A vibrant saga of riverboat lives and loves, Show Boat (1951) has glorious stars in Technicolor radiance and timeless Jerome Kern songs like Ol' Man River, this Oscar nominee's delights just keep rollin along. Madcap Betty Hutton is Annie Oakley and Howard Keel her beau Frank in the sharpshooting funfest Annie Get Your Gun (a 1951 Oscar winner for adaptation scoring, based on the Broadway smash by Irving Berlin). Backwoods boys raid the local town for wives in the exuberant Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1951) and do they ever kick up their heels and dance in this Oscar winner for best scoring! Life imitates art when squabbling exes are cast as a sparring couple in Kiss Me Kate (1963), this musical version of The Taming of the Shrew boasts no fewer than 14 superlative songs by Cole Porter.

• Show Boat


• Annie Get Your Gun


• Kiss Me Kate


• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers