Music Man

UPC: 085391676829

Studio: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: G   Contains:null

Summary: 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 But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but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, Rovi

Category: Musical

Awards: Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Musical – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – null Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – null Best Supporting Actress – null Best Director – null Best Color Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Color Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Color Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Score – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

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

Music Man

Format: DVD

Release Date: 02/23/1999

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 181 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,French

Region: USA & territories, Canada

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]

Leo Charney

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, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Timmy Everett  Actor 
Peggy Mondo  Actor 
Ronnie Dapo  Actor 
Percy Helton  Actor 
Therese Lyon  Actor 
Jesslyn Fax  Actor 
Barbara Pepper  Actor 
Delos Jewkes  Actor 
Anne Loos  Actor 
Max Showalter  Actor 
Ray Kellogg  Actor 
William Fawcett  Actor 
Rance Howard  Actor 
Milton Parsons  Actor 
Peggy Wynne  Actor 
Natalie Core  Actor 
Monique Vermont  Actor 
The Buffalo Bills  Actor 
Roy Dean  Actor 
Natalie Masters  Actor 
Hank Worden  Actor 
Morton Da Costa  Director 
Morton Da Costa  Producer 
Marion Hargrove  Screenwriter 
Ray Heindorf  Composer (Music Score) 
Robert Preston  Actor 
Shirley Jones  Actor 
Buddy Hackett  Actor 
Pert Kelton  Actor 
Ronny Howard  Actor 
Hermione Gingold  Actor 
Paul Ford  Actor 
Susan Luckey  Actor 
Harry Hickox  Actor 
Charles Lane  Actor 
Mary Wickes  Actor 
Oliver Hix  Actor 

Country: USA