Customer Reviews

Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I was browsing through the DVD section when I came across this gem. I'm not a big musical lover myself but I found myself humming along by the end of the DVD. "Rodgers & Hammerstein - The Sound of Movies" is a well done A & E television production. The various sections of the DVD are hosted by Shirley Jones, Rita Moreno,Charmian Carr, and Nancy Kwan. The documentary covers classic movie productions of State Fair, Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I, The Sound of Music, etc. With interesting tidbits about casting, production, missing scenes and/or songs, this documentary has something both people who love the musicals and those who have never seen them before. By the end of the documentary, you actually will want to see the movies themselves. There are no special features to the DVDs except the ability to do chapter searches so there probabily is no advantage to buying this on DVD versus VHS or laserdisc.

For my final critic,i've made a nice pick with this excellent documentary, that has excerps of all of the duo's screen adaptations ,along with some footage of DICK AND OSCAR on GROUCHO MARX SHOW(he makes fun of their names)and some scenes never seen before ,like FRANK SINATRA singing a song from CAROUSEL.To present this, they choose actors who were in these movies:SHIRLEY JONES,JULIE ANDREWS,RITA MORENO ,and even the girl who dubbed DEBORAH KERR for THE KING AND I.A documentary well worth seeing ,that can certainly be the start for future fans to be.You'll have fun seeing screen adaptations in different countries.There is no doubt today that RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN are part of the AMERICAN culture heritage, it's no wonder that TIME made them entertainer of the century.

Aside from the excellent documentary the extras are a great bonus-especially the screen tests. For the remake of STATE FAIR you get to see Ann-Margret's entire original Fox screen test, she sings Bill Bailey, Mack the Knife and in a test for the role of Margy she does a scene and sings It Might As Well Be Spring. Also included are test scenes for the part of Emily-the part she played in the movie. Andy Williams tests for the part of Pat (the reporter) with Barbara Eden as Margy and he sings a bit of All I Owe Ioway (he's from Iowa) and then does a great version of It Might As Well Be Spring. There's also something called Foreign Dubbing Test/The Sound of Music which is Marni Nixon singing most of the songs Julie Andrews sings in the movie. They don't explain exactly what it's for but it's a nice bonus. Mitzi Gaynor performs A Cockeyed Optimist and A Wonderful Guy in her test for South Pacific. There are also a bunch of Sound of Music tests as well. Since these aren't on the DVDs of the movies themselves they are a great addition for R&H movie fans.

I have the first one The Sound of Movies one on VHS that I bought back in 1996 and this new DVD version is so much better than the one I have on VHS.

There is so much more information about the movies than before and seeing the screen tests were pretty interesting also.

Although I think on some of the screen tests they went a little overboard and after a while that part got a little tedious.

Otherwise I love how they put each movie into a chapter and I can then go to the movie I want to see.

I recommend this DVD to any Rodgers & Hammerstein, Julie Andrews and fans of movie musicals in general.

This would make a wonderful Birthday or Holiday Gift for a close friend or family member.

Both my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing once again the music of Rodgers & Hammerstein and
watching clips from movies that we saw many years ago. It all brought back pleasant memories and we've
decided that they just don't write movie musicals like they used to. And what a shame.

I bought this as a gift for my mother and she loved it. When I received it in the mail, I checked it over and noted that there was no damage and the DVD was not lose in the case. I was well pleased with the condition and how quickly I got it after ordering it.

The documentary "The Sound of Movies" takes viewers back to a time where going to the movies was an event that did not require families to take out a second mortgage for a night out and didn't include cell phones, conversations, and 20 minutes of commercials before getting to the main event. "Sound of Movies will have viewers humming as they are taken on a journey behind the scenes of such beloved musicals as The Sound of Music, South Pacific, The King and I, Flower Drum Song, Carousel, Oklahoma, and the two musical versions of State Fair written for the stage and screen by the prolific songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Hosted by Shirley Jones (who appeared in Oklahoma and Carousel), the documentary gives an inside view of these great musicals and provides plenty of interesting trivia and anecdotes on most of the films, as well as rarely seen footage and outtakes, potential casting choices left on the cutting room floor, and the inspiration behind some of the timeless stories. On hand to present the segments pertaining to their movies is Rita Moreno (The King and I), Nancy Kwan (Flower Drum Song), and Charmain Carr (The Sound of Music).

