Movie Night: ****Carousel

This is a classical musical picture.  It is the 1956 adaptation of the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical.  It has the classic song, "You'll Never Walk Alone" twice.  For this alone it is worthy of watching.  This show presents the unlikely marriage of Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae and Julie Jordon (Shirley MacLaine.)  Billy is a carousel barker and Julie a factory worker.  Some of the music is contrived and forgettable.  People singing about the clams they are eating doesn’t quite cut it.  However this musical has more great music than I remembered.  “If I Loved You” is fun as the characters explore whether or not the really would ever get married, and then they do.  MacRae does the "Soliloquy" after finding out his wife is pregnant in which he sings to his future baby.  When he realizes he might have a baby, he realizes he needs some money.  For some reason he is not willing to take a job in the fish industry.  He decides to go with his pal and rob a business man.  This doesn't work out, and he ends up dead.  However, he is given a chance to come back and influence his daughter for good.  The speech of Dr. Seldon at his daughter's graduation is classic:   I - I can't tell you any sure way to happiness. I only know that you've gotta go out and find it for yourselves. You can't lean on the success of your parents. That's their success. And don't be held back by their failures...

  Makes no difference what they did or didn't do. You just stand on your own two feet. The world belongs to you as much as to the next fella, so don't give it up. And try not to be scared of people not liking you, just you try liking them. And just keep your faith, and your courage, and you'll turn out all right. It's like what we used to sing every morning when I was a boy. Maybe you still sing it: "When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high." You know that one?
 The show then ends with "You'll Never Walk Alone."