Elaine---You're right. The fact is, though, that, although they were dying out, there still were enough musicals & all-around good movies being made in the early 60's that such films as this could, and often did, get lost in the shuffle. Once a film left theaters, many were never seen again for years, if even then. In that era, movies didn't turn up on TV anywhere until about 7 years had passed minimum. Of course, videocassettes & dvds didn't exist. All this has changed but the availablility of movies was far less pervasive way back then.
Nancy Kwan was a ballet dancer and not a singer. Pat Suzuki (Linda Low on Broadway) was a singer and not a dancer. Back in 1961 the Chinese community in San Francisco was excited about Flower Drum Song because it portrayed Chinese Americans. Even though most of the actors were Japanese, it was an improvement over the Hollywood practice of yellowface. FDS was not considered to be politically incorrect or inappropriate until years later.
I strongly suspect that many who make accusations of political incorrectness have never seen the film (as with 'Song of the South'). By the way, the marvelous Ms. Suzuki made a happy return to R&H singing Bloody Mary in the 1996 recording of 'South Pacific'. Probably my favorite.
This is a great musical. I love the entire story and the songs are fantastic. I always thought Nancy Kwan was so under rated as an actress. She's fabulous! Thank you for sharing.
It's sad that so many people are ignorant of the fact musicals were revolutionary in piercing the claustrophobic one patriarchal white one culture mentality in the USA. Musicals took on so many acceptable norms of bigoted in the USA, be it via storyline or who the performers were. MUSICALS were revolutionary. Spitting on Nancy Kwan....which was done by many so-called progressives in more recent history, is more evil than the ignorance of the past... because now we know better, and now people should be able to understand the history this county and hold up all those who fought to get us out of white heterosexual European norms of that day
Anna May Wong was originally cast as Madame Liang but she died before production began. Juanita Hall who played Bloody Mary in South Pacific was then assigned to play Madame Liang.
I've never been to the States but my parents saw the musical in London's West End. They bought a record with hits from the show which I listened to many times. In the early 2000s I met a lady from San Francisco. Using the words of the song I mentioned Grant Avenue and Chinatown in such a way as she thought I had actually been there
I loved this movie as a boy, watching in reruns in the 1970s (living a bit to the south in Mountain View, just of Grant, but "Street" not "Avenue".....I remember loving the songs....I didn't realize how awesome the dancing was though. WOWZER Nancy!
A funny and happy musical surprise with lovely talented Nancy Kwan. My sister and I loved this movie and all the cast that were so delightful to watch. I was in grade school and never had a vision to be on Grant Ave, San Francisco, California, USA! Then I found myself standing at the Gates on Grant Ave years older saying, "oh my, I am here!" with reminiscing of my sis with me at a tiny midwest movie theatre coming to love this movie and songs. I had lived in most of all the major cities of USA. Thank you to destiny of my daughter with her husband and my darling grand daughter that brought me to living in San Fran a short period of time. I am very grateful of 'a hundred million miracles...'
my school's doing a production of flower drum song.! we've learned the dance numbers: 100 million miracles, chop suey, and we're halfway done with Grant Avenue.! it's really exhausting, but it's worth it.!
My girlfriend and I stayed in Chinatown in San Francisco. We walked down Grant Avenue as I sang this song in my head. San Francisco was a lovely city in the 70’s. It is not the scenic city it once was. It just lost a major convention bid because it has so much trash and dirt littering the City!
In the early 1960s, Lee Wolf, a well-known musician, arranged the Flower Drum Song's score for the Vasella "Musketeers" Drum and Bugle Corps. The music was fun to play and very entertaining. It was a winning repertoire in competition with other drum corps up and down the East Coast.
I saw this movie when it was released, about two weeks after I visited San Francisco, and I laughed at how clean and shiny this Grant Avenue was compared to the filthy one I had just seen in person.
They took SLANTED SCREEN off You Tube. Probably a copyright issue. It mentions Flower Drum Song in very praiseworthy terms..I loved Nancy Kwan. She's still gorgeous..BTW
AbrahamDiner No, not the dancing so much. Nancy was a trained dancer. Although Annie could shake it, she wasn’t really a very good dancer. I think it’s those tight, high-waisted yellow pants. They remind you of the pink ones AnnMargret wore in the Lot of Living number in Bye Bye Birdie. One of Annie’s best.
Both cheap, and decidedly third rate. Saints preserve us - this is a truly dreadful film. But with Ross Hunter at the helm what do you expect? On the stage it was at least good to look at.
Except to say, l o v e Ann Margret s voice....but a dancer SHE IS N O T ! On the other hand, NANCY KWAN? specTACular ballet/ jazz technique---absokuteky one of theee b e s t!
B.J. Baker, Like Marni Nixon, was the singing voice for actors in musicals. Here, she puts the punch into "Grant Avenue" for Nancy Kwan. Drop by the Internet Movie Database for particulars on other "Flower Drum Song" numbers.
Your high school did Flower Drum Song?? WOW! I've never known of a high school, or anyone, doing this show -- and they should. Good on you! Was the production recorded?
Yes, a dancer slipped and they left it in the final print. Hard to believe really. This is a prime example of how second rate this turkey actually is. In a quality film they would have reshot the sequence. Rodgers and Hammerstein were mortified by this film. They should have been. It's so bad it's hard to believe.
@@jochenstossberg5427I was quite entertained by it and wasn't expecting a classic, maybe today it would be considered a cult classic. Though they had to use their entire Asian casting roster to fill all the parts. By choosing Juanita, they must have panicked that Anna Mae Wong had passed. I was quite surprised that R&H was part of this.
real jazz dance choreography from back in the day...for more type in Hullabaloo dancers to see the great Michael Bennet of Dream Girls and A Chorus Line fame(the original Broadway shows)as well as an older Patrick Adariate from this film dancer their butts off!
Thank God we still have the American Chinatowns which preserve China before it became communist. (even though much of it was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire because the buildings were largely wooden and ramshackle...but they definitely built it up much snazzier, I think....ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9pr78-vsMxY.html You must know about this guy, if you like San Francisco's Chinatown, photographs of Chinatown from before and around the time of the 1906 Quake, Arnold Genthe. It's odd that while Americans are fascinated by Chinese culture and history (or they were before the SJWs got their panties wadded way up their butt over cultural appropriation) the Communist Chinese under Mao seemed embarrassed and humiliated by it. While on the other hand, they have used all the worst aspects of the West to destroy their country and many others. Sorry I brought up a subject having nothing to do with the movie, which I have loved since I was a little kid. I live in a suburb of San Francisco and we used to go to Chinatown every few months or so, and I dated lots of Chinese guys as well. They found it funny that I was so fascinated by the old Chinese stuff and that the more China copied the West, the more boring I found it. They felt precisely the opposite.
Just absolutely love the groups filling up each quadrant of stage from different angles. SIOO s e x y ! .. and , of course, the choreography itself...Nancy Kwan us a real knockout if a dancer --- a l l of them.
The first time I saw this movie on TV as a kid, which was in the 1960s, I was very impressed with this set. When it's shown at the beginning of the film with pedestrians and cars on it, I initially wondered if it really was an actual street - till I noticed the reflections of multiple strong lights on the shiny bodies of the cars. Then I realized it was a soundstage.
+kristen price Interestingly. the opening lines are strange, to say the least. The woman on the rights voice sounds like the Linda Lo voice, and the voice coming out of the mouth of Nancy Kwan sounds an awful lot like Miyoshi. I bet the staging of the number was changed between the time it was pre-recorded and shot. The same thing happens in White Christmas during Sisters. Clooney's voice comes out of Vera Ellen's mouth at times.
