WHV Announcement: Mystic River and The Music Man (Blu-ray)

Agreed. should look and sound great in Blu! Looking forward to this.

I just hope and pray that Warners remasters the film before doing the Blu-ray encode. The film doesn't look anywhere near as good on DVD as GYPSY does. GYPSY would have been my choice over THE MUSIC MAN (both released the same year - 1962), but I'm delighted nevertheless with this news release.

Great News! Looking forward to this one. I would have thought "Gypsy" would have come to blue ray when WB released the Nataile Wood set, but maybe next year?

Music Man is my favorite musical.  Looking forward to the release.

Seventy-six Trombones led the big parade...with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand...can't wait for February, Ron!

I bought the HD-DVD player early on because this was one of the announced titles. Well, that never happened and I can't wait to get my Blu-ray copy in Feb.!

I'm definitely glad to see The Music Man coming, but am I the only one who detests the cover art? It's almost as bad as the cover for South Pacific.

I thought the cover art was pretty good. "The Music Man" never really had great poster art. This is clean and simple. I was hoping this one would be a Digi-pak since it is a classic.

The Music Man is a must-have title.  I can only imagine how good it might look (and sound) on Blu-ray! 

February seems like a long way away. 


This film may have one of the most highly quotable scripts of all time. 

Very glad this great musical is coming to Blu-Ray. We are not seeing enough classics coming out these days in SD or HD. Fox added new features for the Blu-rays of THE ROBE and SOUTH PACIFIC (the documentary on SP is one of the best I have seen on the making of any movie- extremely thorough). The only new extra on MUSIC MAN is the presentation of 2 trailers. Let's hope we get the original theatrical one in 2.35 : 1. Thus far Warners have only given us a short 'teaser' trailer which looks like it may have been a TV spot to me. I think a Shirley Jones hosted audio commentary track would be a great idea- wonder if Ron(ny) Howard would be willing to participate? Susan Luckey is still with us and attended a special screening of a restored print of CAROUSEL a few years ago- she may be willing to be involved . I have seen stills from a reprise of 'Pickalittle Talkalittle' which occured directly after the scene in the Malt Shop involving Shirley Jones, Hermione Gingold and some of the 'Biddies'. (I believe it was in the stage version). If the footage exists , this would be a nice extra feature too.
    I first saw this in Melbourne's Regent Cinema in Collins St in Easter 1963 (at the age of 3 and a half) and have loved it ever since. They truly don't write them or make them like this anymore. For those who may not know, many actors who turned down the role on Broadway (such as Danny Kaye,Gene Kelly,Dan Dailey, Milton Berle and Ray Bolger) were clamouring to do the movie but Meredith Willson insisted -much to Warners' dismay -that Robert Preston immortalize his Tony-award-winning stage performance on the big screen. Warners' preferred choice- Cary Grant- apparently stated "Not only will I not do the part but I won't go and see it if Robert Preston doesn't play Harold Hill!" Bing and Sinatra were reportedly determined to win the role but thankfully we have one of the 20th Century's geatest musical performances preserved on celluloid for many generations to come. Most critics then and now (inc Pauline Kael!) agree that it is one of the best adaptations of a stage musical to the screen. Bravo Warners! Keep the classics coming!

Nice post, Michael! 

Welcome to the forum! 

It would be very cool if any footage existed of a reprise to Pick-a-Little.  The stage version has, indeed, always offered that reprise. 

