The Music Man (1962)

Directed by Morton da Costa. Starring Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold, Pert Kelton, Timmy Everet, Ron Howard, Susan Luckey, Charles Lane, Harry Hickox, The Buffalo Bills. [G]

Meredith Wilson’s stage musical gets the glorious Hollywood treatment, sending con man Harold Hill (Preston, reprising his theater role) to River City, Iowa as a “professor” out to separate the good folks from their money meant for a marching band. Sprightly, colorful and brassy (seventy-six trombones worth), it’s such a corn-fed article of transient excess that it evaporates on contact, save for a few of the catchy earworms. Young Ronny H. learns how to “whittle and thpit,” Hackett nearly herniates himself vouching for the value of sexual harassment during “Shipoopi,” the school board masters barbershop quartet harmonies remarkably fast, etc. Production values make up for the workmanlike direction, and even as it gets to be a bit much after a while, Preston is pretty much perfect in the role of his lifetime. Memorably parodied in a Conan O’Brien-penned episode of “The Simpsons.” Remade for television in 2003.

76/100 (duh)