The Music Man
Director: Morton DaCosta
Year Released: 1962
Rating: 3.0
Quick-thinking flim-flam man (Robert Preston) shows up in some dinky town in Iowa to run his unique scheme: convince the town to start a boy's band, collect cash from parents eager to see their children in some positive activity and then run (because he has no musical ability). The subtext is flimsy - mostly about one man's ability to hoodwink a large group of people known, apparently, for their "skepticism" and the ability for love to straighten out a dishonest man - but Preston single-handedly holds the work together: it's a tour-de-force in every sense, a bravura exercise in delivery and timing and more importantly, about the sheer delight an actor can take in the act of 'performing.' Helping things further is the quality of the songs (by Robert Meredith Willson) and the unflagging zest of the performers - it's fun and quaint.
