Product Details

• Actors: Shirley Jones, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jeanne Crain, Groucho Marx
• Directors: Kevin Burns
• Writers: Debra Sanderson, Louise Gallop-Roholt, Steve Bell
• Producers: Kevin Burns, Jeff Scheftel, Kim Egan, Michael E. Katz
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English, French, German, Japanese
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: March 18, 1997
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304148348
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,222 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Sure, everyone's seen The Sound of Music, but how about Flower Drum Song? Or State Fair, either the 1945 version (a remake of a 1933 nonmusical) or the 1962 re-remake with Bobby Darin, Ann-Margret, and Pat Boone? Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies is a comprehensive and entertaining 97-minute documentary surveying the film career of the beloved songwriting team and how their screen work was interwoven with their stage work. (State Fair was written directly for the screen before they began adapting their stage shows for film.) Host Shirley Jones (the ingenue in both Oklahoma! and Carousel) provides numerous trivia tidbits on most of the films, while segments on The King and I, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music are presented by those who appeared in them: Rita Moreno (Tuptim), Nancy Kwan (Linda Low), and Charmian Carr (Liesl), respectively. Also of interest will be original casting possibilities (James Dean in Oklahoma!, Marlon Brando in Carousel), rarely seen outtakes, live television performances, and clips from films that inspired Rodgers and Hammerstein's shows (including Rex Harrison as the king of Siam). Because Rodgers and Hammerstein's films were deeply involved in the development of widescreen techniques such as CinemaScope, this documentary is savvy enough to present its clips in letterboxed widescreen format, but that footage is occasionally grainy. Unfortunately, The Sound of Movies was filmed in 1995, four years before the release of sumptuous remasterings of six of these featured films. --David Horiuchi

Product Description

The movies came alive with the sound of music the day that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II teamed up to pen a spectacular string of musical hits. Their legendary collaboration produced seven motion picture masterpieces in all State Fair, Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific, Flower Drum Song and, of course, The Sound of Music. Join host Shirley Jones and leading ladies Julie Andrews, Rita Moreno and Nancy Kwan for the ultimate behind-the-scenes tour of these enduring classics. Here are, without a doubt, the greatest song and dance numbers ever seen on the silver screen, featuring stars like Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Mitzi Gaynor and Christopher Plummer. With spectacular film footage and never-before-seen outtakes, screen tests and home movies, RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: THE SOUND OF MOVIES shows us why these are the songs we'll be singing for a thousand years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fall in Love with Rodgers & Hammerstein, March 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Rodgers and Hammerstein - The Sound of Movies (DVD)

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.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN LIVES ON, December 2, 2000

By 

ALAIN ROBERT (ST-HUBERT,QUEBEC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rodgers and Hammerstein - The Sound of Movies (DVD)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful for R&H Fans, November 3, 2005

By 

Irving Parke-Rhode "Irv" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies (DVD)

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.