Music Man (film)

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Movie
German title Music Man
Original title The Music Man
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1962
length 151 minutes
Rod
Director Morton DaCosta
script Marion Hargrove
production Morton DaCosta
music Ray Heindorf
camera Robert Burks
cut William H. Ziegler
occupation

Music Man is an American film musical by Morton DaCosta from 1962. The production is a screen adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey.

action

Harold Hill is a con man who persuades residents of small towns in the American Midwest to have a boys' band. Of course, he offers himself as the organizer and leader of the band. Musical instruments and uniforms are ordered from him and sold again before delivery. Harold cannot play an instrument and certainly cannot give music lessons, so he disappears with the profit.

Harold's game begins in the rural town of River City, Iowa . The local gambling hall is portrayed by him as the cause of the neglect of the youth. The hall is owned by Mayor Shinn. The locals take a liking to Harold's proposal to found a boys' band. Only the local librarian and piano teacher Marian Poree is skeptical. Harold now takes care of the young woman, who soon falls in love with him. The chapel's exercises begin, the residents are impressed, and the mayor's concerns are ignored. Harold even gets his wife to lead a women's dance committee.

Charlie Cowell, a competitor of Harold, comes to town. He wants to expose Harold as a fraud. Marian is shocked, the residents want to tar and feather Harold. They catch Harold and arrange for an interrogation in the parish hall, where the boys' band is practicing. Marian can get the citizens not to punish Harold because, even though he lied, he created a new sense of community in the city. At the end, the boys' band moves through the city and celebrates a big music parade.

background

The world premiere took place in Mason City, Iowa, the birth town of Meredith Wilson. General theatrical release in the USA was June 19, 1962. In Germany, the film was broadcast on January 18, 1976 on television.

The musical premiered on December 19, 1957 in New York. 1375 performances were given. Robert Preston also played the title role here, directed by Morton DaCosta. Preston was not the first choice for Warner Bros. , which at Cary Grant thought a star. But after the intervention of Meredith Wilson and Morton DaCosta, Preston was hired.

The US TV station ABC produced a television film of the same name in 2003 with Matthew Broderick as Harold Hill, which was nominated for five Emmys .

Reviews

"Naive, peppy musical in the usual Hollywood quality: while the plot remains superficial and shallow, the rousing arranged music offers perfect, albeit undemanding, entertainment," said the lexicon of international films . Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said the program was good, with all of the cast "playing in the dashing, bright kind of musical comedy actors they all appear to be".

Variety described Music Man as an "edifying, striking, attractively designed and, in the end, lovable super musical".

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Frank Miller on tcm.com
  2. ^ Music Man. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 6, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ "The scheme is all right, and all the actors perform in the breezy, broad-beamed way of the musical comedy actors that all of them are obviously." Bosley Crowther : Preston Stars in 'Music Man': Film Version of Stage Comedy Opens here . In: The New York Times , August 24, 1962.
  4. ^ "[...] building, punching, handsomely dressed and ultimately endearing super-musical." Cf. The Music Man . In: Variety , 1962.