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 Music Man, The
(1962)
Director:
Morton DaCosta
Stars: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Paul Ford, Ron Howard, Pert Kelton
Release Company:
Warner Brothers Home Video
MPAA Rating: G
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The Music Man
Poster
Buy at AllPosters.com
 
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You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.
Fortunately, that Robert Preston line from The Music Man supplies the only blatant "message" for a musical that is quite well-staged and joyfully depicts small-town Midwestern Americana. And staged the play is, as original Broadway director Morton DaCosta transforms the Warner Brothers back lots into River City, Iowa.
The sets admirably turn Southern California into early 20th-century Iowa, and Meredith Wilson's marvelous script captures the mindsets and attitudes of stubborn, independent Iowans as well as anything written for the screen has done.
Wilson writes from personal experience: He hails from Mason City, Iowa—a place so boring that it stereotypes the entire Midwest.
It's precisely the challenge of being able to con these stiff-necked Hawkeyes that inspires Professor Harold Hill (Robert Preston) to get off the train and give Iowa a try.
Of course, strangers are regarded with suspicion, so when hill approaches the townsfolk with attempts at chit-chat, he gets the cold shoulder. When he asks one local what the townsfolk do for excitement, he is told: "Mind our own business."
This leads into another setpiece explaining the Midwestern attitude, complete with a living American Gothic reference, and we know our con man is due for his biggest challenge. We are set up for the inevitable by stories of Iowans preparing tar and feathers for unscrupulous traveling salesmen.
We're then led into the plot (as if we really care about the plot).
Keep in mind that The Music Man's simple premise only serves as a device to loosely tie the musical numbers together. The musical numbers are the only reason anyone would want to see The Music Man or its revival on Broadway.
The setpieces featuring music and dance are some of the finest you can see in the genre. The most elaborate one has nothing at all to do with the plot—the Buddy Hackett-led "Shipoopi" at the town picnic. The cast needed three weeks of rehearsals to get the choreography for songs like "Shipoopi" and "Marion the Librarian" down perfectly.
Everyone will have favorites, but I still get mesmerized with Preston's incredible performance in "Ya Got Trouble." I also love the clever choreographed responses by the townspeople, who now wonder about the telltale signs of corruption that the youth demonstrate.
After trying to sing-talk along with Preston on "Ya Got Trouble" at home, I still marvel how anyone can do this song so perfectly without slurring the words, and I defy anyone to find a flaw with Preston's lip-synching to his own recording in The Music Man.
I enjoy the "Wells Fargo Wagon" ensemble piece and like how The Buffalo Bills barbershop quartet combines with Marion (Shirley Jones) on "Lida Rose"/"Will I Ever Tell You." This is one instance in which the technique of isolating the characters—by blackening out the rest of the background—really works well. The numerous other times that DaCosta does this to denote a scene change indicates more than anything that he's a stage director who's not sure how to make effective film transitions.
Besides the excellent musical numbers, there are humorous touches supplied throughout The Music Man by a fine supporting cast. Character actor Paul Ford effectively delivers his bungling lines as mayor, never once getting through his prepared "Four score and seven years" speech.
Pert Kelton perfectly re-creates her Broadway role as the ever-watchful Irish mother, Mrs. Paroo, and Hermione Gingold remarkably portrays the Grande dame (and leader of the gossip hens) of the small town.
A favorite setpiece occurs when Gingold and a covey of feather-hatted ladies begin chatting up a storm, against the librarian and her "smutty books." The camera gets a great overhead shot of the group of ladies with their bobbing hats—and hilariously juxtaposes this with some chickens scratching for chicken feed as the ladies perform the "Pick a Little, Talk a Little" number.
Future movie director Ron Howard (8 years old at the time) delivers a memorable performance, hitting the mark well at two crucial points in the story, to support Shirley Jones in her best performance on screen.
Jones is no stranger to filmed musicals, having performed in Oklahoma and Carousel, but here she gets to play a more independent and opinionated woman before melting into putty. She can also sing her own material, and doesn't need Marni Nixon dubbing her voice.
Jones' only complication playing Marion the librarian comes from having been pregnant during the filming. They kept putting tighter and tighter corsets on her and as filming progressed, concealed her condition with added accessories. Apparently, things got a little too snug for little Patrick Cassidy during one take of the kissing scene—he gave a swift kick to Robert Preston.
Once you've seen The Music Man, you cannot imagine anyone besides Robert Preston playing the lead role. That doesn't mean that Warner Brothers didn't have their preferred candidate. They wanted Frank Sinatra for the lead, but composer Meredith Wilson told them they couldn't do it without Preston, and that was that.
The Music Man only works well because of his incomparable presence. The love scenes may fall flat, and the love songs don't seem all that sincere, but Preston carries the large production numbers remarkably well and is completely believable as the smooth-talking con artist.
I don't get in the mood for musicals very much anymore—not like my junior high school days. But sometimes I feel like watching a lighthearted and fun show, and The Music Man is one of the better films in the genre. There's a touch of nostalgia for me, since I grew up fairly close to the actual setting, and played in the school band all the way through high school. The Music Man's characters remind me of that good old down-home attitude of the Midwest, where people "remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock, and the Golden Rule." |
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