'The Color Purple': magnificent songs, great visual disappointment. Can a musical not be a good musical film despite the excellence of its music? Yes.

The Color Purple, in the film version of Blitz Bazawule, is the latest example. There are good numbers, always enhanced by the score and saved by its performers. But there is rarely a dynamic sense of space, harmony and expressive unity in theFilm. The final number, with the final bad taste in the mouth, of an overwhelming statism.