BB
(out of 5)
Meredith Willson’s eternally popular musical steeped in cloying Americana has been turned into a giant, thoroughly irritating film experience. Robert Preston is still playing for the third balcony as the titular con artist who goes to small, wholesome towns pretending to be a traveling salesman, convincing people to order band uniforms and instruments that he has no interest in delivering on. Arriving in a lovely Iowa burg, his experience is altered by his love for a gorgeous librarian named Marian (Shirley Jones) which threatens to turn him legit except for the real traveling salesman who is hunting him down to expose his fraud (honestly, they make movies about this sort of thing). A series of tuneless songs with a few well-known hits scattered among them lengthen the torture of a good deal of cardboard performances and contrived jabs at humour. The only sign of life is Jones, who gives real dimension to all her scenes (she can’t even hug her little brother without genuine warm feeling), highlighted by her gorgeous duet with a barbershop quartet that is the film’s best number. Ravishing sets and costumes are a pleasure to look at, but the whole thing has the same heavy, stilted feeling that Warner Bros would bring to their adaptation of My Fair Lady a couple of years later, though with far less charisma from the performers and dialogue. For devoted fans of musicals only.
USA, 1962
Directed by Morton DaCosta
Screenplay by Marion Hargrove, in collaboration with Franklin Lacey, based on the musical by Meredith Willson
Cinematography by Robert Burks
Produced by Morton DaCosta
Music by Ray Heindorf
Production Design by Paul Groesse
Costume Design by Dorothy Jeakins
Film Editing by William H. Ziegler
Cast Tags: Adnia Rice, Buddy Hackett, Charles Lane, Harry Hickox, Hermione Gingold,Jesslyn Fax, Mary Wickes, Monique Vermont, Paul Ford, Peggy Mondo, Pert Kelton, Robert Preston, Ron Howard, Sara Seegar,Shirley Jones, Susan Luckey, The Buffalo Bills, Timmy Everett
Academy Award
Best Music (Scoring of Music–adaptation or treatment) (Ray Heindorf)
Nominations
Best Art Direction (Color) (art direction: Paul Groesse; set decoration: George James Hopkins)
Best Costume Design (Color) (Dorothy Jeakins)
Best Film Editing (William Ziegler)
Best Picture (Morton DaCosta, producer)
Best Sound (Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, George R. Groves, sound director)
Golden Globe Award
Best Motion Picture-Musical
Nominations
Best Actress-Comedy or Musical (Shirley Jones)
Best Actor-Comedy or Musical (Robert Preston)
Best Supporting Actress (Hermione Gingold)
Best Director (Morton DaCosta)
Best Original Score
Directors Guild Award Nomination
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Morton DaCosta)
Writers Guild Award
Best Written American Musical
