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Carousel Overview:

Carousel (1956) was a Musical - Drama Film directed by Henry King and produced by Henry Ephron.

SYNOPSIS

Time (and a spectacular new Broadway staging) has been kind to the memory of this widescreen, deluxe Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. MacRae brings a blustery energy to the role of Billy Bigelow, an ill-fated carny barker. The troubled soul finally settles down with a good woman (Jones), and then gets killed during a robbery. But the angels are merciful and Bigelow returns to Earth to make good with his wife and daughter. The Broadway musical was based on a Molnar play, Liliom. In 1930, Frank Borzage produced a screen version starring Charles Farrell. Fritz Lang filmed a French version in 1935 (his first film after fleeing Nazi Germany), which starred Charles Boyer.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Carousel BlogHub Articles:

Carousel (1956)

on May 21, 2014 From Journeys in Classic Film

Either Oklahoma! set the bar so high I’m unable to watch the other Rodgers and Hammerstein movies in their proper context, or there’s just several subpar shows which were adapted to film.  The King and I, for all the problems I had with it, held my interest in the areas of set design a... Read full article

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Carousel Quotes:

Jigger Craigin: 'Course, if you've got all the money you want, and you...
Billy Bigelow: I ain't got a cent! Money thinks I'm dead.
Billy Bigelow: To be perfectly honest with you...
Starkeeper: I WOULD be, if I were you.
Billy Bigelow: All right - I didn't mind livin' off her
[Julie's]
Billy Bigelow: cousin Nettie. It was just having nothin' to do that drove me crazy.
Billy: [singing] Longing to tell you, but afraid and shy / I let my golden chances pass me by. / Now, I've lost you / Soon I will go in the mist of day / And you never will know / How I loved you / How I loved you.
Billy: I couldn't get work, and I couldn't bear to see her... to see her...
Starkeeper: You couldn't bear to see her cry? Why don't you come right out and say it? Why are you ashamed you loved Julie?
Billy: I ain't afraid of anything. Look, if I can't go back, just say so.
Starkeeper: I didn't say you couldn't go back.
Billy: No, but you didn't say I could, either. You're just trying to make me sweat.
Starkeeper: No. I'm just trying to figure out what good you could do if I let you go back. You know... your daughter's down there. She's unhappy, she needs help.
Billy: My daughter? My baby is a girl? My-my baby's a girl?
Starkeeper: She isn't a baby anymore. She's fifteen years old.
Billy: And she ain't happy, huh?
Starkeeper: No, she ain't, Billy. You know, she's a lot like you. I think maybe that's why you could help her.
Billy: Can I see her from here?
Starkeeper: Sure, you can, if you want to.
Billy: If she ain't happy, I don't want to look.
Starkeeper: Right now, she appears to be having a fine time. There she is, running along the beach there, got her shoes and stockings off.
Billy: Like I used to do, huh?
Starkeeper: Yeah. Do you want to take a look at her?
Billy: What do I have to do to see her?
Starkeeper: Just look, and wait, and the power to see her will come to you.
Julie Jordan: [singing] And, what's the use of wonderin' / If the endin' will be sad? / He's your feller and you love him / There's nothin' more to say.
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Carousel Facts
In 1956, Twentieth Century-Fox had two Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II films in release - this film and The King and I, as well as the CinemaScope version of Oklahoma!. "Carousel", although a critical success, was a box-office failure (probably because of its very serious, downbeat plot), while "The King and I" was a smash hit both critically and financially. Because of this, Fox put all of its Oscar campaign clout behind "The King and I". The result was that "The King and I" was nominated for, and received, several Oscars, while "Carousel" became one of only two Rodgers and Hammerstein films to be completely shut out of the Academy Awards (the other being the critically savaged and unsuccessful 1962 remake of "State Fair"). Conductor and music supervisor Alfred Newman led the orchestra for both "Carousel" and "The King and I", and won for the latter film. One of "Carousel"'s art directors, Lyle R. Wheeler, and one of its set decorators, Walter M. Scott, also worked on "The King and I", and, like Newman, won Oscars for tha
Frank Sinatra was cast as Billy, but backed out because each scene had to be shot twice (once in 35mm, once in 55mm). Three weeks after he left, they found a way to film the scene once on 55mm, then transfer it onto 35mm.
There is a mistaken belief held by some that "Carousel" was filmed in separate versions - 55mm and 35mm. This is not true. The 55mm print was converted to 35mm, unlike Oklahoma!, which was literally filmed twice, once in 70mm and once in 35mm.
Two songs from the show, "You're A Queer One, Julie Jordan," as performed by Barbara Ruick and Shirley Jones, and "Blow High, Blow Low," as performed by Cameron Mitchell and a male chorus, were recorded, but do not appear in the final film. They are both included on the film soundtrack album.
Shirley Jones has said that of all of her musicals, "Carousel" is her favorite Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II score.
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