Amazon.com Essentials:
The Music Man was one of the last great movie musicals
from any studio, and it proved to be that rarest of events: a Broadway
show that was measurably improved by its transition to the
screen. Robert Preston made his musical debut--both live and on
film--as "Professor" Harold Hill, the upbeat charlatan who promises to
teach a small-town boys band by the "think system." But it's the part
Preston was born to play and the one for which he will always be best
remembered. Composer Meredith Willson based The Music Man on
his own small-town Midwestern boyhood, circa 1912, a quasi-mythical
place where the old-maid librarian looks and sings like Shirley
Jones. The boy himself is an adorable Ron Howard, lisp-singing "Gary,
Indiana." Willson's entire
score, featuring a combination of what are now standards, such as
"Goodnight My Someone" and "Till There Was You" and show-specific
numbers ("Trouble," "76 Trombones"), is never less than
infectious. This dazzling special edition is also as bright and
sunny as any 4th of July in Iowa could ever hope to be. --Robert
Windeler
