“Where’s the band!”
Gather round friends. There’s trouble right here in River City. Has your kid started using words like 1080p, high-definition, or BD-Live enhanced? It’s not DVD and that rhymes with “B” and that stands for Blu-ray. It’s not trouble at all when it looks as grand as the Music Man. Remember, my friends, listen to me because I pass this way but once!
A train full of traveling salesmen is on their way to new towns to hock their wares. The most recent arrival to the car has been run out of the town because of the actions of Professor Harold Hill (Robert Preston), a huckster that sells band uniforms, instruments, and promises to mold the town’s youth into a boy’s marching band.
A feat which he never accomplishes but is out the door with the greenbacks before the town rubes realize this. The other salesmen talk up the stubbornness of the Iowan natives so Hill takes it as a challenge to pull the wool over their eyes and gets off at River City, Iowa. He discovers that his old friend Marcellus (Buddy Hackett) is a River City resident and recruits him into his scheme.
Hill takes the arrival of a pool table to incite the masses and suggests that the formation of a boy’s band will alleviate the vile ways of pool. Hill’s usual plan is to romance the town’s piano instructor so that his lack of musical skill is kept silent, but he finds River City’s piano teacher and librarian Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones) a hard nut to crack.
She distrusts men and lives with her mother (Pert Kelton) and younger brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard). Mayor George Shinn (Paul Ford) also distrusts Hill and gets the school board (The Buffalo Bills) to try and interrogate him, but Shinn’s wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) falls for Hill’s charms. Hill is about to pull off his scheme but realizes that he’s in love with Marian and can’t jump the next train. Now that’s trouble.
That man’s a by-God spellbinder! Don’t you counter-dict me! You watch your phraseology! The phraseology is that Meredith Wilson is a musical genius and Robert Preston casts a long shadow that anyone attempting the role of Harold Hill will fall under. Wilson’s musical won a Tony for best musical in 1958 with the album winning the very first Grammy for a cast album.
Robert Preston would be cast as Harold Hill for the Broadway version, despite his lack of singing experience, and would go on to great acclaim in the role. So in typical Hollywood logic there were thoughts of recasting the role when the movie was to be made. Thoughts of Frank Sinatra portraying Hill, who was the studio’s pick, boggle the mind.
Luckily Meredith Wilson would have none of it and Preston would recreate the role. Shipoopi! It would make a star of Preston and I can’t see anyone beyond him playing Harold Hill. He certainly put his stamp on the role. Meredith Wilson set out to recapture a small town atmosphere with Music Man and he succeeds in that but adds boisterous musical numbers that give it a big feel. Librarians everywhere would embrace Shirley Jones and she also is a delight.
The supporting cast features such familiar faces as Hackett, character actor Paul Ford, and the haughty Hermione Gingold. Each of them gets their moment in the spotlight but we’re always drawn back to the electric magnetism of Robert Preston, a by-God spellbinder. The Music Man is a symphony of delights from start to finish. It’s made even better by a sharp transfer, a bill of goods it is not.
The Music Man is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1). Special features are in standard definition and include a 2 minute introduction by Shirley Jones, the 22 minute “Right Here in River City” making of (hosted by Jones), and the 1 minute theatrical trailer.
Surely you shout “but he doesn’t know the territory! Blu-ray wasn’t around in 1912 or 1962.” I tell you friends that Professor Harold Hill invented the territory and was a Blu-ray salesman far before his time (you may recall he sold steam driven automobiles before their time as well). The Music Man is given a grand transfer and I’d give it a rating of 76 trombones if it was available to me.
Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story