: The Music Man
This musical is proof that you only need one or two good songs to have a musical. Other than “Seventy-Six Trombones” and a couple others, most of the songs are forgettable, but the story — about a con artist trying to sell band equipment to a small Iowa town who falls in love and comes clean in the end — is excellent. The film’s too long, and much of the dialog is extremely dated. Like the girl whose favorite expression is “Ye Gods!” Huh? What’s up with that? Some of the choreography feels dated as well, and looks rather silly. But then most musicals suffer from that as few people in real life burst into coordinated song and dance — it feels artificial. The film actually benefits from that with some nice theatre-style lighting effects, dropping out the background and highlighting the characters, which works well to emphasis the people. Several of the dance sequences are well-shot as well, particularly “Shipoopi” with its overhead camera. Overall I was pleased I saw this (though I didn’t watch the entire thing — I missed a few songs in the middle), but it violates too many of my musical no-nos to be considered decent, but though uneven, it has a few nice moments.
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