Customer Reviews

Carousel (Widescreen Edition) [VHS]

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This brand-new 50th Anniversary edition of CAROUSEL is definitely a must for all fans of the uplifting and inspiring Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. Considered by Rodgers as the personal favourite of all his works, and based on the play "Liliom" by Ferenc Molnar; the story concerns innocent factory-girl Julie Jordan (Shirley Jones) and jaded carnival barker Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae). Despite coming from the opposite sides of the track, the two fall in love, but their relationship is tempered by Billy's violent outbursts and inability to find an honest job. When Julie becomes pregnant, he is talked into committing a robbery, but the plan backfires when he falls on his own knife and dies while trying to escape the police. Now in Heaven, Billy is given one last chance to redeem himself and to reconcile his now-teenaged daughter. Filled with haunting songs like "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", CAROUSEL remains a very moving film experience.

This DVD has been available for a while in the UK and Australia, and will finally get a US release this November. Extra features will include audio commentary from Shirley Jones and Nick Redman; an all-new featurette "Turns on the Carousel", vintage performances from the "General Foods" Rodgers & Hammerstein TV tribute (original Broadway leads John Raitt and Jan Clayton performing the complete Bench Scene/"If I Loved You"). Also included are several rare MovieTone news segments, and the deleted numbers "Blow High Blow Low" and "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan".

In an age where a science fiction thriller can approach 3 hours, it's interesting that back in 1956 20th Century Fox decided that a movie running two and one half hours was long enough for a musical. So what did they do? Oh, just merely edit out two movie sequences containing the songs "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan" and "Blow High, Blow Low". Hello? And how long was the classic 1939 "Gone With the Wind"? Over three hours? What a pity, because Rodgers & Hammerstein's wonderful "Carousel" (their personal favorite musical) deserved to be seen complete, no matter how long it may have been!! The deleted scenes added to the story and the songs were great. Luckily the two deleted songs can be heard on the VERY COMPLETE movie CD soundtrack (see my review of it). Since so many DVDs these days are coming out with Director's Cut versions of more recent movies, perhaps "Carousel" may one day be re-released in it's glorious entirety, that is unless the Hollywood morons of 1956 threw away the deleted film!! For the time being, let's be thankful for the "Carousel" of which I'm writing. Highly Recommended.

UPDATE:
On the recently reissued 2-CD set of "Carousel" is the 1934 french film "Liliom", in which "Carousel" is based upon. While an interesting bonus feature, it's ruined by subtitles that are flashed so quickly that they require speed reading skills. At other times there are extended moments in the film where subtitles don't even appear. A very erratic presentation, to say the least.

Overall, an excellent movie that I would highly recommend. It really makes an emotional connection with the viewer. From the Golden Age of the Rogers & Hammerstein musicals; this one, however,is not a comedy. In fact, it is pretty much a downer-- a tragic story that stands in contrast to the sunny, optimistic tone of most musicals of the 1950's. The development of the characters is excellent. Well-produced, visually appealing, with emotionally charged music and dance sequences. I have only one complaint. Shirley Jones certainly has a great voice and lots of screen presence, but I find her unconvincing in the death scene and therafter in the story--just too sweet and smily-face for such grim, dramatic material.
I did not interpret this movie as condoning wife-beating. Billy Bigelow (played superbly by Gordon MacRae) is portrayed as a human being with the full range of human feelings, good and bad, capable of both love and anger. I think the problem with some of your reviewers is that such a portrayal does not fit in with the anti-male political corecness that is prevalent on this issue today.

CAROUSEL represents Rodgers and Hammerstein's finest hour musically, the closest thing to Grand Opera the duo ever wrote. The 1956 film version showcases the best performance, before or since, that this magnificent score has ever received. Beautifully photographed on location in CinemaScope and Technicolor, the poignant and tragic love story of barker Billy Bigelow and factory worker Julie Jordan unfolds with compassion and conviction. Gordon McRae gives the performance of a lifetime as Billy and his stunning rendition of the seven-minute "SOLILIQUY" is one of the greatest vocal performances of the 20th Century. Shirley Jones, ravishingly young and beautiful in only her second film appearance, is equally effective as Julie, a naive inexperienced young woman who finds in tragedy an inner strength she never knew existed within her.

