Music Man, The (DVD) (Rpkg)

An amazing thing happened when I first saw The Music Man in its first run in the summer of '62. I won't be giving away any plot points to say that the end credits are handled by showing the actors alone or in groups, in costume, above or below their names. Instead of just sitting there, the audience responded as if they were at a live stage version when the various actors come out at the end, wildly applauding each group until they were cheering for Shirley Jones and Robert Preston. That's the kind of enthusiastic response this movie usually creates in people. The Music Man is one of the very best film versions of a stage musical, in this case, opened up in a (seemingly) real town, an improvement over any stage version I've ever seen. The look of the sets is perfect for Meredith Willson's fond recollection of his boyhood in Mason City, Iowa. The score he wrote for it is one of the most accomplished, loved and well-known. The acting from everyone involved is really good, though being a musical you must consider that some of the comic characters are played over-the-top. This is 10/10, five stars, thumbs up all around. Enjoy it! THE ACTUAL MASON CITY BOYS" BAND OF 1912_PICTURE BELOW. While hunting around the internet I found this picture of the real Mason City Boys' Band. They seem to be from an orphans' home and sponsored by the International Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal order like the Elks or Shriners. In their uniforms they would fit right in the movie. Just thought some people would like seeing them. EXTRA NOTE-SOME SPOILERS! The one controversial note that has plagued The Music Man from its very beginning has been about the character of Harold Hill. He is, after all, a con man. But consider a few things before you rush to judgement. The story requires some kind of tension. If a nice guy goes to a nice town and meets a nice girl...well, that's all fine in real life but it doesn't do much for a theatrical presentation. So he can't be a totally nice guy. Also, deep down, the story is about the redemptive power of love. Thus he has to need some redemption. At the same time, we're supposed to like this con man. As con men go, he's not really a bad one, in fact, as cons go his is pretty inept. He comes to town, sells everybody on the boys'band and then collects for uniforms and expensive instruments. Now here's where a true con man skips town. But no, the instruments and uniforms are delivered. The only real con is that he can teach music; there he is at fault, but at least he attended the band's "Think Method" practices. He didn't run away with everyone's hard earned money, so you can't really hate him.

There aren't many DVDs that I want to own, i.e., not many movies I'd care to watch more than once, but this is definitely one of them. I first saw this wonderful Meredith Willson musical as a child, and have loved it ever since. It's one of America's answers to a Puccini opera (which I also find sublime). (Another might be "Guys and Dolls".) The DVD has a lovely extra, about the making of the musical, hosted by Shirley Jones (who, one learns, was pregnant during the filming of the movie). One disappointment is that they morphed my favorite song from the Broadway show - the great "My White Knight" - into the mediocre "Being In Love." I have no idea why they did that, other than possibly they felt it fit better with the dialog, though if the latter played on Broadway for 1375 performances, I don't know why they couldn't have fit it into the movie. I can't imagine that it was out of Shirley Jones' range. (And, I doubt there was any racial political correctness involved, back in 1962.) Just a bad choice, I guess. Also somewhat disappointing is that the movie version of my other favorite song from this show - "Till There Was You" (covered famously by the Beatles) - is inferior to the Broadway version, which has it as a lovely duet with Robert Preston, while the movie has Shirley Jones singing it alone. On the plus side, the Barbershop quartet songs, and especially the Buffalo Bills' duet with Shirley Jones ("Lida Rose" and "Will I Ever Tell You?"), are top notch. I LOVE it when two melodies are woven together richly and seamlessly (another prime example being "Moonglow" and "Theme from Picnic"), and Willson does it in this musical several times. It's a subtle but genuine tour de force. A bit of trivia: one of my favorite bands from the late 1960s, Spanky and Our Gang, recorded their own, delightful version of "Ya Got Trouble". So, between them and The Beatles, you know that Meredith Willson came up with some memorable tunes and lyrics here. I can't end this review without also mentioning the stellar performance by Pert Kelton in the role of the widow Paroo. Her acting, voice, and intonations are perfect, which makes it understandable why she played the role both on stage and in the film. The way she sighs and looks off into the distance after one of her encounters with the spell-binding Professor Harold Hill is unforgettable. If you're a music-lover, you can't regret owning this DVD. But for the CD, don't buy the movie soundtrack, but get the Broadway version. It also stars the incomparable Robert Preston, but features a flawless performance by Barbara Cook, singing the role of Marian (Madam Librarian) Paroo.

The previous DVD releases of The Music Man were basically OK in terms of sound, color, brightness, and contrast. But MY! Did they ever mess up the picture with edge enhancement! I don't mean just a little ghost line to the right, but also to the left. At times, the "enhancement" made it difficult to make out facial details on a large-screen TV. My guess is that it was transferred using a 19" monitor from a distance of a couple of feet, where the enhancement wouldn't be as noticeable. Fortunately all this video gunk is corrected in the Blu-Ray edition. The colors are bright, the sound noticeably better, and the movie just comes more alive in blu-ray. But - there always seems to be a flip side. In this case it's noticeable in the opening train scene, where blue matte artifacts around people, and slightly off masking at the windows clearly shows that it was shot against a blue screen. But, what you see is what people saw in the theaters when it was released. If the artifacts didn't bother moviegoers at the time, they shouldn't really bother us in the present. Little glitches like this are just part of the technology available at the time, and shouldn't be used to rate the movie... ...and I'm really not, just pointing out that seeing more can mean seeing more of the bad, as well as more than the good. Aside from little things like this which caught my eye - and don't really bother me - I hope you'll consider picking up the best release of an old favorite. Improved sound, improved picture - what more could you want. I doubt it'll look better unless George Lucas gets involved in cleaning up the blue-screen artifacts. And who knows what he'd feel like adding! Fun. A couple of hours well spent. And for me, a new appreciation of Hermione Gingold as Ms. Eulalie Shinn. Her looks and voice in "Pick a little" really steal the show, as she does in other scenes she's in. It's hard not to enjoy such a high-spirited musical as this, end even harder not to like it in Blu-Ray. A real gem.

