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The Music Man[Widescreen Special] - DVD

SKU: 3563218 | Release Date: 2/23/1999

Rating: G

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Rating: G
Format: DVD
Theatrical Release: 1962
Length: 181 minutes
Screen Formats: Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV
Genre: Musicals
Studio: Warner Home Video
Other Formats: Blu-ray Disc (Widescreen) - $24.99

Synopsis

Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money from them by ordering instruments and uniforms, with the promise that he'll teach the kids how to be musicians. Once he's collected his bankroll, Hill skips town, leaving the kids in the lurch. Looking for new suckers in Iowa, Hill arrives in River City, where he declares that the only way to save the youth of River City from the lure of the poolroom is to organize a boy's band. He charms the mayor's wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) into forming a "ladies' dance committee" and sets his sights on winning over local music teacher Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones). Marian rightly considers Hill a fraud, especially when he espouses the "Think System" of learning music: if you think a tune, he claims, you can play it. But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but unreliable Hill ultimately brings her out of her own shell as well. Marion Hargrove's script uses most of the original play, with a handful of amusing expansions, especially in the roles played by Gingold and by Buddy Hackett as Hill's comic sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Version Details

Languages/Sound

Eng

Screen Formats

Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV

Subtitle Languages

Eng/Fre

Additional Features

"Right Here in River City: The Making of Meredith Willson's The Magic Man" Introduction by Shirley Jones Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 Interactive menus Production notes 2 theatrical trailers Scene access Subtitles: English, Fran�ais

Chapters

Jump to a Scene
0. Jump to a Scene
1. Main Title (Credits). [2:34]
2. Rock Island. [3:22]
3. Charley Cowell's tirade. [1:45]
4. Iowa Stubborn. [3:55]
5. Meeting Marcellus. [2:13]
6. Mrs. Shinn on dirty books; Hill's right angle. [3:03]
7. Ya Got Trouble. [4:18]
8. First impressions. [1:51]
9. Piano Lesson. [1:58]
10. Winthrop comes home. [1:49]
11. Goodnight, My Someone. [3:45]
12. July 4th exercises-and disruptions. [4:34]
13. Seventy-Six Trombones. [7:38]
14. That man's credentials; reforming Tommy. [3:38]
15. Sincere. [3:22]
16. A pass, a pitch and a play. [3:17]
17. Say yes, Mrs. Shinn. [2:10]
18. Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little and Goodnight, Ladies. [2:51]
19. The Sadder-but-Wiser Girl. [2:58]
20. Marion the Libarian. [7:42]
21. Soliciting Mayor Shinn and Mrs. Paroo. [4:14]
22. Gary, Indiana. [4:20]
23. Being in Love. [4:46]
24. "Indecent" plans. [1:20]
25. Wells Fargo Wagon. [4:48]
26. Dance and band practice. [3:32]
27. The Candy Kitchen. [5:10]
28. Lida Rose and Will I Ever Tell You? [5:30]
29. Gary, Indiana reprise. [2:14]
30. Cowell: two to tango. [4:17]
31. Lida Rose reprise. [:58]
32. Rumor exchange. [4:18]
33. Think System in action. [2:01]
34. Shipoopi. [6:41]
35. Grecian urns. [1:02]
36. Footbridge podium. [1:36]
37. Till There Was You. [3:42]
38. Who's selling whom? [2:25]
39. It's You; gunning for Hill. [2:51]
40. Seventy-Six Trombones and Goodnight, My Someone reprise. [2:45]
41. Caught in the door (Till There Was You reprise). [4:11]
42. Standing up for Prof. Hill. [2:47]
43. The band. [2:35]
44. River City on parade (Seventy-Six Trombones reprise). [2:14]
45. The Cast. [1:55]

Cast

Ray Kellogg - Harry Joseph
The Buffalo Bills - Jacey Squires; Olin Britt; Ewart Dunlo
Ronny Howard - Winthrop Paroo
Shirley Jones - Marian Paroo
Therese Lyon - Dolly Higgins
Susan Luckey - Zaneeta Shinn
Anna Loos - Stella Jackson
Natalie Masters - Farmer's Wife
Charles Lane - Constable Locke
Peggy Mondo
Barbara Pepper - Feril Hawkes
Milton Parsons - Farmer
Robert Preston - Harold Hill
Natalie Core - Truthful Smith
Ronnie Dapo - Norbert Smith
Roy Dean - Gilbert Hawthorne
Timmy Everett - Tommy Djilas
Paul Ford - Mayor Shinn
Max Showalter
Monique Vermont - Amaryllis
Mary Wickes - Mrs. Squires
Hank Worden - Townsman
Peggy Wynne - Ada Nutting
William Fawcett - Lester Lonnergan
Jesslyn Fax - Avis Grubb
Hermione Gingold - Eulalie MacKechnie Shinn
Buddy Hackett - Marcellus Washburn
Rance Howard - Oscar Jackson
Oliver Hix - Buffalo Bills
Harry Hickox - Charlie Cowell
Percy Helton - Conductor
Pert Kelton - Mrs. Paroo
Delos Jewkes - Harley MacCauley
Casey Adams
Buffalo Bills - Jacey Squires; Olin Britt; Ewart Dunlo
Anne Loos - Stella Jackson

Crew

Musical Direction/Supervision: Ray Heindorf
Composer (Music Score): Ray Heindorf
Screenwriter: Marion Hargrove
Production Designer: Paul Groesse
Costume Designer: Dorothy Jeakins
Set Designer: George James Hopkins
Makeup: Gordon Bau
Choreography: Onna White
Editor: William H. Ziegler
Cinematographer: Robert Burks
Director: Morton Da Costa
Producer: Morton Da Costa
From Musical by: Meredith Willson
Play Author: Franklin Lacey
Sound/Sound Designer: George Groves

The Music Man: AMG Review
Leo Charney , AMG

The Music Man is among the best movie musicals, transforming Meredith Willson's Broadway hit into an energetic slice of Americana. Robert Preston's virtuoso portrayal of con man Harold Hill transfers from the stage (despite the studios' nervousness about casting no-name Preston), and the result is one of the most explosively vital performances in any movie musical. Until the very end, Preston never sugar-coats or softens Hill's rapacious self-seeking, nor does Shirley Jones downplay the stubborn snobbishness of his love interest, Marian Paroo. The portrayal of the River City townfolk is memorably caustic: "You can have your fill of the all the food you bring yourself!" runs only one of the snide remarks in their introductory song, which offers, "Glad to have you with us -- even though we may not ever mention it again." The film's embrace of small-town American life is not confined to its sentimental, sickly-sweet aspects (the movie's hero, after all, is a con man, whom Preston's vigorously charming performance dares us to like), and this dimensionality makes the movie as distinctive dramatically as it is musically. Preston carries the movie, but he receives memorable support from Jones, Ron Howard as her brother Winthrop, Buddy Hackett as his sidekick, and such stalwarts as Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold, and Pert Kelton among the River City townspeople. The underrated score includes Till There Was You, later covered by The Beatles and often mistaken for one of their songs. Made at the acme (yet last gasp) of the blockbuster movie musical in the first half of the 1960s, The Music Man can hold its own among such better-known contemporaries as West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965). ~ Leo Charney, All Movie Guide

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The Music Man[Widescreen Special] - DVD

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The Music Man[Widescreen Special] - DVD

Financing:

Need Help?

Synopsis

Version Details

Cast

Crew

Related Movies

Order Support

Community

Product Support

Credit Cards

Reward Zone® Program

Corporate Info

More Best Buy Sites

Need help? We're available 24/7 at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289)