Music Man, The (1962)

When conman “Professor” Harold Hill (Robert Preston) arrives in River City, Iowa, he convinces the townsfolk that they need to start a band and that he is the man to sell them the instruments, the uniforms and arrange tuition.

His plan is to pocket the money and disappear before the instruments arrive, but his scheme runs into problems.

A fabulous group of character actors fill out the story superbly, including Buddy Hackett as Marcellus, a former con game player gone straight but not too straight to help out his old pal, Hill, and Hermione Gingold as the initially appalled mayor’s wife who comes to be a misty-eyed true believer after surrendering herself to the power of the ladies auxiliary dance committee Hill sets up.

Marian (Shirley Jones), the town’s snobbish librarian proves to have the hardest heart to melt, but when she sees her son, Winthrop (Ron Howard), grow to be so confident as a result of Hill’s magnificent chicanery, she falls in love with him, and he with her.

But the professor’s past catches up with him when rival salesman Charlie Cowell (Harry Hickox) turns up to expose him. The people of River City now turn against Hill and demand to have him tarred and feathered.

Confronted y the band he has formed, he faces the music – and the outcome is as much a surprise to him as it is to everyone else.

Morton Da Costa, who directed Meredith Willson’s hit musical on Broadway, was given carte blanche by Jack Warner to re-create it on the screen, and this Oscar-winning blockbuster is the result.

The dynamic Robert Preston reprises his Broadway role as the energetic, silver-tongued conman who charms the elders of River City, Iowa, into financing a band.

Onna White’s electric choreography and a score that includes the ballad Till There Was You (a future hit for The Beatles) and the show-stopping 76 Trombones contribute to an invigorating experience.

Harold Hill
Robert Preston
Marian Paroo
Shirley Jones
Marcellus Washburn
Buddy Hackett
Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn
Hermione Gingold
Mayor Shinn
Paul Ford
Mrs Paroo
Pert Kelton
Tommy Djilas
Timmy Everett
Zaneeta Shinn
Susan Luckey
Winthrop Paroo
Ron Howard
Charlie Cowell
Harry Hickox
Constable Locke
Charles Lane
Mrs Squires
Mary Wickes
Avis Grubb
Jesslyn Fax
Amaryllis
Monique Vermont
The Buffalo Bills
Oliver Dunlop
Jacey Hix
Olin Squires
Ewart Britt

Director
Morton Da Costa