Carousel
1956 Directed by Henry King
Synopsis
More than your eyes have ever seen!
Gordon MacRae is Billy Bigelow, a smooth-talking carny barker who falls in love with a millworker (Shirley Jones) on the colorful coast of Maine. Filmed on location, with a beautiful seaside setting as a backdrop and a thrilling score for accompaniment, their romance unfolds. But right before the birth of his daughter, Billy is killed while committing a robbery. Now in heaven, years later, he returns to earth for one day to attend his daughter's high school graduation and teach her one very important lesson.
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The Broadway musical stage partnerships between Rodgers and Hammerstein began with the highly-regarded Oklahoma!, closely followed by Carousel. When the movie musical versions of these stage shows began in earnest in 1955 with the adaptation of Oklahoma!, it seemed that there would be a succession of such adaptations, especially when Carousel followed the next year, re-teaming Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, the stars of the previous hit and ensuring a semblance of thematic continuity. Like Oklahoma!, Carousel was one of the first lavishly produced widescreen musicals, and in this case was meant to demonstrate Cinemascope 55, a new film stock with added clarity and definition. However, Rodgers and Hammerstein were not able to exert as much creative control over Carousel…
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A commercial failure upon release, Carousel is an audacious but nevertheless dated adaptation of a Rodgers & Hammerstein classic. The often stunning musical numbers and gorgeous art direction of the scenes in heaven are hampered by a running time that feels stagnant and some dialogue that's truly problematic when watching in 2013.
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Interesting musical in that it is much more downbeat than is usual in the genre. Being from Maine it was interesting to me that it was both set in and filmed in Maine. Now and then there was an attempt at the right accent, but most people just spoke without it. For some reason Shirley Jones seemed to have retained her accent from doing Oklahoma and was using it in this film.
June is Busting Out All Over and You'll Never Walk Alone are the two big numbers, but there are also a couple other good songs. There are some extended dance sequences, including a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers style dance-off between two groups of men for the affections of the women. There were some impressive acrobatics involving a one story roof and many of the female dancers. The harbor in the background during this entire sequence also raises it up. It was certainly quite a dance number.
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Unhappily my favorite musical play was not well handled for its movie adaptation. A refusal to trust both the audience and the material is obvious throughout the picture. Still, the score is well orchestrated and well sung... and for now, at least, it's the only readily accessible CAROUSEL I have.*
*Actually there is a 1967 TV version, but while it solves some of the problems presented in the film, it adds a whole new boat load of issues.
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Golden Age Musicals - Carousel (1956)
This wonderful musical reminds me of Powell and Pressburger. It is strange, unsettling, old fashioned, fascinating and visually beautiful. You don't know how you feel about the film while you are watching but it does not let go once you have seen it and just grows and grows on you. It starts in heaven where Billy Bigelow is polishing stars. He hears that someone close to him on earth is in trouble and that he is permitted to go down for one day to help. First however he has to tell his life story. There we learn that he was far from being the best of men. So here we have a story about…
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The Broadway musical stage partnerships between Rodgers and Hammerstein began with the highly-regarded Oklahoma!, closely followed by Carousel. When the movie musical versions of these stage shows began in earnest in 1955 with the adaptation of Oklahoma!, it seemed that there would be a succession of such adaptations, especially when Carousel followed the next year, re-teaming Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, the stars of the previous hit and ensuring a semblance of thematic continuity. Like Oklahoma!, Carousel was one of the first lavishly produced widescreen musicals, and in this case was meant to demonstrate Cinemascope 55, a new film stock with added clarity and definition. However, Rodgers and Hammerstein were not able to exert as much creative control over Carousel…