Thanks Mike- nice to be here!  The stills from the Pickalittle reprise are in a novelization of the screenplay which Willson penned as a "tie-in" and it must have gone to publication before the final cut was established. Could be findable on Ebay. I don't think Warners were too good on retaining out-takes (egs. look at all the trouble Ron Haver went to to locate missing footage for the 1954 A STAR IS BORN, the 'Together' out-take from GYPSY seems to have come from a privately-owned 16mm print). In the doco (included again in the BluRay) they use a black+white segment from a "work print"- if this print is extant and complete, it could have it. I read that UA foolishly destroyed material in  a warehouse which included their out-takes(so we aren't likely to see 'Coffe Break' from HOW TO SUCCEED now.) I am surprised that no "extended CD soundtrack" of THE MUSIC MAN has been put together. Most of the other big musicals (inc GYPSY) have had expanded, remastered versions released to what I assume must have been good sales figures. I once sneaked on to the Warner Bros backlot in 1981 (with a helpful extra from 'Fantasy Island'!) and found many familiar buildings such as the Waltons' home (used in Bette Davis' DARK VICTORY in 1939 and no doubt many other movies), 'River City High School' and the MId-Western town set (used for River City, Salinas in EAST OF EDEN , KINGS ROW in 1941 and-at the time I saw it- Hazzard County for the TV series).
   As it was shot in Technirama (an anamorphic version of VistaVision) it was easy to blow THE MUSIC MAN up to 70mm.prints. It was shown this way in London, and I'm guessing in certain US cities. The costs would no doubt be prohibitive, but I would love it if Warner Home Video transferred this BluRay from a 65mm print. I have 2001 on Blu-Ray and it looks so good that I have been wondering if it was taken from a 65mm positive print. BluRay is, in fact, ideal for movies shot in this 'High-Def'  film format (twice the resolution of 35mm).
Has any other HTF MUSIC MAN fan noticed the balding heads amongst the crowd cheering+ observing the 'fantasy band' as it emerges from the High School hall in the Finale? I think they may be Warner executives making a 'cameo' appearance on what must have been an exciting day's shoot on the backlot. I could be wrong, but they just don't look like regular period-clothed extras to me!

  Fans may be interested (and saddened) to read about Timmy (Tommy Djilas) Everett's early demise at 39 after a troubled life.(Imdb used to have some posts dealing with his life on their message boards). He won a Theatre World award in 1958 for playing the suicidal young Jewish man in the Broadway version of THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS (which Warners filmed in 1960 with Robert Preston). Pert Kelton, who died only 6 years after MUSIC MAN was released, was an old-time Vaudeville performer who was in many movies in the early sound era, one of which (THE BOWERY) comes on the Fox movie channel from time to time. She was the original 'Alice' in The Honeymooners but reportedly was not retained in the cast due to persecution towards her and her husband in the McCarthy era.Final trivia note: I have read that Meredith Willson(real name Robert Meredith Reiniger) had no success in finding people to back his new show while the character of Winthrop was a spastic boy. When he was altered to a grieving introvert with a giant-size lisp, things changed! For one man to do the book (script),music and lyrics of such a brilliant+ legendary show is truly amazing and he is surely worthy of more credit for this achievement. His later shows were not as successful (though MOLLY BROWN came close, not that you would realize that easily from the number of clever songs that were dropped by MGM when they filmed it), but probably the  praise for MUSIC MAN which meant the most to him came from the great Richard Rodgers, who told him over lunch at Sardi's after the Broadway opening: "I'm a tremendous fan".( Me too.)

 If the extras you'd love to see were to have happened they would have had to be planned ages ago and obviously weren't.  It's too late now, as these things are put into production (in terms of pressing) months in advance.

Lionel59, What makes yoy say that Music Man was shown in 70MM in London.?
I don't recall it being shown at the Warner in wide format.Otherwise I would have saved my pocket money and gone!

Hi John,
   I'm sure I have read it somewhere. There is a site devoted to 70mm which lists it as one of the "unverified" titles shown in 70mm in England. I am rechecking some old Films + Filming magazines I have from the era and will get back to you when I find the original source. It is possible that it was planned for 70mm presentation and written up this way prior to its release but ultimately shown in 35mm. Interestingly, the Deepdiscount.com website states that it was filmed in 'Super Technirama 70' in their details on the blu-ray release. Cheers, Mike (lionel59)

Edited by lionel59 - 5/16/10 at 6:28am

Less than a month to go for this release. 

Amazon has the pre-order of The Music Man for $19.99.

Hi lionel59, I'm just checking but I thought your anecdote about Cary Grant being offered the lead in 'The Music Man' actually took place when Warners were casting 'My Fair Lady'.  They were looking for a 'typical Englishman' and felt that Grant had more pulling power for the role of Professor Henry Higgins (as opposed to Professor Harold Hill) than Rex Harrison, even though the latter had played the part for several years on stage.

At least, I'm pretty sure that was the case.

I heard that about My Fair Lady as well. I also heard that Grant's threat if they didn't cast Rex Harrison he would never do a film for WB again (he didn't anyway). This was from Julian Holloway, Stanley's son, on that film's 30th anniversary documentary.

