X
- 1962
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 31 m
- 1962
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 31 m
Summary Traveling con artist Harold Hill targets the naïve residents of a small town in 1910s Iowa by posing as a boys' band leader to raise money before he can skip town.
Directed By: Morton DaCosta
Written By: Meredith Willson, Franklin Lacey, Marion Hargrove
- 1962
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 31 m
- 1962
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h 31 m
The Music Man
76
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary Traveling con artist Harold Hill targets the naïve residents of a small town in 1910s Iowa by posing as a boys' band leader to raise money before he can skip town.
Directed By: Morton DaCosta
Written By: Meredith Willson, Franklin Lacey, Marion Hargrove
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
76
78% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
22% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 Critic Reviews
76
78% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
22% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Arguably one of the best translations to film of any Broadway musical. [15 Nov 1991, p.F26]
It's here, and the rich, ripe roundness of it, the lush amalgam of the many elements of successful American show business that Mr. Willson brought together on the stage, has been preserved and appropriately made rounder and richer through the magnitude of film.
DaCosta's musical is one of the most exuberant and purely enjoyable of the lot. Much of this is down to the infectious energy of Robert Preston, reprising his stage role as smooth-talking conman. [12 Nov 2005, p.53]
Zestily performed and choreographed, beautifully shot by Robert Burks, full of standards like '76 Trombones' and 'Till There Was You', and endowed with a warming nostalgia for old-fashioned ways.
Allowing something of slowness at the very start and the necessities of establishing the musical way of telling a story, plus the atmosphere of Iowa in 1912, that's about the only criticism of an otherwise building, punching, handsomely dressed and ultimately endearing super-musical.
Morton DaCosta’s straight translation (1962) of the Broadway blockbuster is pretty dismal in its desperate exuberance; but at least it boasts the slick charm of Robert Preston, who nearly saves it with his graying-at-the-temples boyishness.
Morton DaCosta, who had also directed the stage version, isn't comfortable with the camera, and the material seems too literal, too practical, too set. But the star, Robert Preston, has a few minutes of fast patter--conmanship set to music, that constitute one of the high points in the history of American musicals.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Laurel Awards
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
