Product Description
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A 12 Disc Anniversary Collection of your favourite Rodgers &
Hammerstein musicals, digitally remastered and presented in a
collectable "Pop-Up" carousel package with all new Sing-Along
edition options!
Contains the following six classic films like youve never seen
them before!
Carousel; The King and I; Oklahoma!; The Sound of Music; South
Pacific; State Fair;
.co.uk Review
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Carousel - Spectacular staging dots this widescreen deluxe
Rodgers and Hammerstein musical as Gordon MacRae brings a
blustery energy to the lead role of Billy Bigelow, a drifter and
ne'er-do-well carnival 'barker'. The troubled soul finally
settles down with a good woman (Shirley Jones) but then gets
stabbed to death while committing a robbery. Many years later, an
angel offers the roustabout the chance to return to earth for
just one day to makes things right for his unhappy wife and the
daughter he never had the chance to meet. Based on the French
play "Lilion" by Ferene Molnar, Carousel ranks among the better
Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, making it a classic by any
standard. To boot, the film's tale of love between Bigelow and
wife Julie rivals that of any other 1950s musical. Songs from the
outstanding score include 'If I Loved You', 'June Is Busting Out
All Over', and 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.
The King and I - In 1955 this lavish production of Rodgers and
Hammerstein's Broadway hit "The King and I", starring Yul Brynner
as the King of Siam and Deborah Kerr as the governess sent to
look after his children, was the most expensive film ever ed
by 20th Century Fox. The 40 sets in ripe decors by Walter M Scott
and Paul S Fox included a ballroom of black marble with jade and
silk tapestries and a banqueting scene with a table that gives
the impression of stretching to infinity. The costumes by Irene
Sharaff, notably the hoop ballroom gown for Deborah Kerr and
those for the ballet "The Small House of Uncle Thomas", dazzle
the eye in their delineation of Western manners and Oriental
splendour. Brynner remains impressive as the King but his pidgin
dialogue, inherited from Hammerstein's book, with the dropping of
the definite article takes some adjustment. Alfred Newman put his
unique stamp on the music: the Overture offers an example of his
luminous divided string sound, the climactic ballroom scene a
full bodied orchestral reprise of "Shall We Dance?" as the camera
pulls away to a high angle producing an exultant visual finish to
this celebrated polka.
Oklahoma - The hit Broadway musical from the 1940s gets a lavish
if not always exciting workout in this 1955 film version directed
by old lion Fred Zinnemann (High Noon). Gordon MacRae brings his
sterling voice to the role of cowboy Curly and Shirley Jones
plays Laurie, the object of his affection. The Rodgers and
Hammerstein score includes "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top",
"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" and "People Will Say We're in
Love", and Agnes DeMille provides the buoyant choreography. Among
the supporting cast, Gloria Grahame is memorable as Ado Annie,
the "girl who cain't say no", and Rod Steiger overdoes it as the
villainous Jud. --Tom Keogh
The Sound of Music - The most widely seen movie produced by a
Hollywood studio, The Sound of Music grows fresher with each
viewing. Though it was planned meticulously in pre-production
(save for the scene where Maria and the children take a dipping
in an Austrian lake that nearly cost a life), on each viewing one
is struck anew by the spontaneous almost improvisatory air of the
acting, notably of Julie Andrews under Robert Wise's direction.
There are also the little human touches he brings to, for
instance, the scene where Maria leads the children to the hills,
over bridges and along tow paths where the smallest boy trips up
and momentarily gets left behind: it creates a feeling that most
of us have encountered. From the opening pre-credit sequence of
muted excitement as the camera roves over the Austrian Alps
(photographed in magnificent colour), where little phrases from
the wind instruments on the soundtrack are flung as if on the
breeze, foreshadowing the title song to follow, the production
never puts a foot wrong.
South Pacific - The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical,
brought to lush life by the director of the original stage
version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second
World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one
between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) "as corny as Kansas in
August" and a wealthy French ation owner (Rossano Brazzi),
the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a
native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was
still daring in 1958, and so was director Logan's decision to
overlay emotional moments with tinted filters--a technique that
misfires as often as it hits. The comic tends to fall flat
and an overly spunky Mitzi Gaynor is a poor substitute for the
stage original's Mary Martin. But the location scenery on the
Hawaiian island of Kauai is gorgeous and the songs are among the
finest in the American musical catalogue: "Some Enchanted
Evening", "Younger than Springtime", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man
Right Outta My Hair", "This Nearly Was Mine". That's Juanita Hall
as the sly native trader Bloody Mary, singing the haunting tune
that launched a thousand tiki bars, "Bali H'ai". The movie is
based on stories from James Michener's book "Tales from the South
Pacific". --Robert Horton, .com
State Fair - Good old-fashioned hometown pride is on display in
lavish Technicolor in this remake of the 1933 film, the only
Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written directly for the silver
screen. When the Frake family travels to the fair, Ma and Pa
(Charles Winninger and Fay Bainter) enter contests while daughter
Margy (Jeanne Crain) and son Wayne (Dick Haymes) both fall in
love for the first time. State Fair is attractively photographed
and energised by the vibrant performances of the talented lead
actors and actresses, but the high point of the film is the
colourful hoopla and hullabaloo of the fair itself, a bustling
nexus of strange, wonderful, and hilarious characters brought to
life by the fine supporting cast. Songs from the Academy
Award-nominated score include 'It's a Grand Night for Singing',
'That's For Me', and the O-winning 'It Might As Well Be
Spring'.