Hi guys,
  Can't recall where I first heard the Grant/Harold Hill anecdote, but it was well before I heard a similar account regarding his rejection of the role of Henry Higgins. It is quite possible that he said the same thing about both roles. He was a bigger box-office draw than Preston and Sintra (Jack L Warner's first choice) at the time (due to NORTH BY NORTHWEST, OPERATION PETTICOAT,HOUSEBOAT etc., MUSIC MAN began shooting in 1961 so I'm guessing casting was done in '60/'61). In his excellent THE GREAT MOVIE STARS-THE INTERNATIONAL YEARS, David Shipman writes regarding the role of Harold Hill: "Certainly both Fred Astaire and Cary Grant were mentioned for it". Grant could have handled the "patter"-style songs but would probably have appeared more noticeably aged than Preston (though less so than Bing Crosby, who was also after the role). I have read that Barbara Cook was initially considered for the film, but as Da Costa was  doing his utmost to have Preston cast, there was probably little hope of a screen unknown co-starring with him once  Da Costa got his way. Shirley Jones had succeeded in screen musicals as of 1955  and won an Oscar in early 1961 so I'm sure she was a very logical box-office choice. Still, Cook's interpretations of the songs are un-beatable!  Still looking into the 70mm issue.  Cheers, Mike

 Already a number of reviews up on The Music Man but I will just add to the high marks given for this release. Viewing it on a 128" 2:35 screen and it looks great, an absolute treat. A first rate transfer and a wonderful film which I confess to never having seen until now, but I could not have waited for a better time and it gives me an idea of what it must have been like during it's first run. I hope Warners keeps them coming.

I don't see what the advantage would be in transferring to digital from a 65mm element. It would just mean having to go through another optical conversion to remove the anamorphic compression, which would reduce the image quality. It would make more sense to transfer it from Technirama, then do the anamorphic decompression digitally.

I wonder why the aspect ratio of the movie on Blu-Ray is almost exactly 2.4 to 1 ?

This is neither the correct aspect ratio for Technirama (2.35 to 1) nor for Super Technirama (2.2 to 1) so this would mean that some cropping has been done on the top and/or bottom of the frame.

This would also point more to a scan from a standard 35mm reduction element instead of the original 8-perf material.

That would be the best way to do it and if the intention was to pick up all the resolution one would scan the negative.

To save costs and in order not endanger the original negative however in several cases of large format production coming to Blu-Ray the scans today are done from wetgate IP's, examples for this would be Baraka and South Pacific.

 Everybody's talking about the musical so I'll chime in with my thoughts on Mystic River. I had the DVD sitting around unwatched since I bought it 3 years ago and finally got around to it this weekend.  I couldn't help notice how crappy the transfer looked for a relatively recent film. Maybe I'm suffering from the effects of  the "Blu-ray vs DVD" phenomenon (not being able to watch DVD-level quality after experiencing hi-def). Anyway, I won't be picking this up - I thought the movie was too long and it doesn't have a high re-watch value.
Edited by elDomenechHTF - 1/27/10 at 5:14am

I'll be moving on to the Blu-ray of Mystic River as soon as I finish the review I'm currently writing. It's no secret that I consider MR one of Eastwood's best films, and I'm counting on Warner to have done their usual fine work with image and sound.

Well, I had been hedging on whether to pre-order The Music Man from amazon at the $19.99 pricepoint as I have a nagging suspicion that the price will probably drop eventually after release. 

But, I didn't want to hedge anymore and decided to go ahead and take my chances that I won't get burned too bad.  This is one title I will be glad to have ASAP and I don't imagine anyone having it for much less than $20 on release day.  bestbuy.com currently shows a $24.99 price--common for their catalog BDs. 

I watched the Music Man Blu-Ray over the weekend and have to say if you like the film, it is worth the upgrade.

Great film.  I was happy with the transfer.  The extras are the same as the previous DVD. 

Hi again Matthew and Ken. I recently picked up Leonard Maltin's book MOVIE CRAZY. On p.7 in a chapter on the making of THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, he writes "years later, he [Jack L. Warner] reportedly wanted [Cary] Grant to play Harold Hill in THE MUSIC MAN and then wanted him for the role of Henry Higgins in MY FAIR LADY. In both cases, he was persuaded to ......stick with the parts' Broadway originators". This confirms what I had read earlier. I did in fact hear about his rejection of Hill before Higgins and it's quite possible he had the same comment for both roles (ie. 'I won't even go and see the picture if Robert Preston/Rex Harrison are not in it!") Cheers, Mike