CAROUSEL's greatest strength is, however, the great songs, which are woven seamlessly into the story. What else can you say about a score that includes such standards as "YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE' and 'IF I LOVED YOU"? In the capable hands of the legendary composer/arranger/conductor Alfred Newman, Richard Rodgers' soaring melodies are taken to heights of brilliance undreamed of in the Broadway original. This is especially evident in "Louise's Ballet." Ken Darby's excellent choral arrangements and wonderful vocals by MacRae, Jones, Claramae Turner, Barbara Ruick, Robert Rounseville and Cameron Mitchell all add up to the most perfect performance of this musical ever.

See this movie with someone you love and bring extra handkerchiefs. Also prepare to be dazzled with the glorious New England scenery rendered flawlessly on this superbly produced DVD and Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest score in genuine 6 channel discrete stereo.

CAROUSEL is the kind of movie they just don't make any more. Most of today's filmmakers couldn't, even if they were courageous enough to try.

If you are a fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, you must own the new 50th anniversary DVD of CAROUSEL (1956), starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. The restored color, 2.55 ratio wide-screen for CinemaScope 55, and remastered sound are awesome. This is like opening night in 1956 New York.

CAROUSEL is based on Molnar's Hungarian play LILIOM, which was filmed by Fritz Lang in 1934 France with a superb Charles Boyer. A complete studio print of Lang's LILIOM is just one of many bonuses on disk two. Rodgers and Hammerstein added some of their most memorable songs ("You'll Never Walk Alone,:" "If I Loved You," "June is Bustin' Out All Over"), built up the role of Julie to make her a strong and likeable heroine, and gave the whole show a Heaven framework. (LILIOM has Julie in a supporting role, no songs, and Heaven only shown in the last reel.) Billy Bigelow is a carnival barker in a New England seaport (location filming was done in Maine) who loses his job, marries shy and lovely Julie, gets her pregnant, then dies during an evocative clambake. (I won't give away more details here). The play and film are in flashback from up in Heaven, so I haven't really given away too much plot.

Ample disk one bonuses, besides the restored movie, include an audio commentary with Shirley Jones, isolated music score, songs only option, and Karaoke sing-along. Besides all of the 1934 LILIOM, disk two has a TV kinescope excerpt of John Raitt and Jan Clayton (from Broadway) doing "If I Loved You; a filmmaking featurette; musical outtakes from the movie; Fox Movietone newsreels of Darryl Zanuck crowing about the glories of the short-lived CinemaScope 55, and the New York film premiere; and an ample stills gallery.

You really get your money's worth if you love musicals and invest in this brand-new DVD of CAROUSEL.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel is IMO their best musical. Today it's still hard to find a musical that mixed realism with fantasy as perfectly as "Carousel." Billy and Julie are not simply a "musical" couple. Their relationship has a depth and seriousness that goes beyond one-dimensional adoration. Topics such as alcoholism, domestic violence, teenage promiscuity, they're all in Carousel.
Maybe the musical subject was too much for Hollywood to handle, because this movie adaptation is very whitewashed. The storyline remains the same: Billy is an underemployed Carousel worker. He marries Julie, a factory girl, but their marriage soon falls apart due to his violence and underemployment. Billy dies, but in heaven he sees his daughter (who was born after his death) become misguided and promiscuous. Billy's spirit descends to the earth one more time to save his daughter. But the emphasis of this movie adaptation has changed. Much of the dialogue has been cut, as well as the more adult musical scenes. The awkward, lovely dialogue during "If I Loved You" is massacred, probably because it was too much in a Hollywood musical for characters to flirt so openly. The characters wear very expensive-looking clothing, again all wrong for a blue collar New England town.
Gordon MacRae is Billy, and he's another major problem of the film. Originally Carousel was to have starred Frank Sinatra, but MacRae was the ultimate Billy. MacRae was good in the film "Oklahoma" as the sunny Curley, but here his good-ol'-boy chipperness is a detriment. One wonders why a Billy as pleasant as MacRae would become an unemployed wifebeater. He has a handsome baritone voice, but the overall effect is vapidity. Shirley Jones (the Laurey in the "Oklahoma") is lovely to see and hear. She has more depth and range as MacRae, but she's working alone here. Julie is not simply a good girl. In the original musical, her "bad girl" side is explored with the song "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan." In this film,this song is cut. With many of her character-building moments gone, her Julie ultimately becomes another bland musical heroine.
It's a tribute to the strength of Carousel that the movie remains enjoyable and touching despite the whitewashing. Because this is R&H's loveliest score. I don't need to rename all the beautiful songs of the film, like "You'll Never Walk Alone" or "If I Loved You." But Carousel deserved a film that recognized that this was not just another sunny, smiley all-American musical. If ever there was a musical that deserves a cinema remake, Carousel is it.

