| The Music Man | |
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Movie poster by Bill Gold |
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| Directed by | Morton DaCosta |
| Produced by | Morton DaCosta |
| Written by | Meredith Willson Marion Hargrove (based the Broadway play, book by Meredith Willson from a story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey) |
| Starring | Robert Preston Shirley Jones Buddy Hackett Paul Ford Hermione Gingold Ron Howard |
| Music by | Meredith Willson |
| Cinematography | Robert Burks |
| Editing by | William H. Ziegler |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 19, 1962 |
| Running time | 151 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Music Man is a 1962 musical film starring Robert Preston as Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as Marian Paroo. The film is based on the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name by Meredith Willson. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year and highly acclaimed critically.
In 2005, The Music Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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Set in July 1912, a traveling salesman, "Professor" Harold Hill (Robert Preston), arrives in fictional location of River City, Iowa, intrigued by the challenge of swindling the famously stubborn natives of Iowa ("Iowa Stubborn"). Masquerading as a traveling band instructor, Professor Hill plans to con the citizens of River City into paying him to create a boys' marching band, including instruments, uniforms, and music instruction. Once he has collected the money and the instruments and uniforms have arrived, he will hop the next train out of town leaving them without their money or a band.
With help from his associate Marcellus Washburn (Buddy Hackett), who is now living in River City and is the only one who knows Hill's real name, "Gregory." Professor Hill incites mass concern among the parents of River City that their young boys are being seduced into a world of sin and vice by the new pool table in town ("Ya Got Trouble"). He convinces them that a boys' marching band is the only way to keep the boys of the town pure and out of trouble, and begins collecting their money ("76 Trombones"). Hill anticipates that Marian (Shirley Jones), the town's librarian and piano instructor, will attempt to discredit him, so he sets out to seduce her into silence. Also in opposition to Hill is the town's Mayor Shinn (Paul Ford), who orders the school board (portrayed by the barbershop quartet, The Buffalo Bills) to obtain Hill's credentials. When they attempt to do so, Hill avoids their questions by teaching them to sing as a barbershop quartet via "sustained talking." They are thereafter easily tricked by Hill into breaking into song whenever they ask for his credentials.
Meanwhile, Hill attempts to win the heart of Marian the librarian, who has an extreme distrust of men. His charms have little effect upon Marian ("Marian the Librarian") until he wins the admiration of both her mother and her withdrawn and unhappy younger brother Winthrop (Ron Howard) ("Gary, Indiana"). Marian falls in love with Hill, and subsequently hides evidence she has proving he is a fraud ("Till There Was You"). The band's instruments arrive ("Wells Fargo Wagon") and Hill tells the boys to learn to play via the "Think System," in which they simply have to think of a tune over and over and will know how to play it without ever touching their instruments. Meanwhile, Marian is falling more in love with Harold, and in a counterpart with the The Buffalo Bills they sing "Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You". Hill's con is nearly complete; all he has to do is collect the rest of the instrument and uniform money, and he can disappear. He is about to leave town when a disgruntled anvil salesman who had been run out of Brighton, Illinois in a backlash to Hill's having conned the townspeople there comes to River City and exposes Hill and his plans. Chased by an angry mob and pressed to leave town by Marcellus and Marian, Hill realizes that he is in love with Marian and can't leave River City. He is captured by the mob and brought before a town meeting to be tarred and feathered. Hill is saved by the boys' band who miraculously have learned to play their own instruments (albeit badly). Hill remains in River City with Marian to conduct the boys' band full time, which eventually becomes properly trained and equipped with better quality instruments and uniforms. ("76 Trombones 2nd Reprise").
Many members of the Original Broadway cast appear in the film, including Robert Preston, Pert Kelton and The Buffalo Bills.
The film made Robert Preston into an "A" list star in motion pictures, after years of appearing in supporting roles in famous films and in starring roles in "B" movies. Although Preston scored a great success in the original stage version of the show, he was not first choice for the film version, partly because he was not a box office star. Jack L. Warner, who was notorious for wanting to film stage musicals with stars other than the ones who played the roles onstage, wanted Frank Sinatra for the role of Professor Harold Hill, but Meredith Willson insisted upon Preston.[1] Cary Grant was also "begged" by Warner to play Hill but he declined, saying "nobody could do that role as well as Bob Preston".[2]
Warner Bros. Records issued the soundtrack album in both stereophonic and monaural versions.[3]
Unusual for a musical film at the time, Morton DaCosta, who had directed the show onstage, not only directed the film, but produced it as well, ensuring that the film was extremely faithful to the show. The actress Pert Kelton and the Buffalo Bills also reprised their stage roles. All of the show's songs were retained for the film with the exception of "My White Knight", which was replaced by "Being in Love"; this new song included some of the original song's lyrics.
Several phrases were altered for the film, as the writers felt they were too obscurely Midwestern to appeal to a broader audience; "Jeely kly!" is Tommy Djilas's catchphrase in the play, while in the film he exclaims, "Great honk!" The word "shipoopi" has no meaning and was concocted by Willson for the show.
Shirley Jones found out she was pregnant while filming was already underway; the costume designers kept having to adjust her dresses to conceal her pregnancy. In the scene at the footbridge when Marian and Harold embrace, Shirley Jones says that baby Patrick kicked hard enough for Robert Preston to feel him.
To film the final parade scene in 1962, Jack L. Warner selected the marching band of the University of Southern California the Spirit of Troy. He used many junior high school students from Southern California for the majority of the band. It took about 8 hours of shooting over two days to film the scene. All the musical instruments for the production were specially made for the film by the Olds Instrument Company in Fullerton, CA. The instruments were then refurbished and sold by Olds with no indication they were ever used in the film.
The film won one Academy Award and was nominated for five more:[4][5]
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