The Music Man

A traveling con man named Harold Hill arrives in River City, Iowa, in the 1910s with a familiar scheme: he talks the townspeople into funding a boys' marching band, sells them instruments and uniforms, and plans to disappear with the money before anyone notices he knows nothing about music. The plan runs into trouble when he falls for Marian Paroo, the local librarian and piano teacher, and finds himself entangled with the community he meant to cheat.

The Music Man was directed by Morton DaCosta, who also produced it, from a screenplay by Marion Hargrove. It was his second film as director, following Auntie Mame in 1958. Robert Preston plays Harold Hill, with Shirley Jones as Marian Paroo, and the cast includes Buddy Hackett, Ron Howard, Hermione Gingold and Paul Ford, among 32 credited performers. The film is a musical comedy, and its song-and-dance numbers are central to how the story unfolds on screen.

Released in June 1962, the film cost about 4 million dollars to make and brought in roughly 15 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.7 from around 21,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.1 from roughly 201 votes. A critics' rating of 8.1 from 17 reviews places it somewhat above the audience score on IMDb. At 151 minutes, it runs long for a comedy, reflecting its stage-derived musical structure.