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Posted: |
May 16, 2008 - 12:02 PM
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By: |
Ron Pulliam
(Member)
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This Warner Brothers 1962 musical film is one of the great pleasures I've experienced in my lifetime.
The Meredith Willson score is a major delight, and there are many lines that are memorable, repeatable and downright unforgettable.
"We can be cold as the falling thermometer in December if you ask about our weather in July.
And we're so 'By, God!' stubborn we can stand touching noses for a week at a time and never see eye-to-eye!"
Robert Preston has never been better and rarely has any male musical performance been as captivating as his definitive Harold Hill (and if you've seen any other Harold Hills, you'll probably be guilty of comparing them unfavorably to Preston, though none have been more egregious, IMO, than the TV version with Matthew Broderick).
"SHIPOOPI!"
There is so much joy in this film from an amazing cast, not the least of which are Paul Ford as Mayor Shinn and Hermione Gingold "One Grecian urn!" as his wife, Eulalie MacKechnie Shinn.
"BAL-ZAC!"
The Buffalo Bills as the city council are a wonderful touch and their wonderful harmonizing add to the small town turn-of-the-century charm that this story has in spades.
"How can there be any sin in sin-cere?
Where is the good in good-bye....?"
There's truly nothing like a charming huckster swooping into a town and gulling the locals with promises he cannot/doesn't intend to keep.
"With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for POOL!"
In this movie musical, Harold Hill gulls an entire town (save the librarian) into believing they need a boy's band.
He only finds it necessary to convince the town librarian to warm up to him, and he's home free.
"What can I say, my dear, to catch your ear? I love you madly, madly Madam Librarian! MARIAN!"
And while we fans of the Broadway show don't get the incredible Barbara Cook as the feisty, beautiful town librarian the other women HATE ("...just melt her down and you'll reveal a lump of lead as cold as steel. Here! Where a woman's heart should be!"), Shirley Jones is more than "up to the task" as the beneficiary of the wealthiest man in town's will ("He left River City the library building, but he left all the books to HER! Chaucer! Rabelais! BAL-zac!"). Fortunately for us, she finds the good in Hill and he becomes undone, himself, because of her faith/love for him.
Together, Preston and Jones are magic. Ronny (Ron) Howard is a tremendously appealing "Win-throp", as is Pert Kelton as Jones' ma!
"There was love all around but I never heard it singing. No, I never heard it all, 'Till There Was You'"!
The film is a joy from beginning to end for me.
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As Mr. Pulliam knows, this is one of my favorite films of all time and we talk about it endlessly on my website.
The film (and stage play) has more great quotable dialogue than almost any film ever made (right up there with Casablanca, IMO). Morton da Costa, the original director of the stage version, does a perfect, exemplary job of transferring the show to the screen. In fact, it's one of the best stage to film transfers ever done, and certainly one of the most accurate. The one big change in the film is the new song Being In Love, which replaces the much inferior My White Knight from the stage show - Being In Love is much more tuneful and right - and, of course, the rumors have always been that Mr. Willson had "help" on My White Knight from Frank Loesser - he didn't need Mr. Loesser's help, frankly.
The performances are perfection right down to the townspeople. Mr. Preston is brilliant, recreating the role he played on Broadway, but making it seem like he'd never played it before. Miss Hermione Gingold gives one of the funniest performances ever put on film, and she is matched beat for beat by Mr. Paul Ford as her husband. Ronny Howard is adorable, no one will ever do Mrs. Paroo like Pert Kelton, and Shirley Jones is a delectable Marian the Librarian.
The songs are pure heaven, and the scoring of them for the film beat the Broadway orchestrations - Mr. Heindorf's musical direction is sublime, and oh that Warner Bros. sound.
I must have seen this film about fifteen times in two weeks at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood (now the El Capitan), where it looked and sounded (in stereo) great. When I was fourteen I took an acting class and in my class was Monique Vermont, the gal who played Amaryllis - we became fast friends and I talked to her quite often back then.
I posed the question on my site as to where the HELL was she, and, as these things sometimes go, some completely random person was lurking, read my query, wrote me an e-mail saying he was in touch with her, and the next thing I know she calls me. She's teaching acting and dance to young kids now.
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Ya wild kid, ya.
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I, too, love this musical. It was a regular event in my family to watch THE MUSIC MAN every time it appeared on television, so I've seen it dozens of times. Two or three years ago, it occurred to me that the main character, Harold Hill, is really nothing but a con man. He's charming and funny, sure, but still a liar and a crook. Why did I like him so much? I decided to view the film again to try to find out. The answer was in the scene where Harold has been found out and is confronted by an angry, betrayed and disillusioned young Winthrop. Harold promises to tell the boy the absolute truth, and admits to being a liar and a crook without a moment's hesitation or any sign of regret. But when Harold casually mentions the band and Winthrop angrily says "What band?", Harold lowers his head in shame and finally reveals the truth about himself: "I always think there's a band, kid." Harold is so good at conning others because he's wasted his entire life conning himself. It's a heartbreaking moment, but one I'd only recognized subconsciously before this. What a character, what a story!