Finally someone gives snaps to Marni Nixon, the often un-credited voice behind so many Hollywood leading ladies including Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Wood and Deborah Kerr (she even had a cameo as a nun in The Sound of Music).

I loved this documentary the first time I saw it on television ten years ago - it renewed my interest in the lost art of the grand musical and opened my eyes to a fantastic movie I'd never seen before - Flower Drum Song. And on DVD, viewers are able to go directly to the movies they want to learn more about. There are also lots of bonus features including trailers for films, Movietone newsreels, and a variety of screen tests for the movies.

Why I like it... very interesting stories about how these movies got made and a lot of background information is provided. In particular, I love the story about Frank Sinatra and how he was in the running to play the main part in Carousel. If you enjoy musicals like me, you will love this DVD.

I'm sorry, this is not as good as the other reviews suggest.

Firstly, the outide of the package does not really tell you what is inside. Quote: "Here are without doubt, the greatest song-and-dance numbers ever seen on the silver screen..."

What we actually see are a bunch of snippets, outtakes, and auditions, all of which are of a certain interest, admittedly, but we don't get any complete performances, no doubt for copyright reasons. So, in fact, the CD contains only material that is often given away free to fill up the extra space on DVDs of feature films.

The cover also inaccurately describes Charmian Carr as a leading lady.In fact she played a supporting role in The Sound of Music, and that is about the sum of her movie career. I suspect that she was picked for the part to ensure that Julie Andrews was not outshon by a younger sexier actress. Andrews had lost the lead role in the move of My Fair Lady, in which she starred in London and Broadway because she was seen as not sufficiently attractive. Her subsequent success in Mary Poppins had put the lie to this, and here she was as the main love interest to Christopher Plummer.

Or, in the section about South Pacific, just before a segue into the opening of the song Bali Hai we are told that Juanita Hall won a Tony for her role in the stage version, but not told that her singing in the movie was overdubbed (at the insistence of Richard Rogers) by Muriel Smith who had starred onstage in the London version. If you listen to the original cast recording (starring Mary Martin) in which Hall sings, you will realise that the dubbed versions of Bali Hai and Happy Talk in the movies are considerably superior--and these are the versions with which we are all familiar.

These may seem like minor points, I know, but most of the documentary content of the rest of the video is equally soft in content. For example, a beaming Julie Andrews is shown saying that she was surprised to be offered the Sound of Music as she had expected it would go to Mary Martin who had played the role on Broadway. This is complete baloney, and Andrews knew it, as Mary Martin had already been replaced by Mitzi Gaynor for the movie role in South Pacific because she was way too old to play the role on the screen and there was no way she would have been selected for the movie lead role in the Sound of Music at the age of 50.

It was nice to see a nod given to Marni Nixon who voice doubled for Deborah Carr in The King and I. She also voice doubled for Audrey Hepburn in the movie of My Fair Lady, and for Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno in West Side Story, and yet her work was originally completely uncredited and unacknowledged until these movies started to be issued on VHS, even though she was practically the voice of the musical for a generation movie goers.

So if you are hoping to get the best songs from the movies as the title "The Sound of Movies" implies, you will be disappointed, and if you want accurate historical information about the casting and making of these movies, then you won't get that either.

Still, if you love Rogers and Hammerstein musicals and movies, as I do, then you will probably want to see this anyway out of curiosity. I just don't know if I would pay full price for it again if I knew what was in the box.

Stupid me, I saw the cover (Julie Andrews in the apron with blue sky and lots of grass) and thought it was "The Sound of Music" NOT The Sound of Movies. Product label got me and I bought something I didn't want.