It was inevitable that many of their projects would reach the big screen and the public flocked to them. The press couldn't be contained in ballyhooing each production. Casting became a major focus and whether the Broadway stars would repeat their roles on the screen. (Only one major star ever did that and I believe just one featured performer.)
Two of these films are among my 50 favorites and have previously been written about in these pages. I have seen each of the two somewhere between 50-100 times. (Please don't call anyone to take me away.) Others I have seen 20-25 times and the others just a few times. All are beautifully presented... crews on these movies deserve awards all their own. I've liked all kinds of music in my life but show tunes are right up there with Big Band music. (You might have guessed.)
This thing I have with 'ol Dick and Oscar continues to be one of my most enduring love affairs. The movies are a happier place because of them. I couldn't think of a better time to watch one or more of the following films...
State Fair (1945)
It is the one property (although two films) that doesn't quite belong with the rest because it had not previously been a Broadway production. Before they partnered up, both guys had been around Hollywood movie-making and were soured on the experience. 20th Century Fox asked them to compose the score and they agreed if they could do it without stepping foot in California.
The story is pure corn... about an Iowa farm family (Pa and Ma and a son and daughter who need to get out on their own) who embarks on a trip to, well, um, er, the Iowa state fair. Pa's bringing his prized pig and Ma's bringing her mincemeat that's unintentionally loaded with too much booze. The boy wants to race his car and the girl wants to fall in love.
Stalwart studio director Walter Lang put Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, Vivian Blaine and character actors Charles Winninger and Fay Bainter through their paces. It Might As Well Be Spring won the Oscar for best song but I preferred Haymes' warbling Isn't It Kinda Fun? (originally cut out but restored by the time I saw the film) and especially Blaine and most of the company singing the rousing All I Owe Ioway.
Crain's and Andrews's singing voices were dubbed. That occurred in all of R&H films. Such a curiosity to me.
Oklahoma (1955)
Here the corn is as high as an elephant's eye as were the ticket sales of the pair's first long-running Broadway show which revolutionized musical drama. Most importantly this came about by using the songs to advance both the plot and character instead of just a musical interlude.
Released thru a company called Magna Theater Corporation, the production was tightly controlled by R&H. Their maiden effort was not going to be put in any irresponsible hands. Fred Zinnemann directed his only musical. Its two wondrous singing stars, Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones (in her debut film), are the only major stars to show up in two R&H movies.
In the boys' four most popular films, almost the entire song catalogs are winners. This is one of those four films. The only song I didn't particularly like was Pore Jud Is Daid and I am only so-so on the highly-lauded ballet sequence. The film was reviewed more extensively earlier.
Carousel (1956)
The story of Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan is a tragic one. It opens in 1888 when Billy has been dead 15 years. He is allowed to return to Earth to make amends. The story is then told in flashback.
Billy is a handsome, tough carnival barker and Julie is a sweet-natured mill worker. They marry, she gets pregnant and both get fired from their jobs. In an effort to make ends meet, Billy commits a robbery and in his escape he falls on his knife and dies. (In the play, he commits suicide.) The part where he comes back is immensely touching and involves Julie and her daughter.
If this seems a bit dark to work despite working in a dozen songs, you would join those who felt the same when the picture was released. Made at Fox, it was directed by one of the studio's top directors, Henry King, who hadn't made a musical since 1938's Alexander's Ragtime Band.
I wasn't especially impressed with a number of the songs although I thought If I Loved You and You'll Never Walk Alone were beautiful, among the very best R&H ever wrote. I also loved The Carousel Waltz, gloriously played over the opening credits and during a scene on the ride.
The boys loved everything about Shirley Jones and she was immediately signed, as was Frank Sinatra. He apparently left when he realized the entire movie would have to be filmed twice to accommodate two versions of the Cinemascope process. Jones, however, said it was because Ava Gardner insisted he accompany her on her Rome film location.
Outdoor scenes were filmed almost entirely in Maine and there's no doubt the film has a beautiful look.
The King and I (1956)
Once there was a movie drama called Anna and the King of Siam (1946, with Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison) that was turned into a Broadway musical. That, in turn, was turned into this film. While we're at it, in 1999 it was turned back into a movie drama with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat called Anna and the King.
Yul Brynner is the only top star to reprise his role from an R&H play in the film. He won a Tony for the play and an Oscar for the film, both of which were richly deserved.
There was talk about Maureen O'Hara, who could sing and had a fiery personality to match Brynner's, assuming the lead but Rodgers famously said no pirate queen is going to play my Miss Anna. (O'Hara was known for filming a few sword fights.) Brynner insisted on Deborah Kerr, who could not sing, but whom I must admit was very good. When wasn't she? Still, I would have preferred O'Hara.
Fox again installed trustworthy Walter Lang to direct. It is the only R&H movie to film entirely on a sound stage and that fact may have hurt it somewhat at the box office. I love these songs and adore watching Kerr and Brynner polka around the palace floor for Shall We Dance?" When I watch my copy, I play this number 5-6 times.
I also spin thru the entire The Small House of Uncle Thomas ballet number. I absolutely cannot stand it. It has no bearing on the story (beyond a quick reference) and is too long and has neither Brynner or Kerr in it. What was the point? It felt even more out of place than the ballet number in Oklahoma.
South Pacific (1958)
After watching this film, which I probably do once a year, I am convinced it is my favorite of all the R&H films. It is the only one of their musicals where I like every single song. I ooohed and aaahed about it in a prior posting.
