Editing Musical film (section)

====The Freed Unit====
[[File:Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956).ogv|thumb|thumbtime=6|upright=1.5|''[[Rock, Rock, Rock (film)|Rock, Rock, Rock]]'', a musical movie from 1956]]During the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, a production unit at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] headed by [[Arthur Freed]] made the transition from old-fashioned musical films, whose formula had become repetitive, to something new. (However, they also produced technicolor remakes of such musicals as ''[[Show Boat]]'', which had previously been filmed in the 1930s.) In 1939, Freed was hired as associate producer for the film ''[[Babes in Arms (film)|Babes in Arms]]''. Starting in 1944 with ''[[Meet Me in St. Louis]]'', the Freed Unit worked somewhat independently of its own studio to produce some of the most popular and well-known examples of the genre. The products of this unit include ''[[Easter Parade (film)|Easter Parade]]'' (1948), ''[[On the Town (film)|On the Town]]'' (1949), ''[[An American in Paris (film)|An American in Paris]]'' (1951), ''[[Singin' in the Rain]]'' (1952), ''[[The Band Wagon]]'' (1953) and ''[[Gigi (1958 film)|Gigi]]'' (1958). Non-Freed musicals from the studio included ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' in 1954 and ''[[High Society (1956 film)|High Society]]'' in 1956, and the studio distributed [[Samuel Goldwyn]]'s ''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' in 1955.

This era saw musical stars become household names, including [[Judy Garland]], [[Gene Kelly]], [[Ann Miller]], [[Donald O'Connor]], [[Cyd Charisse]], [[Mickey Rooney]], [[Vera-Ellen]], [[Jane Powell]], [[Howard Keel]], and [[Kathryn Grayson]]. Fred Astaire was also coaxed out of retirement for ''Easter Parade'' and made a permanent comeback.