# Music Man, The (1962)

### reviewed by
Brian Koller

    The Music Man (1962)

    Grade: 64

"The Music Man" is a spectacular, big budget production of the hit Broadway musical, with Robert Preston reprising the lead role. The film was also a great commercial success. Seen today, "The Music Man" remains entertaining, with good choreography, sets, and costumes, and a fine performance by Preston.

The story has travelling salesman 'Professor' Hill (Preston) arriving in a small town in Iowa in 1912. Hill, who is a fast-talking con artist, quickly sells the town on the idea of a children's marching band, complete with instruments, costumes and training, all of which is to be supplied by Hill. The garrulous mayor (Paul Ford) and the spinster librarian/piano teacher Marion Paroo (Shirley Jones) suspect Hill, but are unable to pin him down. Hill's assistant is local resident Washburn (Buddy Hackett), while Paroo's much younger brother is withdrawn, lisping Winthrop (Ron Howard).

"The Music Man" is 151 minutes long, and its length shows. Some of the lesser musical numbers, such as "Shipoopi", could have been removed. Preston's gutteral growls are more appealing than Jones' sub-soprano warbling, and the ensemble-sung numbers are predictably flat. Still, Preston is a dynamic entertainer, and everything comes together for "Marian The Librarian" and the opening number syncopated with the train's rhythm on the rails.

The problems with musicals are that the songs tend to reduce the dramatic tension, distract from the storyline, and force a simplification to the characters and plot to make room for the production numbers. Of course, there have been great musicals, in which the songs add to the characters and story, and the script is more than a loose means of tying the different songs together. "The Music Man" falls in between; "Sadder But Wiser Girl For Me" is forced into the story, while "76 Trombones" extends it. "Goodnight, My Someone" is a snoozer, but "Gary, Indiana" is a charmer.

Preston's Hill is an excellent, fully developed character. The town council, formed into a barber shop quartet by Hill, works well. Less successful is the silly 'rebellious' teen (Timmy Everett) and the depiction of every middle-aged woman besides Jones' mother as affected, eccentric, clucking hens.

kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews