I'll be much more open to left-wing ideas in such a case as this, in that it involves actual ideas. They're speculating about the nature of wealth and what makes gold so special. There's some thought behind this, unlike many modern celebrity activist types. This involves serious songwriting and storytelling, not mere finger waving.
One aspect of the movie I found less than compelling was the business with the stupid bad senator played by Bat Guano, who finds himself magically "demoted" to being a Negro. The bad racist white southerner made me want to be annoyed. However, consider that this was being written in the 1940's, and Jim Crow was at his peak of power. What seems like an overly obvious sentiment to me was probably seen by some back in the day as radical race mixing and communism. That pretty well argues against my idea of it being trite. I guess I should take account in my larger critical judgments that such obvious sentiments would have been controversial in some quarters really still as late as the time of the movie version in 1968.
I'm a heterosexual Midwestern male with principal musical interests in rock and country. Therefore, I may not be considered one of the top authorities on Broadway musicals.
Within the humble limits of that note however, I'd consider this one of my top 10 traditional movie musical picks ever. Beautiful songs, and it was a beautiful swan song for Astaire, exiting with a twinkle in the eye.
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