“You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.”
Robert Preston
Fortunately, that one 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 transform southern California into early twentieth 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. Wilson writes from personal experience since 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 Hill gets the cold shoulder when he approaches the townsfolk with attempts at chitchat. When he asks one local what they do for excitement, he is told that they “mind our own business.” This leads into another set piece that explains the Midwestern attitude, complete with a living American Gothic reference, and we know our con man is due for his biggest challenge. Stories of Iowans preparing tar and feathers for unscrupulous travelling salesmen sets us up for the inevitable.
That leads into the plot, as if we really care about the plot.
Keep in mind that The Music Man’s simple plot only serves as a device to loosely tie the musical numbers together, which is the only reason that anyone would want to see this film or see the revival on Broadway, for that matter. The musical and dancing set pieces are some of the finest you can see in the genre. The most elaborate one has absolutely nothing to do with the plot at all -– the Buddy Hackett led “Shipoopi” at the town picnic. Songs like this and “Marion the Librarian” used three weeks of rehearsals to get the choreography down perfectly.
Everyone will have favorites, but I still get mesmerized with Preston’s incredible performance in “Ya Got Trouble” along with the clever choreographed responses by the townspeople who now wonder about the telltale signs of corruption that your youth demonstrate. After trying to sing-talk along with Preston on this song 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 film.
I also enjoy the “Wells Fargo Wagon” ensemble piece and like how The Buffalo Bills barbershop quartet combine with Marion (Shirley Jones) on “Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You.” This is one instance where 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 that he’s a stage theater director who’s not sure how to make effective film transitions more than anything.
Besides the excellent musical numbers, there are humorous touches supplied throughout the film 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 recreates her Broadway role as the ever watchful Irish mother, Mrs. Paroo; and Hermione Gingold remarkably portrays the Grande dame of the small town and leader of the gossip hens. One of my favorite moments of the film 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 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 being pregnant during the filming. They kept putting tighter and tighter corsets on her and concealed her condition with added accessories as the film progressed. Apparently things got a little too snug for little Patrick Cassidy during one take of the kissing scene, as he gave a swift kick to Robert Preston.
Once you’ve seen The Music Man, you can not 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 that they couldn’t do the film without Robert Preston and that was that. This movie 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 a great deal anymore – not like my junior high school days. But sometimes I feel like watching a lighthearted and fun musical, and The Music Man is one of the better films in the genre. Perhaps 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. Besides that the people remind me of that good old down home Midwestern attitude where people “remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock, and the Golden Rule.”
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.