Let’s get it straight: I hate most musicals after 1950. They’re disgusting and horrid, and have ruined music and good taste overall. Enough said. However, I guess there are a few exceptions. I can enjoy “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (Jim Sharman, USA, 1975) without any problems at all. “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (Mel Stuart, USA, 1971) is a great one too, as is its direct spawn: Tim Burton (and his musical partner in crime: Danny Elfman). Random bits and pieces from basically any Bollywood film can also be fun, because of the pleasant and colorful exotic hysteria, and (perhaps) assuming some kind of Busby Berkeley legacy. And then there’s also the truly odd one out: “Bugsy Malone” (Alan Parker, UK/US, 1976) But… so few films in basically 70 years of moviemaking… those are abysmal numbers. I recently re-watched “Bugsy Malone.” This weird musical with a cast of kids only was a film I watched four times in the cinema when it came out, and I was only ten or eleven...

Carny (Robert Kaylor, USA, 1980) While hunting for Elisha Cook, Jr-films, I came across “Carny” from 1980. Directed by Robert Kaylor, this film is a wonderful little gem about a carnival and some of its main people. The story is all gritty carnival flesh and blood, and its carny code of honor stands as proud as it did already in Tod Browning’s “Freaks” from 1932. Frankie (Gary Busey) and Patch (Robbie Robertson) share a trailer, life, and girls on the road. Frankie’s job is being “Bozo” – the encaged clown that falls into a tub of water if you hit a certain target with a baseball. As that seems hard for the drunken visitors, Frankie valiantly eggs them on by insults galore. Jack of all trades Patch is destined to take over the carnival one day, and goes from stall to stall, attraction to attraction, collecting all the “rubes” money, and paying off local poobahs and crooks. There are swirling merry-go-rounds, lotteries, a freak show, a girly tent, and more. In many a muddy field in...