The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are usually used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but some musical films (i.e.Down Argentine Way) simply plop the songs in as unrelated "specialties" - as with Carmen Miranda's numbers. A subgenre of the musical film is the musical comedy, which includes a strong element of humour as well as the usual music, dancing and storyline.

The musical film was a natural development of the stage musical. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery which would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if there is a live audience watching.

In a sense, the viewer becomes the deictic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. The 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s are considered to be the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its height in the Western world.

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