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This is the only film my 3 year old daughter wants to watch now. She started with Sound of Music, went through My Fair Lady, Singin' in the Rain and Mary Poppins, but Music Man is what she returns to again and again, ever since she got it for Christmas. There's just something about it.
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It's a marvelous movie, the likes of which will never be made again. Ronnie Howard singing "Gary, Indiana" was pretty cute in his rendering. Hell, I was his age in '62.
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Posted: |
May 16, 2008 - 3:55 PM
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By: |
Ron Pulliam
(Member)
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This was and is prime stuff and Warner Brothers' resident musical genius, Ray Heindorf, could not possibly have done a better job on the score.
The WB recording of the soundtrack was quite extraordinary, I've always thought, because it gets so much of the music onto the recording. With the advent of CD, we've still only gotten the LP presentation, great as it is.
I have a very soft spot in my heart, however, for the extended "Marian the Librarian" number and there are several other music cues, as well, that could be used to create an expanded edition should anyone be fortunate enough to get WB's permission to do it on a limited basis. 
I'd truly love an extended "Hello, Dolly", as well, and let's not forget a complete, everything-recorded "South Pacific"! 
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Posted: |
May 16, 2008 - 4:03 PM
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By: |
Ron Pulliam
(Member)
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It's a marvelous movie, the likes of which will never be made again. Ronnie Howard singing "Gary, Indiana" was pretty cute in his rendering. Hell, I was his age in '62.
I was a smidge older (LOL) and spending a week in Asheville NC with my Aunt Belle and Uncle George. One day, my aunt informed me we were going to town for a surprise. We walked down the road from her home in Biltmore NC (it was a small house in one of the older neighborhoods in Biltmore -- #26 First Street, actually) and got on a bus. First, we stopped off to see my uncle who worked at Bright's Jewelers (anyone here from the Asheville area? I seem to be having a stream-of-consciousness "remembering" moment) and then she took me to the largest theater in downtown Asheville (I believe it was The State) where the theater had pulled out all the stops in ordering banners and bunting and posters, etc., for "The Music Man." It was the first day and we joined a long line. The theater was packed (it was a weekday in July 1962) and I was totally oblivious as to what I was about to see. I knew I loved musicals, but didn't know a thing about this one.
Wowzah! I was transported. What a great film. I was amazed and enraptured. The very first thing I did on Monday following my return home on Sunday was to walk to my favorite record shop and buy the soundtrack ($3.79, monaural LP). That LP, which I still own and is still in awesome shape, was played hundreds of times. I've long since added a stereo LP to the collection as well as the CD.
I saw the movie again when it played in Greenville. I also saw, that summer, "Gypsy" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane". It was one HELL of a summer. Just after school started (I was in ninth grade), I saw "To Kill A Mockingbird", another seminal film for me.
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Talking Heindorf here, his work on , ahem, my favorite musical DAMN YANKEES is just as great.
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I love this film as well. I have got to pick up the DVD soon since I still haven't yet seen it in its proper aspect ratio!
In high school I had the pleasure of playing tuba for our production of it. It was one of my better experiences in the pit band.
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It's a marvelous movie, the likes of which will never be made again. Ronnie Howard singing "Gary, Indiana" was pretty cute in his rendering. Hell, I was his age in '62.
I was a smidge older (LOL) and spending a week in Asheville NC with my Aunt Belle and Uncle George. One day, my aunt informed me we were going to town for a surprise. We walked down the road from her home in Biltmore NC (it was a small house in one of the older neighborhoods in Biltmore -- #26 First Street, actually) and got on a bus. First, we stopped off to see my uncle who worked at Bright's Jewelers (anyone here from the Asheville area? I seem to be having a stream-of-consciousness "remembering" moment) and then she took me to the largest theater in downtown Asheville (the name of which escapes me) where the theater had pulled out all the stops in ordering banners and bunting and posters, etc., for "The Music Man." It was the first day and we joined a long line. The theater was packed (it was a weekday in July 1962) and I was totally oblivious as to what I was about to see. I knew I loved musicals, but didn't know a thing about this one.
Wowzah! I was transported. What a great film. I was amazed and enraptured. The very first thing I did on Monday following my return home on Sunday was to walk to my favorite record shop and buy the soundtrack ($3.79, monaural LP). That LP, which I still own and is still in awesome shape, was played hundreds of times. I've long since added a stereo LP to the collection as well as the CD.
I saw the movie again when it played in Greenville. I also saw, that summer, "Gypsy" and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane". It was one HELL of a summer. Just after school started (I was in ninth grade), I saw "To Kill A Mockingbird", another seminal film for me).
What great memories. At about the same time, I remember sitting in the rear of my parent's 1957 Ford two toned station wagon watchng all the trailers for MUSIC MAN at the Buckner Blvd. Drive -In (we did go see it in downtown Dallas- the Tower theater, I want to say?)
My folks later went to see BABY JANE themselves and left my dad's parents to take care of me and my sister. Oh well, just had to wait a few years.
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