I'll Do Anything (1994)

Infamous as the musical that was shorn of its songs when test audiences rebelled, I'll Do Anything now stands as a flat-footed gelding. Nick Nolte plays Matt Hobbs, aging but still idealistic Hollywood actor and dad to spoiled Jeannie (Whittni Wright). Albert Brooks and Julie Kavner provide comic relief as a Joel Silver-type producer and the woman who loves him. People sing in musicals to express hopes and fears, and without songs these characters seem more repressed than ever. Would it have been a more honorable failure with musical numbers and scruples intact? I suspect so, but we'll have to wait for a director's-cut laserdisc to find out. C