76 Trombones Led the Way

A slice of American pie - Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I’m enjoying my 5 day July 4th weekend. The Texas sun has relented and we’re having a mild high temperature of 95 degrees – it’s a cold spell! Am sitting in Starbucks and happened on the last available inside table. It gets pretty competitive.

But enough small talk, let’s discuss my movies. In the last couple of days I watched 2004’s The Anchorman with Will Ferrell. How I missed seeing this silly but hilarious 70’s satire I don’t know. My favorite scenes are the animated “Pleasure Island” sequence, and the dog talking sense into the Kodiak bear. As with all Will Ferrell movies, approach it with a high tolerance for over-the-top nonsense. I have that tolerance and laughed my a** off.

Today, I watched The Decoy Bride, a 2011 Scottish import on Netflix. The movie’s title almost gives you the romantic plot line and predictable resolution in its three words. But – it has stunning visuals of the Hebrides Islands, beautiful music and fun people. Its plot is as obvious as a knock-knock joke, but the visual escapism makes it well worth watching. In all of moviedom there are probably 5 basic plot lines, and this is certainly one of them – well done none-the-less.

The movie at my “centerpiece” is 1962’s The Music Man, which I watched on TMC Tuesday night. In a discussion a couple of years ago, I was in agreement that Music Man is probably among the top 3, best ever American musicals. That’s saying a lot considering what all there is. Music Man was a Broadway hit just before it found greater permanence on celluloid. It’s a joyful slice of 1912 Americana – Meredith Wilson’s retelling of his childhood in small-town Iowa. It calls to mind a Mark Twain boyhood remembrance or maybe even a Norman Rockwell painting. It’s a snapshot of a wholesome era that maybe never actually was but we still reach back to it fondly. The song “Ya Got Trouble” warns of the evils inherent in billiards games and expressions like “Swell” or “Gee whiz”.

The movie plays out across summertime, and culminates on July 4th – a perfect dessert for this holiday week. Music Man is a romance which paired Robert Preston as huckster Harold Hill and Shirley Jones as Marian the spinster Librarian. It’s said that the studio bosses wanted Frank Sinatra or Cary Grant in the role of Harold Hill – thank heavens they kept Robert Preston (Frank and Cary turned it down out of respect to Preston). He channeled Harold Hill in a way no others probably ever could. The movie also gives us Buddy Hackett as Harold’s friend and Ron Howard as the adorable Winthrop. Music Man is a mixing together of veteran actors and new faces all in one incredible film set.

Most of the zany, love struck madness takes place on one summer night, with characters running in circles of confusion and desire. There is something almost Shakespearean about it – maybe A Midsummer Night’s Dream recast in early 20th century America. The songs are memorable and hummable and the overall message is one of hope and innocence (maybe even innocence regained).

How does one gauge the cultural impact of one movie? It was remade in 2003 as a Mathew Broderick vehicle. The “Shipoopi” dance number was meticulously recreated by the animators of Family Guy in recent years. The movie is shown frequently and almost always around July 4th. If you’re overfed with hot dogs and ice cream, give yourself another kind of treat – watch The Music Man and you too will hear the bells on the hill.

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