100 Years of Movie Musicals: The Wild, Wild Rose (1960)
Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the movie musical, and to celebrate I’m embarking on a two-year project to watch 100 movie musicals from 1927 to the present!
Title: The Wild, Wild Rose
Release Date: October 4, 1960
Director: Wong Tin-lam
Production Company: Motion Picture & General Investment Co. Ltd.
Main Cast:
- Grace Chang as Deng Sijia, nicknamed “The Wild Rose”
- Chang Yang as Liang Hanhua
- Auyeung Sa-fay as Hanhua’s Mother
- Lui Tat as Old Wang
- Wong Loy as Shao Xueli
- Lau Yan-kap as Fatty Lin
- Ma Lik as Old Tian
- Ma Hsiao-nung as Old Wang’s Wife
- Sum Wan as Li Meimei
- So Fung as Wu Suxin
- Tang Ti as Sijia’s Husband
- Tien Ching as Xiao Liu
Synopsis (via Letterboxd):
Grace Chang delivers an eye-opening performance as a lusty nightclub singer climbing the social ladder in seedy Wanchai. Borrowing story and song elements from Georges Bizet’s CARMEN, this Wong Tin-Lam directed musical has flair and polish to rival Hollywood, and a superstar leading lady that would any film industry would have a tough time matching! A key film from the celebrated Cathay Film Studios.
My Thoughts:
In a modern adaptation of Carmen, the captivating Grace Chang stars as a nightclub singer who performs jazzy renditions of opera pieces. When Liang Hanhua begins working as a nightclub pianist, Chang’s Deng Sijia makes a “How to Win a Guy in Ten Days” bet. Hanhua falls head over heels for Sijia to the point of abandoning his mother and fiancee. Things take a turn for the worse when Sijia’s gangster ex-boyfriend starts making threats. Despite Sijia’s outward appearance as mischievous and ambitious, she’s really kindhearted. And despite Hanhua’s appearance as a nice, normal guy he proves to be a selfish jerk who has at least three women working to fix things for him and can’t get it together. The melodrama is standard but this is definitely worth watching for the extended musical numbers, all of Chang performing in a club setting.
Rating: ***
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