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.
Like its immediate predecessor, Oklahoma!, this 1956 screen musical boasted then state-of-the-art widescreen cinematography, stereophonic sound, a starring romantic duo with onscreen chemistry, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein imprimatur. Adding to its promise was a source (the venerable Ferenc Molnar play Liliom) that had already been filmed three times. Yet unlike the original Broadway production, and despite evident craft, Carousel proved a box-office disappointment. Why? Hindsight argues that '50s moviegoers may have been unprepared for its tragic narrative, the sometimes unsympathetic protagonist, and a spiritual subtext addressing life after death.
Whatever the obstacle, Carousel may well be a revelation to first-time viewers. The score is among the composers' most affecting, from the glorious instrumental "Carousel Waltz" to a succession of exquisite love songs ("If I Loved You"), a heart-rending secular hymn ("You'll Never Walk Alone"), and the expectant father's poignant reverie, "Soliloquy." Top-lined stars Shirley Jones (as factory worker Julie Jordan) and Gordon MacRae (as Billy Bigelow, the carnival barker who woos and weds her) achieve greater dramatic urgency here than in the more successful Oklahoma!, with MacRae in particular attaining a personal best as the conflicted Billy, whose anxiety and wounded pride after losing his job are crucial to the plot. It's Billy's impatience to support his new family that drives him to an ill-fated decision that transforms the fable into a ghost story. Adding to the luster are the coastal Maine locations where 20th Century Fox filmed principal photography. --Sam Sutherland
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
In Memory of Robert Rounseville:
So far as I can see, neither the product description nor any of the customer reviews mention that the role of Mr. Snow in this "Carousel" is acted and sung by one of the Twentieth Century's greatest tenors, Robert Rounseville, best known, perhaps, as the original Candide in the Broadway cast album of that great Leonard Bernstein musical, and what one critic called "the definitive Hoffmann" in the classic UK opera/ballet film of Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann." He also played the Padre in the original... more info
Carousel:
A near perfect reproduction of the film. Would have liked a transfer from the Cinemascope 55 elements rather than just the Cinemascope. The Oklahoma disk offered a choice between the Todd AO and cinemascope versions. Todd AO is by far the best.
Great good movies:
I enjoy all thoses good old movies and the great singers and the great actors thers not any good ones around much any more and its sad to see so many lost one. they all should be rated five stas
The music lives on:
I sing the songs from this movie for days after playing it and truly enjoy having a great DVD copy instead of the old VHS. The quality is excellent and I received it before the expected date.
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