...with something a little more lighthearted after yesterday's deep and political soap-box! I've just sat and watched the Rodgers and Hammerstein prom on the Beeb, and it reminded me just how many brilliant musicals the very talented Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote together over the years. The King and I; The Sound of Music; South Pacific; Carousel...each one of these legendary films has some absolutely amazing songs and, although I think last year's MGM prom was better (mainly because, although I like the Rodgers and Hammerstein films, I love the old MGM musicals), it was just fantastic. I'd actually forgotten how beautiful some of the songs were; the Soliloquy from Carousel, for example, or how much fun it can be singing along to Oklahoma...damn, those films were good!!
I know 'the big one' is The Sound of Music, but that's actually nor my favourite R&H film (I know - sacrilege!) That honour either goes to Carousel, which makes me howl like a baby everytime I see it, or South Pacific; if I really think about it, I think Carousel just edges it. It has some of the most beautiful songs ever written for a musical, in my humble opinion (and believe me, I have seen a lot of musicals! I was brought up on them by my Nanna; I've seen almost all the Rodgers and Hammerstein ones and a helluva lot of the old MGM classics - ah, Showboat! How I do adore thee! - so I know my stuff here); if you don't have a tear in your eye when listening to the reprise of 'If I Loved You' and 'You'll Never Walk Alone' you are a philistine and should be attacked with bricks and things. I'll prove it...
If you don't know the plot, in the first video Julie (played by the ever-beautiful and talented Shirley Jones) is mourning her husband, Billy (the marvellous Gordon McRae), who was accidentally killed when he fell through some crates onto his own knife when cornered by the police; he and a friend of his had planned a robbery so that Billy, who had no job and no money, could provide for his unborn baby. In the second one, the reprise of 'If I Loved You', Billy's spirit has returned to earth to see his daughter graduate; his ghost, unseen, sings part of the duet that he and Julie sing earlier in the movie. By the time they sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' again at the very end of the film, I'm usually to be found curled up in a ball sobbing pathetically. It's just the most beautiful film, and unusual because - although it's not a good musical unless there's a bit of tragedy in it - it was one of the first musicals to have a mainly-tragic plot. I swear, between this and Paul Robeson singing 'Ole Man River' in Showboat, I'm a complete basketcase.
Oh Gods, I need tissues now...so much for more cheery and lighthearted...but what a bloody brilliant film!!
I know 'the big one' is The Sound of Music, but that's actually nor my favourite R&H film (I know - sacrilege!) That honour either goes to Carousel, which makes me howl like a baby everytime I see it, or South Pacific; if I really think about it, I think Carousel just edges it. It has some of the most beautiful songs ever written for a musical, in my humble opinion (and believe me, I have seen a lot of musicals! I was brought up on them by my Nanna; I've seen almost all the Rodgers and Hammerstein ones and a helluva lot of the old MGM classics - ah, Showboat! How I do adore thee! - so I know my stuff here); if you don't have a tear in your eye when listening to the reprise of 'If I Loved You' and 'You'll Never Walk Alone' you are a philistine and should be attacked with bricks and things. I'll prove it...
If you don't know the plot, in the first video Julie (played by the ever-beautiful and talented Shirley Jones) is mourning her husband, Billy (the marvellous Gordon McRae), who was accidentally killed when he fell through some crates onto his own knife when cornered by the police; he and a friend of his had planned a robbery so that Billy, who had no job and no money, could provide for his unborn baby. In the second one, the reprise of 'If I Loved You', Billy's spirit has returned to earth to see his daughter graduate; his ghost, unseen, sings part of the duet that he and Julie sing earlier in the movie. By the time they sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' again at the very end of the film, I'm usually to be found curled up in a ball sobbing pathetically. It's just the most beautiful film, and unusual because - although it's not a good musical unless there's a bit of tragedy in it - it was one of the first musicals to have a mainly-tragic plot. I swear, between this and Paul Robeson singing 'Ole Man River' in Showboat, I'm a complete basketcase.
Oh Gods, I need tissues now...so much for more cheery and lighthearted...but what a bloody brilliant film!!
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