Fans of the movie "Carousel" be prepared, at last the two disc anniversary edition is on its way. It was released three weeks ago in Australia and must surely be available at Amazon within the next few weeks. It has been released with two disc special editions here of "the King and I" and "South Pacific"(the best of the set) and of course "Oklahoma" and "State Fair" which have been available in the States for some time. Why three of these musicals were kept from release in the States is one of the mysteries of the age. Regardless "Carousel" is finally in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen and unlike the current print available is a beautifully remastered, clear as bell color print finally restoring this movie to its long overdue glory. Two discs have several features (not as many as the other R&H movies)some nice tidy specials and sequences from the 1954 Ford Anniversary special with the Original Broadway cast doing the entire 14 minute bench scene. The big disappointment is the audio commentary, for even though it has Shirley Jones and Nick Redman chatting away merrily (as in "Oklahoma") their knowledge of the movie is scant to say the least. They have to struggle to remember Robert Rounseville and Gene Lockhart's names(did not anyone supply them with a cast list) and even though there are some interesting vignettes along the way (such as how Barbara Ruick died so young and was married to John Williams the movie composer),they need some more info on the script of the musical itself.For instance, Shirley has played in the movie and when recording the commentary was playing Cousin Nettie on stage, yet no one seemed to ever tell her that Billy Bigelow always committed suicide in the stage versions and his falling on his knife was a cop out for the movie version to soften the darkness of the script and his intent. She says she loved the Lincoln Centre production, but clearly missed the lines about suicide and makes an idiotic comment about the falling on the knife being an idea they copied from "Oklahoma" (only the screenwriters, Shirley).This takes away from an otherwise delightful release, hopefully you will get it in the States soon.

A great musical, though it seems to be overlooked. There is much meaning behind the film, and it moved me a lot after I first saw it. The story contains the characters of Julie (Shirley Jones), a young lady who works at the mill, and Billy (Gordon McRae), a carousel barker. Both find love in the most unexpected place-each other. And because of that, they both lose their jobs. Then, when they both go to live with Julie's cousin, Billy, unemployed, is driven angry with nothing to do and abuses his wife, Julie. During the annual clam bake, his friend Jigger convinces him to take a knife to try to rob the mill owner of his money. Caught with nowhere to run, Billy accidently lands on his knife and is killed. (the scene where Julie comes to be by her husband's side in his final moments is very moving-my favorite scene.) Then up with the stars, he finds out he can go back for one day, to help his 15-year-old daughter (Julie just found out she was pregnant right before he was killed) keep from making the same mistake he did. During her graduation, he finally gets to show the love he has for his family, because he never had the chance to say it when he was alive. A very dramatic musical, about the golden chances you have here, and how quickly they can pass you by. So much to see under what lies above, this musical is one of the most meaningful movies I have ever seen.

