Rent Carousel (1956)

3.5 of 5 from 72 ratings
2h 3min
Rent Carousel Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones are reunited in this second classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. In this bittersweet love story, Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae), a smooth-talking carny barker, falls in love with a millworker (Shirley Jones) in a little town on the coast of Maine. Although Billy is killed during a robbery before the birth of his daughter, years later he is allowed to return to earth for one day to redeem himself - and to teach his daughter one very important lesson. This, the most poetic and lyrical of all the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, features the classics "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Actors:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Harrison Dowd, ,
Directors:
Writers:
Phoebe Ephron, Henry Ephron
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Genres:
Classics, Drama, Music & Musicals
Collections:
10 Films to Watch if You Like The Greatest Showman, All You Need to Know About Dump Month Movies, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Fritz Lang
BBFC:
Release Date:
20/03/2006
Run Time:
123 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.0
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • Cast List With Mini-Biographies
  • Production Notes
  • Movietone News

More like Carousel

Reviews (3) of Carousel

THE OLD FILMS ARE STILL THE BE3ST - Carousel review by db

Spoiler Alert
24/10/2017

I last saw this film in the cinema I thoroughly enjoyed it then and its was enjoyable all over again great singing and choreography

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Best of all - Carousel review by JK

Spoiler Alert
04/07/2020

Call me old fashioned but how people can rate the droning drivel of so many of today's 'musicals' in comparison to this masterpiece is beyond me.

Yes - it's dated, and in this PC world would probably be regarded as misogynistic, however, the theme, incorporating taboo subjects like domestic violence, class inequality and abandonment is bang up to date.

Better, too, to have four beautiful, brilliantly crafted and tuneful songs than 20 "I'll-see-how-many-anthems-I-can-get-out-of-these-five-notes" in the likes of Les Mis.

In my book - you can't get better than Carousel.

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Musical Fantasy. - Carousel review by Steve

Spoiler Alert
29/08/2021

Musical version of Ferenc Molnár's Liliom which was adapted by Frank Borzage and Fritz Lang in the thirties. Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae) is a fairground barker of superficial charm and foul disposition who ill treats his new wife, Julie (Shirley Jones). He dies while attempting a robbery on a local big shot, leaving Julie pregnant and alone. In the afterlife, with his family in trouble, Bigelow takes the opportunity allowed to all those in the spiritual sphere and returns to Earth for a day...

There's a lot that doesn't work in Carousel. Bigelow is such an unrepentant and contemptible lowlife that it's hard to believe in, or wish for, any possible redemption. The character of Julie Jordan is too sweetly virtuous to easily accept as a working girl growing up in poverty. The beautiful locations in Maine carry no impression of a realistic fishing port where lives are traded for a few dirty coins...

They retain too much of Liliom's realism to be credible within the conventions of a fifties Hollywood musical. And its acquiescence of domestic abuse makes it too difficult to want to suspend disbelief. The story is too dark for this kind of treatment.

Within the customs of a fifties musical, there is much to enjoy. Of course the songs are excellent, and You'll Never Walk Alone is one of the great, sentimental showstoppers. It is performed twice. The cinemascope is thrilling, particularly in accommodating the dance routines. The locations are lovely and the colour is bright and deep and luxurious. But none of that is harmonious with the story that's told. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

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