Excellent price for this movie classic

Spectacular classic! This is a fantastic family movie, filled with laughter, catchy songs, and comedic phrases. The plot in this movie great as well.

One of the last big musicals to go from Broadway stage to Hollywood screen, the Music Man is a tale of a small Iowa town, ca 1912, that gets taken in by a fast talking Band instrument salesman. Robert Preston encores his role from Broadway as Prof. Hill, Shirley Jones plays Marion the Librarian. Great music with some terrific ensemble numbers such as "Iowa Stubborn", "Pick a Little Talk a Little", "Wells Fargo Wagon" and of course, "76 Trombones" make for a joyful musical experience. The story is a little contrived but so what. You'll enjoy suspending your jaded 21st Century sensibilities as you fall in to this tale of a small time sales-hustler at loose in an Iowa Stubborn small town. It's still a fun tale full of swagger and exaggerated Midwestern small town values as imagined by Meredith Wilson's romantic pen. And of course there are the great barbershop quartet numbers sung by the Buffalo Bills that fit seamlessly in this lively production. Pop this disc in your player and you'll be humming the songs for days."Marion the Librarian", "The Sadder but Wiser Gal", "Lida Rose", a very young Ron Howard singing "Gary, Indiana", "Goodnight my Someone", "Ya Got Trouble" (with a capitol T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool!"), "Shipoopi" (the girl that's hard to get),. You couldn't ask for a better show full of lively tunes, silly characters, falling in love plot line, everything you ever wanted in a musical. Once you watch this one you'll leave your living room smiling and singing.

I love this movie. As silly as it is -- a goofy plot, absurd over-the-top characters, the wacky "think system" -- it is just a whole lot of fun. Robert Preston sparkles as the fly-by-night con artist/salesman who just happens this time to get his foot caught in the door, and who better to catch that foot than Shirley Jones, who is as beautiful and talented a leading lady as has ever graced a big screen musical. Ron Howard is as funny as a kid can be in the movies, and the music will stay with you long after the movie is over. The film also has a great cast of supporting character actors and comedians, not to mention the fabulous Buffalo Bills. I love the anvil salesman character (THAT'S a great line of merchandise for a traveling salesman!), and my favorite song has to be the pool hall song, "There's trouble in River City." The movie, funny as it is, also has its touching moments, especially when Professor Harold Hill, standing on the footbridge, confronts the gap between his dreams and his life for the first time, and really realizes he is in love with the beautiful librarian. For pure fun and entertainment, it's hard to find a better movie than this lively but affectionate kidding of the Hawkeye State, and hard to find a more fun couple than the engaging Robert Preston and the lovely Shirley Jones.

Sing along night!

A wonderful movie, one of the best from the last days of the great movie musicals. It is a pleasure to have this now on Blue-Ray, with much improved sound and better video than my old VHS tape (almost worn out by now). Thanks to the producers for making it available in this format. If you don't know the story of this show, here is a brief resumé: A slick travelling salesman descends upon a small town in Iowa in the early 1900s, selling a line of band instruments and uniforms. His method is simple: create fear among the townsfolk that their youngsters are headed for perdition, and can only be saved from the pool-hall by getting them involved in a 'boys band' in the town. The complication arises when he learns there is a REAL music teacher in the town--who is also the local librarian--and, in classic style, he falls in love with her, and she with him. The plot is simple and even hackneyed--it is the wonderful songs and beautifully-staged dance numbers which make this show the great film that it is. Shirley Jones (yes, THAT Shirley Jones, unfairly typecast later in her career as the mother in moronic television series, 'The Partridge Family') has one of the loveliest and purest Broadway ingenue soprano voices you will ever hear, and is as pretty as the proverbial picture. The brainless and talentless sexpot 'stars' of today could take a lesson from her, if only they would. Robert Preston has that 'edge' so necessary to performing this extremely difficult rôle (it is murderously hard; I know from having tried it myself in a college production), and if his voice is not that of a great lyric tenor, it matters not--much as nobody cared when watching 'My Fair Lady' that Rex Harrison was not a singer either. He nails the part perfectly--I simply cannot imagine anyone else playing Professor Harold Hill. Much as I like Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenowith (his 'The Producers' and her 'Candide' are the ultimate productions of those shows), the 2003 remake of this film just isn't 'The Real Thing.' Hermione Gingold and Paul Ford (as the mayor's wife and the mayor himself) are perfect, and The Buffalo Bills (the pre-eminent American Barbershop Quartet of that era) bring life and laughs to the film as the members of the School Board. The weak link in the cast would have to be Buddy Hackett--I never did like the man's 'schtick' so take that as you wish--but even he does a creditable job as the saleman's sidekick and lookout man. A very young Ronnie Howard (he of Mayberry RFD and American Graffiti) plays the librarian's young, troubled brother, and shows the skill and professionalism that would carry him on to a notable career in film. If you love great musical comedy, you must see this film. Buy it: it's a keeper that will please you for years and years to come.

Musicals kann ich nur in ihrer Orginalsprache anschauen, dies hat hiermit wunderbar funktioniert. Hat ein wenig gedauert, bis die DVD aus den USA angereist ist, hat sich aber voll gelohnt! War ein tolles Erlebnis, diesen Film von dem ich schon so vieles gehört habe in seiner ganzen Glorie zu sehen.

c'est vraiment le produit qu'e j'attendais.parfais.

Me llegó muy rápido y en perfectas condiciones Magnifica Pelicula

Un bon moment !