Rating: 
Summary: Best Movie Ever Made!
Review: My mom and I love this musical I never seen it but this is my second time watching it I have on my favorite song from it "Marian the Libraian" the first time I saw this was at Rodgers Memorial theatre on Monday then I said, I NEED TO RENT THE MOVIE! and I did I really recommend you get this.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Robert Preston and Shirley Jones did a captivating job as the sneaky Harold Hill and the beautiful Marian Paroo. They went together beautifully. And I think that they did a great job! Excellent if you like musicals, and gorgeously put together with the music and the choreography. The Schipoopi is something to behold, and so is the "Lida Rose/will I Tell you". Great movie!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie!
Review: The Music Man is a great story (If you are a girl mostly! ) but it has some great songs like the (most famous one) 76 trombones, Shipoopi,& Marian. It is a story about a con man (Robert Preston) comes to River City Iowa and pretends he is a music man.And only Marian ( shirly Jones)Knows about him! I am sure that most of you will enjoy this movie As much as I did!
Rating: 
Summary: Top of the Second Tier of Greatest Hollywood Musicals
Review: The previous customer reviews are going a little bit overboard on "The Music Man." Although it is one of Hollywood's musical comedy gems, it lacks a sense of good directorial pacing. Things are overexplained, and the plot lumbers on; you don't mind this in the theatre, but in a movie it's tiring. Songs that are fun to watch on stage get tedious after a while on film. Still, what a pleasure to see Robert Preston at the top of his form! The producers of this film had the good sense to keep the Broadway star, unlike the HUGE mistakes made by the film "Kismet" in not using Alfred Drake and "My Fair Lady" in not using Julie Andrews. My vote for the best song in the show is "Lida Rose," sung by the barbershop quartet. "Till There Was You" is sublime. And the opening salesman sequence on the train is a unique moment in Hollywood films. While "The Music Man" is high on my list of the second-best group of Hollywood musicals, it doesn't get into the first tier for a simple reason: no great dancing. Well-choreographed dancing is one of the special pleasures of Hollywood musicals. I should mention some of the musicals in my first tier, and I'll be posting reviews of them: Singing in the Rain, The Band Wagon, Easter Parade, Grease, Swing Time, The Red Shoes.............. Happy viewing!
Rating:
Summary: Seventy six trombones!
Review: I saw the Music Man in an older video with my friend and we both loved it. There are many great songs in it. It's also great seeing Shirley Jones pre Partridge Family. This is one of my favorite videos. The only reason that kept me from giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it does seem a little bit long.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: The Music Man was quite a good performance.Highly Recommended. I remted it from NetFlix.com. It was quite a good performance by Robert Preston. I also enjoyed the "Right Here in River City" special.
Rating:
Summary: A classic that belongs in every DVD collection!
Review: Robert Preston will always be the definitive "Music Man" to me. He delivers the performance that can't be matched both on this disc and for many years in the Broadway musical. Shirley Jones is wonderful as the librarian and Ron Howard is at his "Opie" cutest in this film. You can't help but feel patriotic during the "76 Trombones" number. The showstopper is of course, "Big Trouble (in River City)." You'll be humming these tunes for hours after each viewing. Plus, Buddy Hackett does some fun numbers for your added enjoyment. This is a great patriotic family movie. This movie is to the 4th of July what "It's a Wonderful Life" is to Christmas! Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: You GO, Shirl!
