Rodgers & Hammerstein:Sound/Mo: Julie Andrews, Charles Boyer, Charmian Carr, Charles Farrell, Shirley Jones, Nancy Kwan, Rita Moreno, Marni Nixon, John Raitt, Angela Cartwright, Kim Darby, Oscar Hammerstein II, Kevin Burns, Jeff Scheftel, Kim Egan, Michael E. Katz, Debra Sanderson, Louise Gallop-Roholt, Steve Bell: Amazon.ca: Video

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Sure, everyone's seen The Sound of Music, but how about Flower Drum Song? Or State Fair, either the 1945 version (a remake of a 1933 nonmusical) or the 1962 re-remake with Bobby Darin, Ann-Margret, and Pat Boone? Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies is a comprehensive and entertaining 97-minute documentary surveying the film career of the beloved songwriting team and how their screen work was interwoven with their stage work. (State Fair was written directly for the screen before they began adapting their stage shows for film.) Host Shirley Jones (the ingenue in both Oklahoma! and Carousel) provides numerous trivia tidbits on most of the films, while segments on The King and I, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music are presented by those who appeared in them: Rita Moreno (Tuptim), Nancy Kwan (Linda Low), and Charmian Carr (Liesl), respectively. Also of interest will be original casting possibilities (James Dean in Oklahoma!, Marlon Brando in Carousel), rarely seen outtakes, live television performances, and clips from films that inspired Rodgers and Hammerstein's shows (including Rex Harrison as the king of Siam). Because Rodgers and Hammerstein's films were deeply involved in the development of widescreen techniques such as CinemaScope, this documentary is savvy enough to present its clips in letterboxed widescreen format, but that footage is occasionally grainy. Unfortunately, The Sound of Movies was filmed in 1995, four years before the release of sumptuous remasterings of six of these featured films. --David Horiuchi

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The 2002 DVD rerelease of Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies is a significant upgrade over the earlier DVD. That had no bonus features, but there are plenty here: trailers for eight of the referenced films, three Movietone newsreels, and, best of all, a variety of screen tests borrowed from Hollywood Screen Tests, Take 1. You'll see, for example, a number of von Trapp children (whose tests were only glimpsed in the main program), Ann-Margret smoking up the screen with "Mack the Knife," Andy Williams wooing Barbara Eden before crooning "It's a Grand Night for Singing," "All I Owe Ioway," and "It Might as Well Be Spring," and a 20-second snippet of a young Mia Farrow singing "Sixteen Going on Seventeen." Also, the PCM stereo track has been upgraded to Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 and even DTS tracks; the sound, though, remains inconsistent due to the documentary's wide range of source material. --David Horiuchi

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charming insight Mar 14 2001

By Byron Kolln

Format:VHS Tape

This documentary is a charming insight into the collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, featuring lush widescreen clips from all of their filmed musicals, and photos from stage plays.

Shirley Jones, Nancy Kwan, Charmian Carr, Rita Moreno and Julie Andrews share their memories about starring in some of the greatest musicals ever filmed, while the commentary is engrossing, and never boring.

It's great to see such moments as Nancy in FLOWER DRUM SONG, performing the famous "I Enjoy Being A Girl" with the three-way mirror. We also find out that Charmian Carr (Liesl from THE SOUND OF MUSIC) performed most of "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" with a twisted ankle! Now that IS a trouper!

The intergrated overture comprising tunes from all the shows at the beginning, is ingenious, as is the whole enterprise. This is a must for fans of R&H and classic movie buffs alike.

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RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN LIVES ON Dec 2 2000

By ALAIN ROBERT

Format:DVD

For my final critic,i've made a nice pick with this excellent documentary, that has excerps of all of the duo's screen adaptations ,along with some footage of DICK AND OSCAR on GROUCHO MARX SHOW(he makes fun of their names)and some scenes never seen before ,like FRANK SINATRA singing a song from CAROUSEL.To present this, they choose actors who were in these movies:SHIRLEY JONES,JULIE ANDREWS,RITA MORENO ,and even the girl who dubbed DEBORAH KERR for THE KING AND I.A documentary well worth seeing ,that can certainly be the start for future fans to be.You'll have fun seeing screen adaptations in different countries.There is no doubt today that RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN are part of the AMERICAN culture heritage, it's no wonder that TIME made them entertainer of the century.

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Fall in Love with Rodgers & Hammerstein Mar 30 2000

By A Customer

Format:DVD

I was browsing through the DVD section when I came across this gem. I'm not a big musical lover myself but I found myself humming along by the end of the DVD. "Rodgers & Hammerstein - The Sound of Movies" is a well done A & E television production. The various sections of the DVD are hosted by Shirley Jones, Rita Moreno,Charmian Carr, and Nancy Kwan. The documentary covers classic movie productions of State Fair, Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I, The Sound of Music, etc. With interesting tidbits about casting, production, missing scenes and/or songs, this documentary has something both people who love the musicals and those who have never seen them before. By the end of the documentary, you actually will want to see the movies themselves. There are no special features to the DVDs except the ability to do chapter searches so there probabily is no advantage to buying this on DVD versus VHS or laserdisc.

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Rodgers & Hammerstein:Sound/Mo

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