Rodgers & Hammerstein - The Sound of Movies

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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

Description

The movies came alive with the sound of music when Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II teamed up to pen a spectacular string of musical hits, including "Oklahoma!" The King and I," "South Pacific" and of course "The Sound of Music." Join host Shirley Jones and leading ladies Julie Andrews, Rita Moreno, Nancy Kwan and Charmian Carr for the ultimate behind-the-scenes tour of their motion picture masterpieces. With spectacular film footage and never-before-seen outtakes, screen tests and home movies, "Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies" shows us why these are the songs we'll be singing for a thousand years. Shirley Jones, Julie Andrews, Rita Moreno, Nancy Kwan, Charmian Carr Kevin Burns 96 1995 Not Rated No Full Frame Color 5.1 Dolby Digital English No None None Unknown 1

Customer Reviews:

Big Mistake.......2007-03-21

I was looking for "The Sound Of Music". I guess I'll have to update my spectacles and sharpen my reading skills.

Disappointing.......2006-12-01

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.

Sound of Movies a fine treat.......2006-08-04

Good variety, good pacing, good music - a fun, relaxing treat

Wonderful for R&H Fans.......2005-11-04

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.

This is a Wonderful Documentary.......2005-09-04

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.

Rodgers and Hammerstein - The Sound of Movies

Average customer rating:

Big Mistake
Disappointing
Sound of Movies a fine treat
Wonderful for R&H Fans
This is a Wonderful Documentary

Rodgers and Hammerstein - The Sound of Movies
Starring: Shirley Jones , John Raitt , Angela Cartwright , Joshua Logan , and Anna Magnani
Director: Kevin Burns (III)
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

Documentary | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: 6305085331
Release Date: 1998-07-29