Review: There is such a wealth of kind reviews here on 'The Music Man', I almost didn't bother adding my own, until I realised that not one manages to convey how terrific Shirley Jones is in this movie. Never content to be just a musical star, Jones has always stretched her acting wings, as evidenced by her Oscar for her portrayal of a prostitute in 'Elmer Gantry'. Marian Paroo in 'The Music Man' is light-years removed from that role, but Shirley Jones proves, once again, that she's an actress. Productions of 'Music Man' rise and fall on the performance of the actress playing Marian; the role is incredibly difficult. It calls for the performer to make very fast transitions from starchiness to tremulous love-making- and Marian is called on not only to love Professor Hill, but to communicate to an audience WHY he's worth it. Shirley Jones tosses all this off so effortlessly that many people think she's not doing much- they're wrong! The full range of her talents gets a workout here; she sings, dances, has comedy bits (her scene 'vamping' an anvil salesman is a howler), and can hold a Technicolour close-up like nobody has in years. The most delightful part of her work, for my money, comes in the 'Marian the Librarian' number, where Marian's library is invaded (and its sanctity destroyed) by a visit from Harold Hill. Shirley's laser precision and split-second timing are a delight to watch; it's especially impressive when you stop to think that she's not primarily known as a dancer. As wonderful as Shirley Jones is, 'The Music Man' is not without flaws. Director Morton Da Costa elicted marvellous performances from his stars, but he seems not to have cared so much about what the minor players did. Many of the child actors are way too hammy; one gets the impression of hordes of stage mommas off-camera yelling, 'SING OUT, LOUISE!', and 'SMILE, BABY!'. Monique Vermont as Amaryllis is especially annoying; someone should have sent her home until she cut out at least 90 percent of her cutesy-poo schtick. Fortunately for the movie, 'The Music Man' has Ron Howard as Winthrop Paroo; his performance is a little miracle of naturalness. Da Costa also has trouble with basic movie POV issues; there's a bad POV switch right in the middle of 'Shipoopi'. In the same number, Da Costa ignores another basic rule of movie-making when Robert Preston is supposed to grab a couple of women and dance with them before grabbing Shirley Jones to finish the number with her. The first dancer he grabs is nearly a dead ringer for Jones, and since the audience is expecting him to find Jones and dance with her in the scene, it's confusing to see Preston abandon this dancer and go on to another. It's a silly, irritating mistake to see in such a great number. No matter what nits I pick, though, 'The Music Man' still has a great story, great cast, and of course, Shirley. By the way, there has been a controversy for decades about who was the better Marian Paroo- Shirley or Barbara Cook, who originated the role on Broadway. My vote, based on a comparison of the Broadway original cast album with Cook, and the movie soundtrack with Jones, goes squarely to Shirley. Barbara Cook sings every number as beautifully as only she knows how, and it is absolutely thrilling. But Shirley Jones does more- she uses her musicianship to enhance her acting. In the early songs, Jones keeps her voice 'cold' and correct, sticking strictly to the notes Meredith Willson wrote, as befits a straitlaced librarian. Later, when Marian's passions emerge, Jones unleashes a much lusher, more romantic voice- and it's that much clearer that the lady is in love. Enough from me. You've got a movie to buy!
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This was a very well done movie, (actually, I watched the DVD) and I fully reccommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Ahhhhh, widescreen! And lots of additional goodies!
Review: Looking for the musical that beat WEST SIDE STORY for the Tony Award? You've found it here, in Meredith Willson's THE MUSIC MAN -- and its appearance on DVD, in widescreen format and with all the bells and whistles, is long overdue. Pop the disc in, and you'll immediately be taken to the "Right Here In River City" documentary (you'll have to press the MENU button on your DVD controls to get to the main menu so you can actually view the movie -- why the disc goes immediately to the documentary is rather odd). Hosted by Shirley Jones, who still looks great, the top-notch, too-short documentary is crammed with lots of good stories and bits of trivia, in the words of several of Those Who Were There. You'll find out, for instance, which segments were actually filmed first, how amazed Susan Luckey was at Robert Preston's ability to lip-synch "Trouble" during filming, and why Shirley Jones wore so many frills and flowers on her dress in the scene at the footbridge. As for the film itself -- the print is beautiful, and as someone who had only experienced the film in pan-and-scan format, it is a delight to finally see entire dance sequences without the cropping. And you'll finally be able to see all four members of The Buffalo Bills barber shop quartet (the poor fellow singing bass could never be seen in TV-formatted versions). There are other, smaller moments that have always cried our for the letterbox format, and if you watch both versions closely, you'll notice the real advantages in seeing the entire scene as it was shot. For example, one particularly disorienting scene in pan-and-scan format is the "Pick A Little, Talk A Little/Goodnight, Ladies" sequence, when Professor Hill is speaking with Mrs. Shinn and the town ladies about Old Miser Madison, and dismebodied voices drift in from off camera. At one point, Mrs. Shinn says, "Miser," and an off-camera voice says, "Madison," causing Mrs. Shinn to grimace. In pan-and-scan, it looks like a mistake; in widescreen format, the speaker is finally visible to Mrs. Shinn's right, bringing the scene together in a logical fashion. Sounds like a trivial moment, I know, but that scene in pan-and-scan has grated me for years! The DVD also contains a theatrical trailer, but it's not the trailer for the original 1962 release, but for the re-release a number of years later. It's still an interesting curiosity, featuring a reworked version of the "76 Trombones" sequence with Preston signing new lyrics about the film. If there's any shortcoming in the disc, it lies in the sound quality. You'll have to crank the volume up a bit to hear everything properly, but beware -- the moment you hit the MENU button, you'll be blasted by and ear-splitting version of "76 Trombones" on the menu screen. Ouch. Hit MUTE right before you touch MENU. You'll thank me later. It's a worn out cliche, but they really DON'T make musicals like this any more. And if your only experience with THE MUSIC MAN has been with the pan-and-scan format, do yourself a favor and pick up either the DVD or the letterboxed VHS format. You really WILL realize what you've been missing.
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