Here we go again. It's Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, which means stock up on the tissues, it's a wet, wet night ahead.
Carousel was first staged in 1945 and filmed in 1956 in vibrant Cinemascope 55, the first movie made in that huge picture format.
It stems from a tragic European melodrama, Liliom, written by Ferenc Molnar in 1921. It was a tragic tale just waiting to be turned into a tragic musical - in fact, Giacomo Puccini approached Molnar for the rights to turn his tale into opera, but was turned down, as were a dozen other composers who sought his story for the musical stage.
Finally, after seeing Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, Molnar agreed to his tale being made into a musical, and the duo proceeded to turn Liliom into what became their favourite work.
For Carousel, the original locale of Eastern Europe was switched to New England in America, and the braggart Liliom became the rather more likeable carousel barker Billy Bigelow. The musical became a huge success. And as recently as 1999, Time magazine named Carousel as the greatest musical of the 20th century.
The movie version is not as successful as the original stage play. The director doesn't give it the same pep and verve, and the adaptation suffers from an overly-twee beginning, as we see Billy Bigelow in heaven polishing stars, and thinking back on his wasted life. His story, up to his early death, is then told in flashback. And then he is given a boon - one day back on earth, to try to right some of the wrongs he has left behind him.
Yes, it sounds pretty ghastly and treacly, and this Hollywood telling lacks the pungent grittiness the best stage versions have. But the film does have two mighty assets - Gordon MacRae as Billy Bigelow, and Shirley Jones as his lover and wife Julie. Frank Sinatra was originally cast as Billy Bigelow. As we watch and hear Gordon MacRae deliver the famous Soliliquoy, we should remain eternally grateful to Frank for withdrawing from the production.
Carousel has most of the wonderful songs Rodgers and Hammerstein created for the stage. It also has, in its final 15 minutes, the most enduringly sentimental, bathetic, hopelessly wonderful finale ever staged in any musical, even if it boasts such politically incorrect dialogue as this battered-daughter-to-mother exchange...
| "Can someone hit you hard... really hard... and it not hurt at all?" |
With all its flaws, I do really love much about this screen version of Carousel - and, of course, the advantage of DVD is that you can skip all the really boring parts and just move from the most wonderful scene to the next. Then back again. And repeat the final three chapters just to round it all off. And pass the Kleenex, please...
This is a straight PAL replica of the American non-anamorphic letterboxed dub, with some edge enhancement evident, an only reasonable colour palette, and very bad shimmering effects in some scenes, such as on the shingle roof in the final Graduation Day scene.
Fox has now released this movie in three regions - 1, 2 and 4 - in letterbox versions only. The amazing quality of the original Cinemascope 55 process would have made an anamorphic transfer obligatory, I would have thought. But then, I'm only a consumer. Perhaps one day Fox will give it the transfer it deserves.
