Meredith Wilson's musical creation The Music Man is a rambunctious celebration of life in smalltown America - a small town which seems the natural prey for confidence tricksters such as the notorious Professor Harold Hill.
'Professor' Harold Hill's scam is to move from town to town convincing the good townspeople that the only way to save their young people from damnation (represented by pool parlours and smoking) is to start up a young people's brass band. He'd collect the deposits for the instruments, then skedaddle to the next town. Needless to say, neither he nor the instruments would be heard of again.
Things were OK till he hit the little town of River City, Iowa. There he met town librarian Marian Paroo. After that, things were never quite the same... I think you catch the drift.
Harold Hill is played by Robert Preston, who was a B-grade film actor usually playing cattle rustlers and the like, until he was miraculously plucked from celluloid obscurity to create this role on Broadway. There he played alongside the wonderful Barbara Cook as the town librarian. For the movie he gained as partner one of my all-time favourite movie musical stars, the delicious Shirley Jones (Laurey in Oklahoma and Julie in Carousel were among her other top roles).
The film romps along nicely, with lots of energy from Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Ron Howard (now a top director, then a seven-year-old kid) and Paul Ford, and there are some great songs, staged with great verve - including 76 Trombones, Ya Got Trouble (in River City) and Till There Was You.
It's always been one of my favourite musicals - but I can't recommend it unreservedly. By the time the film was made, Robert Preston looked... well, just too old and too campy to be credible as Shirley Jones' lover.
It's hard to imagine anyone else playing Harold Hill, and it's good to have Robert Preston on celluloid delivering with verve his two great numbers, Ya Got Trouble and 76 Trombones, and for me that's worth the cost of the disc. But outside of those spectacular musical moments, he lacks credibility.
I'm pleased to have this as part of my collection. But for anyone with only a passing interest in American musicals, my recommendation is just that... pass.
This is an NTSC release for Region 4, so you will have to ensure that your DVD player and television set can handle NTSC as well as PAL. Some DVD players can convert NTSC to PAL, but best results are gained from players which can output true NTSC to a dual-standard television.
It's an anamorphic transfer, but even with the extra resolution that gives, this is a disappointing transfer. The colours are bright, but just not bright enough - they shine instead of dazzle; the skies are blue verging on grey.
There is obvious edge enhancement and the film is quite grainy, with a lack of high definition. It is probably on a par with the best quality video, but we expect more from DVD.
The sound has been re-processed to Dolby 5.1, but sounds very natural with no obvious over-processing.
There's total clarity in the musical numbers, which can be pumped up hard with no distortion. The brass is shiny and highly polished; the percussion suitably crisp and punchy. This is as good as The Music Man is ever going to sound.
Well, it depends on how much you like movie musicals. I'm glad to have it in my collection, but I imagine it would be a marginal choice for most people. It's also let down by a so-so transfer - not bad enough to be bad, but not brilliant.
But I love the music and I'm a sucker for Shirley Jones. So I've got it, and here it stays.
