Movie Musical Review: ****Oklahoma (1955)

This is a movie presentation of the original musical.  It seems to be very true to the original, including the overture, interacte music and all of the dance music. It starts with Gordon MacRae as Curly McClain singing "Oh what a Beautiful Morning,"  and just gets more delicious from there.  Laurey (Shirley Jones joins him with her beautiful voice.  Curly is courting for Laurey but she is not sure if she wants him, as she has promised to go to the party that night with Jud (Rod Steiger), their ranch hand.  Jud has a chip on his shoulder for anyone who thinks he is better than him.  At the same time there is a love interest between Will (Gene Nelson) and Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame).  I really like the song "Pore Jud is Daid."  If Jud is just playing along, or really thinking about what people will say when he is dead, I don't know.  However this song is a premonition of what is to some.  Laurey and Curly finally hit it off, and get married in the final scene.  This creates bad blood between Curley and Jud, which boils over on the wedding night. 
My only complaint about this movie is too much dancing.  Some of the dancing is cute, but the scene where Laurey is confused, the dance goes for ever.  The entire movie is two and a half hours.  They could have shortened it at least 15 minutes.  I do love the music,  "Oklahoma" is always a favorite, as is "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top."

Movie Review: ****Carousel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_NOweJAlq4

This is a classical musical picture.  It is the 1956 adaptation of the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical.  It has the classic song, "You'll Never Walk Alone" twice.  For this alone it is worthy of watching.  This show presents the unlikely marriage of Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae) and Julie Jordon (Shirley Jones.)  Billy is a carousel barker and Julie a factory worker.  Some of the music is contrived and forgettable.  People singing about the clams they are eating doesn’t quite cut it.  However this musical has more great music than I remembered.  “If I Loved You” is fun as the characters explore whether or not the really would ever get married, and then they do.  MacRae does the "Soliloquy" after finding out his wife is pregnant in which he sings to his future baby.  When he realizes he might have a baby, he realizes he needs some money.  For some reason he is not willing to take a job in the fish industry.  He decides to go with his pal and rob a business man.  This doesn't work out, and he ends up dead.  However, he is given a chance to come back and influence his daughter for good.  The speech of Dr. Seldon at his daughter's graduation is classic:   I - I can't tell you any sure way to happiness. I only know that you've gotta go out and find it for yourselves. You can't lean on the success of your parents. That's their success. And don't be held back by their failures...
Makes no difference what they did or didn't do. You just stand on your own two feet. The world belongs to you as much as to the next fella, so don't give it up. And try not to be scared of people not liking you, just you try liking them. And just keep your faith, and your courage, and you'll turn out all right. It's like what we used to sing every morning when I was a boy. Maybe you still sing it: "When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high." You know that one?
 The show then ends with "You'll Never Walk Alone."