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playwright-for-hire. Thus, the phrase “a
river divides our two lovers,” which is
from the prologue of Romeo and Juliet,
has a second meaning. We also guess
that, through a series of events, the
premiere of the play will be performed
by Will and Viola in the respective title
roles, and that their masquerade will be
exposed sooner rather than later.
There are a number or minor players
— minor in terms of their screen
time, not their talent — who add
immeasurably to the delight. There’s
Hugh Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson), the
moneylender and avaricious investor,
who is offered a minor role in the play
and becomes as star-struck as Viola, succumbing
to the magic of the stage. There
is the formidable Judi Dench, who plays
Queen Elizabeth, who knows and enjoys
her privileges and powers, and carries
the wisdom of being a woman in a man’s
profession (both she and Paltrow got
Oscars.) There is an uncredited Rupert
Everett in a brief but memorable turn as
Christopher Marlowe. There is Martin
Clunes as Richard Burbage, the famous
actor who owns the competing Curtain
theatre, who delivers a key speech that
might have come from Shakespeare’s
own pen.
Much of the dialogue does come from
Shakespeare’s pen, and the powerful
poetry of Romeo and Juliet poses a challenge
for the screenwriters, who must
match the play’s memorable language
seamlessly, yet not make the phrasings
too obscure for a modern audience.
Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard keep
the balance perfect, and they too earned
an Oscar. Stoppard is familiar with the
language of Shakespeare, of course. His
hit play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead told the story of two minor
characters in Hamlet, and in such plays
as The Real Inspector Hound he showed an
affinity for inherently absurd dialogue
somehow made plausible.
The original DVD of the film was
exceptional, but this new Blu-ray release
is worth the investment. Not only is the
added sharpness welcome, but the greatly
extended tonal range serves the film well.
We see into the shadows of such dark
spaces as a tavern and backstage, and
when we emerge into daylight we blink,
dazzled as we are by the luminosity and
74 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
the rich colors. This is, in every way, a
film to buy and treasure.
The Music Man
Robert Preston, Shirley Jones
Warner 3000024778 (Blu-ray)
Rejskind: This 1966 Meredith Wilson
musical comedy remains a delight, and
like most classics it didn’t need a remake.
Fortunately the 2002 TV remake was
quickly forgotten, and it didn’t prevent
the re-release of the original on Blu-ray.
The film was shot in the old non-fading
Technicolor process, and the colors jump
off the screen.
The story is built around fast-talking
con man Robert Preston, who was also in
the hit Broadway production. He used to
raise money for a steam-powered automobile,
but — bad luck — “somebody
actually invented one.” Now he arrives in
River City, a small Iowa town, under the
name Harold Hill, hawking his current
product: a boys’ band, complete with
instruments, uniforms, and non-existent
music lessons. As luck would have it,
he runs across Marcellus Washburne
(Buddy Hackett), a one-time accomplice
who has fallen in love with small-town
life and a rotund local woman, and gone
straight.
Hill’s sales method includes stoking
anxiety over some “modern” development,
in this case the arrival of a pool
table in a town that knows only billiards.
He launches into an astonishing spiel,
delivered in the rich, sonorous voice that
made him famous, Trouble in River City.
His prescription: a boys’ band of course
(apparently the girls will do fine without
it). The mayor (played by Paul Ford)
is suspicious enough to be constantly
demanding, unsuccessfully, to see Hill’s
credentials. And besides, he owns that
new pool table.
In every town that “Professor Hill”
descends on, he must beware of one
person: the inevitable woman who gives
piano lessons, since she will presumably
see through him. His modus operandi is
to fog up her glasses. In River City the
piano teacher, Marian, is also the librarian.
She is young, single and (of course)
gorgeous, played by Shirley Jones, who
also starred in such blockbuster musicals
as Oklahoma! and Carousel. She does
pretty much see through him, being the
smartest woman in town, which isn’t difficult
considering that author Meredith
Wilson had pretty much adopted the
sexist conventions that were largely
unquestioned in 1962.
Will Marian reveal the truth about
Harold? You can’t have seen many
romantic comedies if you’re not already
expecting the two to fall in love. Marian
will be willing to forgive a lot, and
Harold will finally conclude that telling
the truth is good policy.
The film includes a number of local
characters, including Marian’s widowed
mother, her damaged nine-year old
brother Winthrop (played by Ronnie
Howard, much later known as director
Ron Howard), the blustering mayor
who is always trying to recite Lincoln’s
Gettysburg Address but gets interrupted
after the first couple of words,
and the mayor’s wife, who accuses the
librarian of distributing such “smut” as
The Rubáiyát. Then there are the four
members of the local school board who,
when Harold persuades them to start
singing, turn out to be the barbershop
quartet, The Buffalo Bills.
It also includes a lot of great songs
that would become more famous than
the show itself, including 76 Trombones,
Gary, Indiana, My White Knight and Till
There Was You. Who remembers that
this last song became so famous that the
Beatles sang it on their first LP?
Yes, the film is dated. The women
are mostly ignorant and superficial,
and there is a clear assumption that