my credibility as a student of Scottish history. The film musical genre, as I am told constantly, is the forte of gay men, a more potent defining characteristic, it would seem, than any lifestyle choice. Stand-up comics and a host of poorly written situation and romantic comedies regularly endorse this understanding; I seem to remember a joke of this ilk in every other episode of Will & Grace (right; note the Judy Garland memorabilia on the wall). That is quite enough to contend with. However, it is a film musical, and a Gene Kelly film musical, that is held mostly, if not wholly, responsible for what is known as the ‘tartanification of Scotland:’ the cultural dismantling of the nation into the Highland jigging, kilted, and tartan clad land as portrayed on the front of shortbread tins around the world. Unlike every other Gene fan I have encountered I can’t remember when I first saw him, I have absolutely no memory of the period B.G. (Before Gene). He’s always just been there.

And I don’t mean in a spiritual sense; he hasn’t shone forth and bathed me in the ethereal light of his perpetual magnificence… I cannot accept the current trend from some virtual devotees who attempt to portray Gene as some kind of beatific, infallible demigod, and easily dismiss as errant nonsense negative assessments of him like “tyrannical” ( Debbie Reynolds ) and “egotistical” (André Previn) simply because they contradict the preordained idolatrous image they have contrived to create. Not for them the young, fiery hoofer who propelled himself into low-rent audiences to teach hecklers lessons in humility with his fists, or who retained a romanticised notion of Irish Republicanism late into his life, or who revelled in a bawdy, and sometimes cruel, sense of humour. I don’t recognise their Gene Kelly and I doubt very much whether he ever existed at all. It is his humanity, with all its flaws and contradictions, which makes his achievements all the more astonishing. My love of Gene Kelly became common knowledge at school when I was 9 years old.

We were asked to name our favourite film stars; Steve McQueen was a popular choice for the boys, as were Sean Connery and Roger Moore (Bond was huge in the 70s), and I seem to remember that even Elvis Presley got a mention (he had just passed away and all of his films were shown on television). As you have probably already anticipated my choice was met with particular derision. Two things allowed me a modicum of redemption for this unforgivable betrayal of collective manliness: football and humour. If you can play the national sport well and are also perceived as funny then the respect and freedom from your contemporaries can be invigorating. Mostly. It can also, however, engender resentment in those who feel that all the skill and comical flair in the world can’t, and shouldn’t, compensate for the pathetic admission of “poofyness” (his word) that a love of Gene Kelly musicals reveals. Barry Floyd was his name, a tall, stocky bully with a huge mane of blonde curls: an anti-Harpo, if you will.

He made the next six months of my young life, a very long time to a nine year old, an absolute misery and would punch, kick, and spit on me with every opportunity that presented itself. Despite a visit to the school by my mother and admonishment from teachers the bullying continued. My father’s advice, doled out early on in the period of persecution, seemed to me like a last resort: “There’s only one way to deal with bullies, son… You hit them right back.” I had never hit anybody in my life and the thought of any kind of violence abhorred me. On the final day of school before the summer break my tormentor cornered me in the library and advised me that he was going to give me “something special that would get me through the summer.” The experience of what had gone before allowed me to understand that something thoroughly unpleasant, not to mention extremely painful, was imminent. I can only imagine that a combination of fear and the subconscious recognition of a breaking point are responsible for what happened next. Barry Floyd had hardly advanced when I caught him square on the jaw with my right fist and sent him sprawling into a portable trolley of cheap paperback Westerns. Fitting, I thought.

He stared up at me from the floor with an expression of pained incredulity, but said nothing more, while I turned and walked out of the library followed by, I like to think, the spirit of an athletic dancer in t-shirt and chinos who leapt into the air and triumphantly clicked the heels of his loafers. Barry Floyd didn’t bother us again; he never laid another finger on me, nor did he ridicule Gene after that, well… not in front of me, at least. In my teenage years my love of Gene is something I really only shared with those closest to me.

I found it easy to conceal that part of me from everyone else because I always had a love of contemporary music, films, and sport that identified me as ‘typical.’ However, with my family and my best friends I can lay claim to having spread the word of Gene with wonderful success: when I taped On the Town (1949) on betamax video in 1982 and played it constantly it had such a profound effect on my brother that years later when he began his career as a carpenter he would regularly walk onto building sites singing “I feel like I’m not out of bed yet;” when I taped Singin’ in the Rain (1952) a year later I caught my other brother watching the titular number (right) after, falsely, denouncing its merits, and after showing it to my friends for the first time they didn’t need much persuasion to literally dance around in puddles in the street afterwards.

