Anatomy of a Flop: "Camelot" (1967)

The movie musical Camelot (1967) doesn't rate as one of the all-time movie musical bombs of the late 1960s that nearly wiped out Gollywood, but it was a disappointment. It's co-stars, Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave, were hardly singers (though Harris would score a #2 hit with MacArthur Park the following year).

The stars of the original Broadway musical might have salvaged the film, but Richard Burton was offered a fortune by Warner Bros. to recreate the role of King Arthur but didn't think the musical could make a successful transition to screen. Burton's Guinevere, Julie Andrew, then the #1 box office star in America after the great success of The Sound of Music, turned Jack Warner down. Warner had earlier given her a thumbs down, casting Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady instead.

Here's a detailed look at the failure of the show that had been so memorable on Broadway: "Broadway's Camelot Proved a Disappointment when Transferred to Celluoid."

Sources:

The Cobra's nose, The Lusty Month of May-O

8 Movie Stars Who Starred in a Movie Musical (and Shouldn't Have)

Fred Astaire, the greatest song and dance man Hollywood ever produced, only got one Oscar nomination in his great career, and that for a dramatic role in the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences gave him an honorary Academy Award in 1950 to recognize his unique artistry, but where was the recognition when this all-time great was at the height of his powers?

A related question is what possesses an "A-List" actor, be he the winner of Academy Awards or ranked among the top ten box office stars (or both), want to make like Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly and trip the light fantastic on screen while warbling tunes with a voice that should never have been heard outside their shower stall?

James Cagney, the great cinema tough guy, turned the trick, winning an Oscar playing song man George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy, but Jimmy had been a hoofer in stage musicals before making it on the silver screen. His song and dance turn in the "Shanghai Lil" number in Footlight Parade (1933) was the highlight of one of the more memorable of the early musicals.

Here is a list of 8 A-List Actors Who Should Have Never Starred in a Movie Musical (Even Though They Did). They include Lee Marvin, better known for such action pics as The Dirty Dozen, and cinema cowboy Clint Eastwood, both of whom starred in the monumental flop Paint Your Wagon. Marvin incredibly scored a Top 10 single with his crooning of "Wand'rin' Star" and a Golden Globe nomination!

Paint Your Wagon was one of a parade of big musical flops of the late 1960s that nearly did in the Hollywood studios.