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Exactly- it is about entertainment-the singing-the dancing-and most of all the music.

I would love to see the stage version of "Paint Your Wagon". In my opinion, the 1969 film version stinks. Anyway, that's a rabbit trail. I think the problem with modern audiences is that people have been brought up for a couple of generations now on "instant" everything so they expect their entertainment to be the same way.

You hit the nail right on the head! Too many contemporary audiences see this film and have so many complaints about it, having no idea what the musical movies of the 1930's - 1950's were all about. The title card of the film says it all: "Irving Berlin's 'There's No Business Like Show Business'." I've read complaints about Marilyn Monroe and Johnnie Ray's performances in this film and their styles fit this film perfectlyfor the time period in which this film was produced. The film starred leading mostly musical stars of the period and featured the music of Irving Berlin, all in a film about a show business family and their ups and downs over the decades, again, all centered around the music of Irving Berlin.
I recently assistant directed a community theatre production of "Paint Your Wagon," the ORIGINAL stage production, not what became the 1969 Clint Eastwood-Lee Marvin-Jean Seberg film. The original stage production was from the early 1950's when audiences expected lavish musical numbers with lots of singing AND dancing. Today's audiences don't have the patience for all of that, so we cut quite a bit of the dancing out of the showit amounted to about 50+ pages of music!
My point is that this movie exemplifies a 1950's musical filmit's overblown and contains varying degrees of acting and singing stylesPERFECT for a 1950's musical film! Sit back, relax and enjoy this slice of 1950's cinematic Americana and let your imagination wander.