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