With the women in my life it’s something I ensure to reveal as early as I possibly can, in fact the dvd of Gene’s AFI Tribute (below) was something I used in my courtship of a woman in the late 90s with whom I would soon embark on a nine year relationship; she had told me previously that she had never liked Gene Kelly, but admitted after watching it that she had found him funny, talented, and humble. The next woman I was involved with in 2007 not only fell in love with Singin’ in the Rain after I showed it to her, but also bought it as a present for her little girl who similarly adored it and showed it to her friends. And the woman I am currently seeing watched Singin’ in the Rain with me at Christmas and let’s just say she’s a work in progress… In my adulthood I have never tried to conceal my love of Gene, on the contrary it is something I wear on my sleeve with pride — an adornment of muscular, joyous, and inventive brilliance.

Equipped with an extensive knowledge of his work, gleaned from a lifetime of admiration and love, and opinions formulated after years of viewing and reading, I will, and have, gone to figurative war in Gene’s defence. I am more than aware, and the first to admit, that not everything he did was marked with brilliance and I recognise his limitations both as an actor and singer, but a handful of his films and a plethora of his numbers meet with no resistance. However, it is an irony not lost on me that it should be one of Gene’s films that is regularly accused of perpetuating the myth and image of Scotland as a primitive country driven by an almost supernatural thirst for whimsy, legend, whisky, dancing, quaintness, outdated custom, and tartan… acres of tartan… swathes of tartan… huge, billowing, terrifying mounds of tartan.

If I am in the middle of a Gene rant to disbelievers, be they friends or otherwise, and they know that I am not only a fan of his, but a student of Scottish history at the nation’s oldest University, they simply bide their time before dropping into the debate a word that has as devastating an impact on my argument as an alien beaming in to a Christian pilgrimage: Brigadoon (1954). Derision in Scotland, and the wider UK, for this hopelessly set bound travesty was instantaneous and the fact that it followed hard after Walt Disney’s equally ludicrous Rob Roy (1953) a year earlier, in which an Englishman (the ignominy) portrayed one of Scotland’s, and the world’s, most celebrated outlaws, compounded the resentment tenfold. Some reports suggest that Gene came to Scotland to scout locations for the film in 1953, and there are photographs of him outside Glasgow Central Train Station and of him receiving an award in Edinburgh, but this seems rather implausible given that the film musical was on the wane and MGM no longer had faith in the genre.

Furthermore, if An American in Paris (1951) wasn’t shot on location during the genre’s zenith, then what would have compelled the studio to embark on a location shoot in a country notorious for intemperate weather and difficult terrain? I’m not sure exactly where in the Gene pantheon I would place Brigadoon. It doesn’t make my eyes and ears bleed like 1947’s Living in a Big Way (right) or Summer Stock (1950), easily the worst, in my opinion, of Gene’s musicals. But then again, it doesn’t possess any flashes of individual brilliance that can be found, albeit fleetingly, in both of those films. The soft shoe shuffle of “Go Home wi’ Bonnie Jean” is almost endearing, but Gene’s rendition of the score’s most celebrated song, “Almost Like Being in Love,” is lacklustre and the routine as a whole somewhat under whelming.

The film’s most historically, and culturally, inaccurate sequence, the Highland wedding, is, paradoxically, my favourite scene and I only wish it went on for longer before Harry comes in and starts groping ‘Bonnie’ Jean; some ruthless editing of most, if not all, of Gene’s interminable pas de deuxs with Cyd Charisse would have provided the scope for that. Cyd, a woman I have desired since the 80s, is woeful throughout and her Highland lilt almost rivals Dick Van Dyke’s Cock-er-ney chimney sweep from Mary Poppins (1964) for the worst accent in cinematic history: her execution of the line “the kindest man in Scotland” is beyond risible. The removal of the finest song from the score, Come to Me, Bend to Me, is a bewildering decision – perhaps Gene and Vincente Minnelli thought that it slowed down the narrative, such as it is, but Brigadoon is not blessed with the kind of score that can survive without its best song. Those of you who have watched the DVD extras will surely agree that Jimmy Thompson’s rendition of the song is delightful.