I also conclude it's one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Not only are there the gorgeous Kuaui locations (the first spoke in the wheel that eventually propelled me into a six-year residence on Maui) but there were the stunning, albeit controversial, color filters used in various scenes.
Like Oklahoma, it was released by Magna Corporation and tightly controlled by R&H. Directed by Joshua Logan and based on a portion of James Michener's novel Tales of the South Pacific, it has a definite serious side and a controversial one... race relations and bias, explored in the film's two love stories and delivered perfectly in the controversial song, You've Got to Be Carefully Taught. The coupling of a virginal France Nuyen and a bare-chested John Kerr during the Younger Than Springtime number was considered controversial at the time.
The casting of the part of Nellie Forbush was not a given but it was a smart move to hire the vivacious and multi-talented Mitzi Gaynor. I found Rossano Brazzi miscast and a bit wooden but it ruined my experience not a whit.
Flower Drum Song (1961)
I am so fond of that title, a rather magical mixture of words, as I see it. I wish I felt the same about the film. It's the only R&H film I don't own. When it comes on the tube, I may watch it or not. It would, unfortunately, become the team's least financially successful film. It does, however, try awfully hard to reach the top. It is the R&H film with the most dancing and very exuberant it is, too.
I think it's seeing how hard the film tries that reinforces my feeling that something is amiss. I think it's too stagey, too broad and the funny bits seem like bad vaudeville. Comic Jack Soo, a big part of the proceedings, is corny and annoying, like he's doing stand-up for some drunken audience. One could argue it's not the actor but the character, the way it's written, and I say, ok, that's an opinion. Just not mine.
It's got an (almost) all Asian cast which was a plus and a first. I think the project owes much of the success it's had to that fact. (By the way Juanita Hall, who plays an aunt and was also Bloody Mary in South Pacific, is African-American playing Asians in both films.)
Taking place in San Francisco's Chinatown, it concerns a Hong Kong picture bride (Miyoshi Umeki) arriving to meet her husband (Soo), a Chinese nightclub owner. He, however, is already involved with his singing star (Nancy Kwan, hot, hot, hot after her star turn in The World of Suzie Wong) and tries to pawn off his bride on his buddy (James Shigeta) who also happens to be in love with the singer. It's complicated and sometimes funny.
What is good is Kwan... and what energy she has. She turns on the sultry for the film's showpiece, I Enjoy Being a Girl. I enjoyed watching her be one, too, triumphant in front of a series of long bedroom mirrors. The song's message is about traditional values and of a woman who sees her path forward concerned with pleasing her man and putting his interests first. While that may have been the way it was in Chinese culture, feminists were not amused.
It's too bad but this film would signal the end of the handsome Shigeta's run as the premier Asian male star in American. He would still have a long career as a supporting actor. The notion of Kwan having to choose between Soo and Shigeta is a real knee-slapper.
By the way I have spent more time on Flower Drum Song and Carousel not because they're my least favorites of the bunch but because I've not written of them before. In fairness, I like all of Rodgers and Hammerstein movies... some just more than others.
State Fair (1962)
While it finally came to Broadway in 1996, this film was simply a Fox remake of the 1945 version (which, in turn, was a remake of a non-musical 1933 version). Some songs were rearranged and my favorite from the prior version eliminated because this state fair was in Texas instead of Iowa.
Starring here is Pat Boone, whose popularity was starting to fade, and a new movie star, Ann-Margret, as the object of his affections. In the film and in real life, she was a little too much woman for the wholesome Boone. Their odd pairing may contribute to the film's less-than-stellar showing. Her big production number, the reworked Isn't It Kinda Fun?, is so sexy.
Pamela Tiffin is dull and Bobby Darin not used well but it was a bit of heaven having Alice Faye back on screen after a 17-year break. She was originally supposed to have played the Vivian Blaine role in the prior version but she walked out on her contract. Tom Ewell never did much for me but he earned his stripes as the family patriarch.
Directed by José Ferrer, it was not a big crowd-pleaser although I enjoyed every minute of it. It was always said it was a little too late for 1962 and while I get that, how does one explain the enormous success of the boys' final offering three years later?
The Sound of Music (1965)
For years and years this was my favorite film of all time, directed by the talented Robert Wise. But time has altered that somewhat and it has moved to #4. It still remains my favorite R&H film and my favorite musical of all (with South Pacific waiting in the wings). To say that it was the most financially successful of all R&H films is an understatement. For years it was the most financially successful movie of all time.
The filmed musical story of Austria's von Trapp family dazzled me. I could never forget any of it but I will always remember how thrilling the opening scenes were, the aerial views of the Alps. And I am even misty-eyed now thinking of the scene that begins when Maria and the children come back on land after their rowboat capsizes and ends with the stairway scene between the captain and Maria after he and Leisl sing Edelweiss.
The Lonely Goatherd is not a song I care for but it's the only one. Two new songs were written for the film: I Have Confidence and Something Good. It is gorgeously filmed, inside and out, and with a cast that feels like family. It was my first Julie Andrews film and the first time I really paid attention to Christopher Plummer. It brought a favorite actress of mine, Eleanor Parker, back into the public consciousness. It is too bad Hammerstein didn't live long enough to see how wonderfully his work had been treated.
Ok then, the slambang finish...
And here's a little quiz. See if you can name which film featured the following songs. C'mon it's easy... one film per movie, excepting the first State Fair. Answers on Tuesday.
1. A Hundred Million Miracles
2. I Have Dreamed
3. June Is Busting Out All Over
4. Kansas City
5. So Long, Farewell
6. Willing and Eager
7. A Wonderful Guy6. Willing and Eager
Next posting:
A guilty pleasure
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