It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) – Musical #758

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Richard Attenborough

Starring:
The Smith family: Wendy Allnutt, Colin Farrell, Malcolm McFee, John Rae, Corin Redgrave, Maurice Roëves, Paul Shelley, Kim Smith, Angela Thorne, Mary Wimbush

Extended guest star appearances: John Mills, Dirk Bogarde, Phyllis Calvert, Jean-Pierre Cassel, John Clements, John Gielgud, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Maggie Smith, Susannah York

Also starring: Vincent Ball, Pia Colombo, Paul Daneman, Isabel Dean, Christian Doermer, Robert Flemyng, Meriel Forbes, Frank Forsyth, Ian Holm, David Lodge, Joe Melia, Guy Middleton, Juliet Mills, Nanette Newman, Cecil Parker, Natasha Parry, Gerald Sim, Thorley Walters, Anthony Ainley, Michael Bates, Fanny Carby, Cecilia Darby, Geoffrey Davies, Edward Fox, George Ghent, Zeph Gladstone, Peter Gilmore, Ben Howard, Norman Jones, Paddy Joyce, Angus Lennie, Harry Locke, Clifford Mollison, Derek Newark, John Owens, Ron Pember, Dorothy Reynolds, Norman Shelley, Marianne Stone, John Trigger, Kathleen Wileman, Penelope Allen, Maurice Arthur, Freddie Ascott, Dinny Jones, Carole Gray, Bernard Jarvis, Jane Seymour (uncredited)

Plot:
Shown through fantasy metaphors, as well as real life scenes, the story follows working class British family, the Smith family, who enlist in World War I, and the juxtaposition between the fighting men, military leaders and the rich.

Trivia:
• Richard Attenborough’s directorial debut.
• Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave and Corin Redgrave all appear in the film.
• Jack Hawkins’s voice was dubbed in the film because he lost his voice after suffering from throat cancer.
• Based on the musical stage play produced by Joan Littlewood for the Theater Workshop Company in 1963.
• Len Deighton does not receive a writing screen credit for his work on the film. Varying reasons have been given why, including that he requested not to have credit over creative differences.
• Released in the United Kingdom in April 1969 and released in the United States in October 1969.
• Actress Jane Seymour’s first film role. She appears as an uncredited chorus girl in the film.

Highlights:
• Maggie Smith as a stage diva
• The use of poppies throughout the film
• The scene with Dirk Bogarde and Susannah York
• The cinematography

Notable Songs:
• “Oh, What a Lovely War” performed by John Mills
• “Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser” performed by Jean-Pierre Cassel
• “I’ll Make a Man of You” performed by Maggie Smith
• “Goodbye-ee” performed by Joe Melia and Corin Redgrave
• “The Bells of Hell” performed by the chorus

My reviews:
This week’s Musical Monday isn’t your typical late-1960s musical. In Richard Attenborough’s directorial debut, “Oh! What a Lovely War” (1969) is visually stunning and a bit hard to describe. Much of the film is an allegory to the events of World War II and how people reacted (I’ll get into examples further down) while there are moments of realism with music mixed in.

While “Oh! What a Lovely War” is indeed a musical and filled (almost constantly at the end) with music, this isn’t your usual stage-to-screen late-1960s musical film, like OLIVER or CAMELOT. As I think back on my recent viewing of this film, I’m inclined to agree with Roger Ebert’s review when the film was released:

“It’s a mistake to review “Oh! What a Lovely War” as a movie. It isn’t one, but it is an elaborately staged tableau, a dazzling use of the camera to achieve essentially theatrical effects,” Ebert wrote in his Oct. 30, 1969.

“Oh! What a Lovely War” is big, breathtaking, and while it has humor, ultimately it’s devastating.

The film opens as world leaders from countries including England, France, Russia, Germany and Serbia discuss the state of the world, walking together about a room. Then they all pose for a picture, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Duchess Hohenberg, are handed poppies—and they die when the photo is taken, signifying the start of World War I in 1914.

After the war begins, British families excitedly run behind a brass band making its way to a carnival-like pier, which is supposed to look like Brighton’s West Pier. The pier is labeled in lights “World War I” across the top, and those wanting to enlist can buy tickets from Field-Marshall Sir Douglas Haig (John Mills). The pier has a celebratory atmosphere of pride and patriotism. However, after a French Colonel (Jean-Pierre Cassell) sings “Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser,” the soldiers riding a carousel, are soon killed and the tone shifts — and the scene pans to the trenches.

From enlistment to the trenches, much of the story follows the working class Smith family.

Throughout the film, the events of World War I are summarized in manners like this. Another example, is as the Smiths and others sit in a theater hearing a performer (Maggie Smith) sing “I’ll Make a Man of You.” From the audience, the performer is beautiful and her offer to fight exciting. As the men come up on stage to enlist, the performer looks less attractive — much like the offer presented.

The film also shows the attitudes of the rich and leadership vs. the working class and soldiers in trenches. There is a great scene with Dirk Bogarde and Susannah York at a high class party on Christmas Eve. The two are discussing how it’s great that they still have champagne, but they have chosen to do their part and not drink German wine during the war. They pat themselves on the back for the half-hearted care packages they’ve sent to the front (one was to the son of their chauffer) and how they’ve asked other servants to knit for the war effort. The scene shifts to the trenches as the son of the chauffer opens the package, scoffing at its contents.

Other scenes with military leaders (John Mills, Michael Redgrave, Laurence Olivier) show their priorities for promotions, appearances, parade, and caring little about the major losses in the war. For example, while conditions in the trenches are terrible, the field-marshal writes a letter about his embarrassment over the king being thrown by a horse that he trained.

While songs are performed throughout, they grow in frequency in the second half of the film. The lyrics are more bitter or downtrodden, detailing how they want to go home, the “bells of hell don’t ring for me,” how they were gassed last night (with poisonous mustard gas), or how they see their comrades hanging on barbed wire fences in the trenches.

Some are traditional hymns or World War I-era songs with adapted lyrics, such as “Onward Christian Soldiers” or “They Didn’t Believe Me.”

While the film boasts an incredible cast, outside of the Smith family players and John Mills, several of these are extended cameos in vignettes. And while Bogarde, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, etc. are more cameos, none of it feels distracting and all of their scenes feel like enough.

World War I involved several nations across the world, however, the film focuses on England. In the last 10 minutes of the film, the United States shows up to join, which unfortunately well exhibits how late the country entered the war.

While “Oh! What a Lovely War” was a uniquely told film, it did well upon its release, because of it’s anti-establishment and anti-war messaging. The final scene is a jarring view as the camera zooms upward, showing thousands of white crosses signifying the lost lives.

One piece of symbolism I appreciated throughout the film was the use of the poppy. Any time a person in a scene was going to die, they were handed a poppy, wearing a poppy or picking the flower. It was a creative and heartbreaking way to signify the losses without showing any actual death in the film.

It was difficult to put my thoughts down in a review for “Oh! What a Lovely War,” because this film is so drastically different from anything I’ve ever seen. It does have a few humorous moments, is visually stunning and well shot, but also is a rather mournful viewing; highlighting the lost generation. The whole film, especially the final scene, left me speechless.

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