Musicals of the 50's, Best to Worst

An aging movie star uncertain of his future teams up with a top ballerina to headline a new Broadway musical, but the pretentiously artistic goals of its director threaten to change it beyond recognition.

A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.

In New York, a gambler is challenged to take a cold female missionary to Havana, but they fall for each other, and the bet has a hidden motive to finance a crap game.

A frustrated fan of the hopeless Washington Senators makes a pact with the Devil to help the baseball team win the league pennant.

Showgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.

On a South Pacific island during World War II, love blooms between a young nurse and a secretive Frenchman who's being courted for a dangerous military mission.

After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.

A gangster hires a down-and-out press agent to make his airhead girlfriend a singing star.

When a backwoodsman in 1850s Oregon brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.

A fading matinee idol helps a young singer and actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career on a downward spiral.

The story of Calamity Jane, her saloon, and her romance with Wild Bill Hickok.

Joey Evans is a charming, handsome, funny, talented 1st class, A-Number 1 heel. When Joey meets the former chorus girl and now rich widow Vera Simpson, the pair of lecherous souls seem made for each other.

A widow accepts a job as a live-in governess to the King of Siam's children.

The story of the great sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who rose to fame while dealing with her love/professional rival, Frank Butler.

Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.

Two producers find different actresses in Paris for the same Broadway role. Each promises her the part without telling the other. Drama unfolds on their ocean voyage back when both women learn the truth.

A young boy dreams that he is in an imaginary world where, assisted by his family's plumber, he must save other piano-playing kids like himself from the dungeons of his dictatorial piano teacher who also mind-controls his mother.

As Sadie Hawkins Day approaches, Daisy Mae hopes to win the hand of Li'l Abner by catching him in the traditional race.

An impromptu fashion shoot at a book store brings about a new fashion model discovery in the shop clerk.

A brother and sister dance act encounter challenges and romance when booked in London during the Royal Wedding.

A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful King.

Frank Sinatra plays Joe E. Lewis, a famous comedian of the 1930s-50s. When the movie opens, Lewis is a young, talented singer who performs in speakeasies. After he bolts one job for another, the mob boss who owns the first speakeasy has his thugs try to kill Lewis. He survives, but his vocal cords are cut and he cannot sing. Several years later, his buddy tracks him down and tries to help him, with little success. That attempt, though, leads to Lewis meeting Letty Page (Jeanne Crain). They fall in love and she inspires him to follow up on an offer to become a comedian (a result of his buddy's failed attempt to rejuvenate his singing career). Lewis has problems, though. The assault that nearly cost him his life also helped turn him into an alcoholic and an inveterate gambler. These two character defects become the basis for his act and help to make him a smash success. Unfortunately, they also work to wreak havoc in his personal life.

With socialite Tracy Lord about to remarry, her ex-husband - with the help of a sympathetic reporter - has 48 hours to convince her that she really still loves him.

Three soldiers meet ten years after their last meeting in New York, and find out that they have little in common now.

Former nightclub singer Kay Hilliard, married 10 years and mother of a young daughter, is informed that her husband Steven is having an affair with chorus girl Crystal Allen, so she goes to Reno for a divorce.