Editing Musical film (section)

===''The Jolly Fellows''===
In 1930, the esteemed Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein went to the United States with fellow director [[Grigori Aleksandrov]] to study Hollywood's filmmaking process. The American films greatly impacted Aleksandrov, particularly the musicals.<ref name="Ranga. East Side Story">Ranga. "East Side Story"</ref> He returned in 1932, and in 1934 directed [[Jolly Fellows (1934 film)|''The Jolly Fellows'']], the first Soviet musical. The film was light on plot and focused more on the comedy and musical numbers. Party officials at first met the film with great hostility. Aleksandrov defended his work by arguing the notion of laughter for laughter's sake.<ref>Andrew Horton. Inside Soviet Film Satire: Laughter with a Lash (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 84</ref> Finally, when Aleksandrov showed the film to Stalin, the leader decided that musicals were an effective means of spreading propaganda. Messages like the importance of collective labor and rags-to-riches stories would become the plots of most Soviet musicals.