Thursday, January 21, 2010

Wendy's Films of 2010 #18: The Music Man (1962)

The songs are definitely the star of this one. The acting is fine for a 1960s musical, the story's flow was a little disjointed, but there are a number of classic musical moments and a wee Ronny Howard (if that's your thing). A magnificent barbershop quartet heads up numerous great song sequences, full of character, fun and unique beats, honoured by an Oscar for Best Music. The love story is a little unbelieveable because of the age difference, but there are countless films from this period when older male actors are paired with pretty young ones, heck it was part of everyday life back in those days. Shirley Jones is charming and beautiful as library and old maid-to-be Marian Paroo, and Robert Preston plays the sleazy salesman well. Overall, I won't say it's the best film musical I've ever seen, but it's worthwhile if you love musicals with great songs, which, after all, is sort of the point.

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