The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Fr./W. Germ.) (aka Les Parapluies de Cherbourg)

This Jacques Demy musical love story, a recitative film, was unique in that every line was sung, even the most everyday conversational phrases. The singing voices of the characters were dubbed.

The film was accompanied by a rich score by composer Michel Legrand. It received five Academy Award nominations (with no wins):

• Best Original Screenplay (Jacques Demy)
• Best Original Song, I Will Wait For You (music by Michel Legrand, lyrics by Jacques Demy)
• Best Original Musical Score
• Best Music Score Adaptation
• Best Foreign Language Film

It was a heartbreaking and tragic cinematic opera about star-crossed lovers, set in the late 1950s and early 1960s:

• Catherine Deneuve (dubbed by Danielle Licari) (as the captivating and luminescent 17 year-old Genevieve Emery - a teenaged shop girl in an umbrella shop in the French port of Cherbourg, in Normandy)
• Nino Castelnuovo (dubbed by José Bartel) (as lowly gas station auto mechanic Guy Foucher)

The song I Will Wait For You (pictured) was sung by the couple as they realized that Guy will be away for two years after being drafted to fight in the Algerian war. Both lovers married others - and happened to meet each other at the gas station in the film's conclusion.

Victor/Victoria (1982)

Blake Edwards' screwball sex farce, a remake of Viktor und Viktoria (1933, Germany), was also adapted into a Broadway musical in 1995. It was the recipient of seven Academy Award nominations, with one win: Best Original Song Score (Henry Mancini). The other nominations were for:

• Best Actress (Julie Andrews)
• Best Supporting Actor (Robert Preston)
• Best Supporting Actress (Lesley Ann Warren)
• Best Adapted Screenplay (Blake Edwards)
• Best Art Direction
• Best Costume Design

It was a lavish star vehicle for Julie Andrews, who played the role of opera singer Victoria Grant.

In a plan devised with flamboyant, gay, middle-aged cabaret singer Carroll "Toddy" Todd (Robert Preston), Victoria also assumed the role of Polish gay drag queen singer Count Victor Grezhinski - and became Toddy's new boyfriend: (Victoria: "A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman?")

Three of the best-known songs were in these show-stopping numbers (as nightclub acts):

• Le Jazz Hot (pictured twice) - Victor/Victoria's production number performed in a black gown with stringy bat-wing sleeves and a rhinestone headdress - after which she revealed herself in her 'debut' as alter-ego male Victor by ripping off her head-dress
• You and Me (pictured) - performed by Toddy and Victoria before a nightclub audience
• a saucy, sexy song-and-dance number Chicago, Illinois (pictured) performed wildly and aggressively with other showgirls in baby-doll underwear by uncontrollable, ditzy, coarse, sex-starved blonde moll Norma Cassady (Oscar-nominated Leslie Ann Warren)

There was also the scene of hilariously miscast and in drag Toddy performing a reprise of Shady Dame From Seville (pictured twice) in place of Victoria, and his jokingly bitter riposte to his chorus line when finished and claiming it was his last performance: "You were marvelous - and I never want to see any of you again!"

Viva Las Vegas (1964)

This American romantic musical from director George Sidney memorably teamed two stars who were engaged in an off-screen romance at the time of filming. It was advertised in the poster's tagline as: "IT'S THAT 'GO-GO' GUY AND THAT 'BYE-BYE' GIRL IN THE FUN CAPITAL OF THE WORLD":

• Elvis Presley - as hip-swinging race car Grand Prix driver Lucky Jackson, who must take a job as a singing casino waiter in Las Vegas to finance a new car engine
• Ann-Margret, the fiery, shimmying, and voluptuous bombshell - as casino-hotel swimming teacher Rusty Martin

Remarkably, the film had no Academy Award nominations.

The musical was one of Elvis' best films, and his biggest box-office hit. It was most noted for:

• Viva Las Vegas (pictured), the opening title credits song, sung by Presley under the glittering neon lights of Las Vegas; also later sung on stage (pictured) by Presley in a black outfit with bright red shirt
• the duet The Lady Loves Me (pictured), after Lucky had located Rusty working as a swimming instructor at his own hotel, the Flamingo; to woo her, he strummed his guitar as they took a brief tour of the hotel pool, while they sang, flirted and traded barbs with each other: (Lucky: "Tonight, she'll hold me in her arms" Rusty: "I'd rather be holding hydrogen bombs" Lucky: "She wants me" Rusty: "Like poison ivy" Lucky: "Needs me" Rusty: "Like a hole in the head" Lucky: "Anyone can see she's got it bad" Rusty: "He's mad")
• C'Mon Everybody (pictured twice), a wild, orgiastic production number featuring the dueling pelvises of the two stars - at first she danced on the gym floor below the stage, and then they joined together up on the stage

"C'Mon Everybody"

• Ray Charles' What'd I Say (pictured), energetically danced and sung by Presley with a guitar, with Ann-Margret in a matching yellow dress