4 Movies / October 20
Composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) were probably the most popular collaborators in the history of musical theatre. That popularity increased as the pair saw their biggest stage hits (including South Pacific and The Sound of Music) transferred to the screen.
Rodgers and Hammerstein enjoyed a partnership that lasted for almost two decades and yielded nine Broadway musicals, six of which were adapted as movies, plus an original musical for film and another for television.
The formidable lineup of awards won by Rodgers and Hammerstein shows and films includes 34 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, and two Pulitzer Prizes.
TCM’s tribute to R&H includes the movie for which the team created the script and the score: State Fair (1945), a Technicolor musical from 20th Century Fox based on the novel by Philip Stong and a 1933 movie of the same title starring Will Rogers.
The 1945 version stars Jeanne Crain as the daughter of a family preparing for the Iowa State Fair, with Dana Andrews as a reporter who falls for her. Walter Lang directs a cast that also includes Dick Haymes and Vivian Blaine.
Crain’s song “It Might as Well Be Spring” (dubbed by Louanne Hogan) won an Oscar as Best Original Song and became an American standard.
The King and I (1956), also directed by Walter Lang, was based on the 1951 R&H stage musical, which in turn was developed from Margaret Landon’s 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam and a 1946 non-musical film by that title.
The Broadway production starred Gertrude Lawrence as Anna and won Yul Brynner a Best Featured Actor Tony Award in the role of the King. Brynner graduated to star billing for the film, which brought him an Oscar as Best Actor.
After consideration was given to Dinah Shore (!) and Maureen O’Hara, Deborah Kerr was cast in the role of Anna Leonowens, who comes to Siam to teach the monarch’s many children and ends up also educating (and learning to love) the king himself.
Kerr, expertly dubbed by Marni Nixon, was Oscar-nominated as Best Actress for the film. In addition to Best Actor, the film also won in the categories of Art Direction, Costume Design, Scoring, and Sound Recording.
Carousel (1956) is the screen version of the 1945 R&H stage musical, based in turn on Ferenc Molnár's 1909 drama Liliom. When Frank Sinatra bowed out of the leading role, Gordon MacRae inherited the plum part of carousel barker Billy Bigelow, who is killed in a fight but gets a chance to return to Earth to help his family.
Shirley Jones costars as the wife with whom Billy shares a tragic yet inspiring love story. Also in the cast are Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Ruick, and Gene Lockhart.
Songs include “If I Loved You,” “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Henry King directs, and the outstanding choreography is by Agnes De Mille.
Flower Drum Song (1961), a film version of the next-to-last R&H stage musical, is set in Chinatown of the 1950s and was produced on Broadway in 1958. The story, taken from a novel by Chinese-American author C.Y. Lee, concerns a nightclub owner whose family wants him to marry a bride from China.
Henry Koster directs a cast headed by Nancy Kwan (singing dubbed by B.J. Baker), James Shigeta, and Miyoshi Umeki. The show’s most popular song, “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” was recorded by several pop singers including Doris Day and Peggy Lee.
The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards, for Musical Scoring, Cinematography, Costume Design, Art Direction, and Sound.
