Carousel | |
---|---|
Based on | Carousel 1945 musical by Richard Rodgers Oscar Hammerstein II Liliom 1909 play by Ferenc Molnár |
Screenplay by | Sidney Michaels |
Directed by | Paul Bogart |
Starring | Robert Goulet |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Norman Rosemont |
Running time | 100 minutes |
Production company | Rogo Productions |
Original release | |
Release | May 7, 1967 |
Carousel is a 1967 television movie, produced as an Armstrong Circle Theatre special. It is based on the stage musical Carousel . It was produced by Norman Rosemont. [1]
In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, the swaggering, carefree carnival barker, Billy Bigelow, captivates and marries the naive millworker, Julie Jordan. Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant and, desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family, he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery.
It took producer Norman Rosemont several years to negotiate the rights. In December 1966, he announced he bought the rights from 20th Century Fox, who made the 1956 film version. Then Richard Rodgers objected, claiming Fox did not own all the rights. [2]
It starred Robert Goulet, who had performed the role on stage over the previous two years. He had just appeared in a television production of Brigadoon (1966) for Rosemont. [3]
The production was originally going to last for 90 minutes, but Rosemont worried that he would not be able to keep the whole score and any of the plot, and so he expanded it to two hours. Then in March 1967, the production was in the middle of rehearsals when it was picketed by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. However, the strike ended and taping was able to be finished by 18 April that year. [2] Filming took place at NBC's Burbank Studios. [4]
The Los Angeles Times called it an 'exceptional production'. [5]
Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II. The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He participates in a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes tragically wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the songs "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Richard Rodgers later wrote that Carousel was his favorite of all his musicals.
Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. The song "Almost Like Being in Love", from the musical, has become a standard. It features two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon.
John Cooper Jr. was an American actor and director. Known as Jackie Cooper, he began his career performing in film as a child, and successfully transitioned to adult roles and directing in both film and television. At age nine, he became the only child and youngest person nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the 1931 film Skippy. He was a featured member of the Our Gang ensemble in 1929–1931, starred in the television series The People's Choice (1955–1958) and Hennesey (1959–1962), and played journalist Perry White in the 1978–1987 Superman films.
Anthony George Franciosa was an American actor most often billed as Tony Franciosa at the height of his career. He began his career on stage and made a breakthrough portraying the brother of the drug addict in the play A Hatful of Rain, which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He reprised his role in its subsequent film adaptation, for which he won the 1957 Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was a British-American actor, whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his native England, before moving to the United States at the outbreak of World War II. He achieved prominence for his starring roles in How Green Was My Valley (1941), My Friend Flicka (1943), and Lassie Come Home (1943). Unlike many of his contemporaries, McDowall managed to evolve from child star into an adult performer and appeared on Broadway as well as in films, winning a Tony Award for his performance in Jean Anouilh's The Fighting Cock. For portraying Octavian in the historical epic Cleopatra (1963), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Julie Newmar is an American actress, dancer, and singer known for a variety of stage, screen, and television roles. She is also a writer, lingerie designer, and real estate mogul. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Katrin Sveg in the 1958 Broadway production of The Marriage-Go-Round, and reprised the role in the 1961 film version. In the 1960s she starred for two seasons as Catwoman in the television series Batman (1966–1967). Her other stage credits include Ziegfeld Follies in 1956, Lola in Damn Yankees! in 1961 and, in 1965, as Irma in regional productions of Irma la Douce.
Jane Powell was an American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door image, Powell appeared in films, television and on the stage, performing in the musicals A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Hit the Deck (1955).
Robert Gérard Goulet was an American and Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canada. Cast as Sir Lancelot and originating the role in the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot starring opposite established Broadway stars Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, he achieved instant recognition with his performance and interpretation of the song "If Ever I Would Leave You", which became his signature song. His debut in Camelot marked the beginning of a stage, screen, and recording career. A Grammy Award winner, his career spanned almost six decades. He starred in a 1966 television version of Brigadoon, a production which won five primetime Emmy Awards. In 1968, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for The Happy Time, a musical about a French-Canadian family set in Ottawa.
Emanuel Hirsch Cohen, better known by the stage name John Randolph, was an American film, television and stage actor.
Robert Wallace Foster Jr., known professionally as Robert Forster, was an American actor. He made his screen debut as Private L.G. Williams in John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), followed by a starring role as news reporter John Casellis in the landmark New Hollywood film Medium Cool (1969). For his portrayal of bail bondsman Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997), he was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Charles Sherman Ruggles was an American comic character actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films, often in mild-mannered and comic roles. He was also the elder brother of director, producer, and silent film actor Wesley Ruggles (1889–1972).
Patricia Neway was an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. One of the few performers of her day to enjoy equal success on both the opera and musical theatre stages, she was a regular performer on both Broadway and at the New York City Opera during the 1950s and 1960s.
A. Lehman Engel was an American composer for television, film, and operas and a conductor of Broadway musicals and operas.
Liliom is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was well known in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1945 musical Carousel.
Carousel is a 1956 American drama fantasy musical film based on the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on Ferenc Molnár's 1909 non-musical play Liliom. The film stars Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones and was directed by Henry King.
Marcus Lovett is an American singer and actor who was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. He is known for his roles in musical theatre. His credits include leading roles in The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Carousel and King David.
Otis Munro Bigelow III was a Broadway actor, playwright, and stage manager. He was one of the best-looking men in Manhattan in the 1940s, and one of the first partners of Christian William Miller.
Norman Rosemont was an American producer of films, television, and theatre.
Brigadoon is a 1966 American television film based on the 1947 musical Brigadoon.
Bruce Patane Altomari Yarnell was an American film, television, theatre actor and singer. He was known for playing the role of Deputy Marshal Chalk Breeson in the final season of the American western television series Outlaws. As a baritone, he performed in musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun, Bye Bye Birdie, Carousel, and Oklahoma!.