The Music Man [Blu-ray]

Director: Morton DaCosta Morton DaCosta

Overview

Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money from them by ordering instruments and uniforms, with the promise that he'll teach the kids how to be musicians. Once he's collected his bankroll, Hill skips town, leaving the kids in the lurch. Looking for new suckers in Iowa, Hill arrives in River City, where he declares that the only way to save the youth of River City from the lure of the poolroom is to organize a boy's band. He charms the mayor's wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) into forming a "ladies' dance committee" and sets his sights on winning over local music teacher Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones). Marian rightly considers Hill a fraud, especially when he espouses the "Think System" of learning music: if you think a tune, he claims, you can play it. But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but unreliable Hill ultimately brings her out of her own shell as well. Marion Hargrove's script uses most of the original play, with a handful of amusing expansions, especially in the roles played by Gingold and by Buddy Hackett as Hill's comic sidekick.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/02/2010
UPC:	0883929095810
Original Release:	1962
Rating:	G
Source:	Warner Home Video
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:31:00
Sales rank:	13,320

Special Features

Featurette; Right here in River City: the making of; Meredith Wilson's the Music Man; Introduction by Shirley Jones; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Preston	Prof. Harold Hill
Shirley Jones	Marian Paroo
Paul Ford	Mayor Shinn
Buddy Hackett	Marcellus Washburn
Hermione Gingold	Eulalie Shinn
Pert Kelton	Mrs. Paroo
Timmy Everett	Tommy
Susan Luckey	Zaneeta Shinn
Ronny Howard	Winthrop Paroo,Oscar Jackson
Harry Hickox	Charlie Cowell
Ewart Dunlop	The Buffalo Bill
Oliver Hix	The Buffalo Bill
Jacey Squires	The Buffalo Bill
Olin Britt	The Buffalo Bill
Charles Lane	Constable Locke
Mary Wickes	Mrs. Squires
Monique Vermont	Amaryllis
Ronnie Dapo	Norbert Smith
Jesslyn Fax	Avis Grubb
Patty Lee Hilka	Gracie Shinn
Garry Potter	Dewey
Delos Jewkes	Harley MacCauley
Ray Kellogg	Harry Joseph
William Fawcett	Lester Lonnergan
Roy Dean	Gilbert Hawthorne
David Swain	Chet Glanville
Arthur Mills	Herbert Malthouse
Rand Barker	Duncan Shyball
Jeannine Burnier	Jessie Shyball
Shirley Claire	Amy Dakin
Natalie Core	Truthful Smith
Therese Lyon	Dolly Higgins
Penelope Martin	Lila O'Brink
Barbara Pepper	Feril Hawkes
Anne Loos	Stella Jackson
Peggy Wynne	Ada Nutting
Hank Worden	Undertaker
Milton Parsons	Farmer
Natalie Masters	Farmer's Wife
Percy Helton	Conductor
The Buffalo Bills	Jacey Squires; Olin Britt; Ewart Dunlo
Peggy Mondo	Actor
Max Showalter	Actor
Ray Heindorf	Composer

Technical Credits

Marion Hargrove

Morton DaCosta	Director
Morton Da Costa	Producer
Marion Hargrove	Screenwriter
George Groves	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Meredith Wilson’s 1957 Broadway smash The Music Man was a big, brass-band valentine to small-town America at the turn of the 20th century. And the film, which followed five years later, is among the most exuberant, old-fashioned delights from the waning days of the Hollywood musical’s golden age. Robert Preston conducts himself splendidly as Prof. Harold Hill, a traveling salesman with a scheme to form a boys' marching band and sell River City yokels the uniforms and gear. Alas, the town’s lovely librarian, Marian (Shirley Jones), smells a rat; and Hill’s efforts to charm her by drawing her awkward little brother (Ron Howard) out of his shell lead to the ersatz professor’s unlikely delivery from the dark side. The film’s impeccable cast includes Paul Ford as River City's confounded mayor, Hermione Gingold as his "Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little" biddy of a wife, and Buddy Hackett as Hill's former partner in crime. "76 Trombones" leads the big parade of showstoppers, including "Till There Was You," "Marian the Librarian," “Gary, Indiana," and "Trouble." Speaking of trouble right here in River City, the revealing making-of documentary included on the Special Edition DVD notes that Jones was pregnant during most of the production, necessitating various shoot-arounds. Another fun fact from the 30-minute documentary: The studio wanted Frank Sinatra for the title role, but the musical's composer, Meredith Wilson, insisted that without Preston, who made the role his own on Broadway, there would be no movie. Like the wish-fulfilling contents of "The Wells Fargo Wagon," The Music Man remains something very, very special.

Barnes & Noble - Donald Liebenson

The Music Man is among the best movie musicals, transforming Meredith Willson's Broadway hit into an energetic slice of Americana. Robert Preston's virtuoso portrayal of con man Harold Hill transfers from the stage (despite the studios' nervousness about casting no-name Preston), and the result is one of the most explosively vital performances in any movie musical. Until the very end, Preston never sugar-coats or softens Hill's rapacious self-seeking, nor does Shirley Jones downplay the stubborn snobbishness of his love interest, Marian Paroo. The portrayal of the River City townfolk is memorably caustic: "You can have your fill of the all the food you bring yourself!" runs only one of the snide remarks in their introductory song, which offers, "Glad to have you with us -- even though we may not ever mention it again." The film's embrace of small-town American life is not confined to its sentimental, sickly-sweet aspects (the movie's hero, after all, is a con man, whom Preston's vigorously charming performance dares us to like), and this dimensionality makes the movie as distinctive dramatically as it is musically. Preston carries the movie, but he receives memorable support from Jones, Ron Howard as her brother Winthrop, Buddy Hackett as his sidekick, and such stalwarts as Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold, and Pert Kelton among the River City townspeople. The underrated score includes "Till There Was You," later covered by The Beatles and often mistaken for one of their songs. Made at the acme (yet last gasp) of the blockbuster movie musical in the first half of the 1960s, The Music Man can hold its own among such better-known contemporaries as West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965).

All Movie Guide - Leo Charney