Until about a month ago, I knew almost nothing about this musical, Carousel. I only had a vague awareness of one tune ("If I Loved You"). However, I came across an LP (yes!) of the film soundtrack and, on a whim, decided to buy it (what the heck, it was only 10 cents). After listening to the entire LP, I was thoroughly astounded. I happen to love Hollywood musicals, yet here was a new one for me. Shirley Jones and Gordon McRae sounded fantastic on the soundtrack, and I quickly purchased the DVD of Carousel. Needless to say, it is one of my most pleasing DVD purchases. For those who do not know, Carousel is Roger and Hammerstein's second Broadway musical, after Oklahoma, from the mid-1940s and was made into a film in the mid-1950s. It was supposedly filmed in cinemascope 55 (actually 35) and reunited Jones and McRae, who had starred together in the film version of Oklahoma.

The film was a flop when it was released, unfortunately. The reasons are multifold. First, the film cut out a few of the songs from the musical and cut out parts of other songs. These songs are present in full length on the soundtrack. Personally, this did not bother me, as I felt the cut songs are a little weaker than the rest, and the partially cut songs only had the intros cut, which wasn't a big deal for me. But it probably disturbed the purists during the film's initial release. Secondly, the musical, beautiful as it might be, is a bit of a downer at the end, which might have turned some audiences off. By the time West Side Story made it to the big screen, audiences' tastes had changed sufficiently but not yet at Carousel's initial release. Thirdly, the storyline is changed somewhat in the movie from the Broadway version; it starts at the end and is told mostly in flashback. I feel this was probably a bad decision on the screenwriters but was probably their way of compensating for the melancholy ending. At any rate, on my DVD, I just skip the first seven minutes and watch the film from there, so no problem. Lastly, some of the original choreography from the play was changed in the film; it was retained for the Louise's Ballet near the end but changed elsewhere. Again, this did not bother me, but then again, I haven't seen the theater version, so I cannot judge for sure. However, the choreography for Louise's Ballet was quite beautiful.

Anyways, the story deals with the bittersweet love between a young Maine girl and a carousel barker and the consequences that befall them after they run off to get married and return to the girl's coastal town. Along the way, we get to hear some truly breath-taking singing by Shirley Jones and Gordon McRae, especially in "If I Loved You," McRae's "Soliloquy," and "What's the Use of Wond'rin." I've rarely heard better singing in a musical. And the rest of the singing cast is superb as well, especially in the songs "When the Children are Asleep" and "You'll Never Walk Alone."

The DVD has been THX-remastered and it sounds quite heavenly (however, you need to change audio to hear it, as the DVD will by default start with the original 2-channel soundtrack). The picture quality is good enough (not superb, since there are some blemishes and the film's age shows here and there), but overall, the film looks great. Plus, we get to see some of the astounding cinematography of the cinemascope process that usually gets chopped when seen on TV.

I'm glad I finally saw this musical. For whatever faults the film version may possess, I think the music and the dancing and the poignancy of the storyline make this truly a worthwhile film to see. It is at any rate better than South Pacific or King and I or State Fair.

For lovers of musicals, I highly recommend Carousel!

Taking these words and the words from all the other songs and put them together, this ends up being a Rogers & Hammerstein musical and one of the best indeed.The editorial reviewier and some of the customer reviews about spouse beating and hidden messages of life-after-death is all rubbish. We have become so critical of EVERYTHING in life and instead of just enjoying the beautiful songs, the wonderful acting and the breathtaking scenery we try to pick this film apart. Do you really think that's what Rogers & Hammerstein wanted us to do? Personally, i don't think so. Just enjoy this beautiful remastered masterpiece.As far as the sound goes and i'm speaking first hand, hearing this on a THX system is the most wonderful fullness sound your ears will ever hear. My five speakers and sub-woofer were just playing their heart out during this film. The editor gives the sound 3.5. I give it 5.0. It's perfect.I'm sure the fans of this movie will know everything that i'm saying about this film is true. If you are a first timer with this movie, providing you enjoy musicals, trust me, you will display this musical with pride and wonder why you haven't seen it before.