Over the years, there have been many books written about the American film musical, ranging from the superficial to the academically analytical. Few have the sheer readability – and concentrated insight – of Dangerous Rhythm, an enjoyable (and highly informative) volume. Subtitled ‘Why Movie Musicals Matter’, the book ranges from the earliest days of the musical up to such latter-day manifestations as the television series Glee, Barrios rescues an often-despised form from the low esteem in which some critics hold it and makes the case that the musical genre itself is often as worthy of serious critical attention as the genre from which it grew, opera. But this is no po-faced analysis; rather it is a celebration as much as it is a treatise. And like all the best books on film and theatre, it will send the reader out with a keen desire to experience this material afresh – ironically, even in the case of films which inspires little enthusiasm in the writer, such as Otto Preminger’s now-unseeable film of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, left in limbo after a dispute with the Gershwin estate. Dangerous Rhythm is published by Oxford University Press