Van Johnson is excellent as the cynical Jeff Douglas and it is a mystery why he doesn’t have a song of his own; a funny and derogatory number denouncing Brigadoon and everything it represents would have gone down a treat… or maybe a song at the end about how his best friend has left him to disappear into the Highland mist forever and he has to return to New York and explain to his fiancée, and the police, why he’s coming back from Scotland alone, that he doesn’t know where the body is, that he didn’t kill Tommy he’s just asleep, that he didn’t mean to kill the guy he actually did kill, but it’s just as well he did because if he’d made it across the bridge all the Brigadonians would have disappeared into the Highland mist forever and Tommy’s love for Fiona wouldn’t have been able to wake them up this time… I place myself firmly in the Jeff and ‘Hothead’ Harry camp. Brigadoon’s insular and pointless little world is as attractive to me as Tasmania must have been to British convicts in the nineteenth century. In his Film Guide Leslie Halliwell described Brigadoon as ‘Lost Horizonish.’ I can’t agree with that.

The lamasery of Shangri-La in James Hilton’s novel was a Utopian ideal of contentment, long life, perfect health, and cultural preservation, but the village of Brigadoon has none of that… just some sheep, a market, men walking around aimlessly with bales of hay, heather ale (what is that?), and candy… Sorry, ‘candy?’ Caledonian condemnation of Brigadoon is not unanimous, however: a popular Glasgow DJ of the seventies and eighties admitted that he “loved it” and I can remember my own grandmother insisting, when Gene and Cyd turn to face the Highland landscape after desecrating its majesty with their ghastly “Heather on the Hill” routine (right), that it must have been filmed in Scotland because of how beautiful the scenery was… Extraordinary – and this was a woman who had seen the real landscape in all its glory. It remains a popular choice for amateur musicals and a multitude of examples are but a click away on You Tube; I saw one myself a few years ago and silently cheered as the American accents of the actors playing Tommy and Jeff ensured that the linguistic atrocities perpetrated by Cyd Charisse were finally avenged.

For most of us, however, Brigadoon is the watchword for the trite, whimsical, and patronising manner in which the country of my birth has been portrayed in popular culture; and, dismayingly, it is happening still as the recent execrable Made of Honour (2008) testifies. When Simon Callow is met by the sight of kilted dancers at the Scottish wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) he exclaims: “It’s Brigadoon, It’s bloody Brigadoon!” This is perhaps the greatest example of Brigadoon’s impact; that people need not have seen the film, nor the Broadway original, to understand the reference. I used to describe my own hometown, unfairly, as a cross between Brigadoon and Salem’s Lot, and people always got the joke.

And yet, despite all of its faults, what Brigadoon has been held responsible for is rather unfair, at least when compared to other interpretations of Scottish legends and myths; Brigadoon is a fictional tale of fantasy and claims to be nothing more than this, whereas Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (1995) presented a woefully inaccurate account of the life of William Wallace and whipped the nation into a collective frenzy that even saw a political party adopt Gibson’s painted face on their literature and quote directly from the film in their parliamentary speeches. Which is the greater crime? The biggest gripe I have with Brigadoon is one of missed opportunity. A little more research would have provided Mr Forsyth with a more worthy excuse to ask God for a ‘miracle.’ In the story the year is 1754, only eight years after the annihilation of the forces of Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie, if you must) at Culloden .

A defeat so crushing in its one-sidedness and so devastating in its impact on the national psyche that Scotland not only saw her last chance of a governing monarch evaporate, but the resilience and defiance that had kept the English at bay since the Middle Ages quietly ebbed away and was eventually replaced by the intellectualism of the pro-Union Scottish Enlightenment. As a patriot, I can think of no better reason to disappear into the Highland mist for centuries… Sources: Hirschorn, Clive, Gene Kelly, A Biography (W.H. Allen, London 1974). McArthur, Colin, Brigadoon, Braveheart and the Scots – Distortions of Scotland in Hollywood Cinema (I.B. Taurus & Co Ltd, London 2003). ‘Gene Kelly,’ The Hollywood Greats, BBC, 30 April 2001, Television.

Question: Gene Kelly played Tommy Allbright in which 1954 film musical?
Answer: Brigadoon