 Starring: Gordon McRae, Shirley Jones, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Ruick
Director: Henry King
Year Of Release: 1956
Plot: After his death, former carousel barker Billy Bigelow asks to be sent back to earth for a day to help his family. To convince those who have the power to let him go, he recounts meeting young mill worker Julie Jordan at the carnival, which causes both of them to get fired from their jobs. They soon fall in love and marry, but it’s not an easy union, as while Billy has a soft side, he’s also quick to anger and often does impulsive and potentially dangerous things. When Julie becomes pregnant, it sets Billy off on an even more self destructive path. |
Carousel is quite important in the history of musicals. Oklahoma is normally classed as the first ‘integrated musical’, where the songs all genuinely relate to what’s happening in the plot, rather than just being random excuses to burst into song (although there’s a good case for Jerome Kern’s Showboat, 1927, being the real first integrated musical). And they really were random excuses, for example Lady Is A Tramp and My Funny Valentine both come from Rodgers & Hart’s Babes In Arms, but the musical itself is so random and perfunctory, and the songs have so little to do with the story, that the musical has been completely forgotten while the songs remain - which is true of many of the most famous tunes from the 30s and 40s.
However Carousel, which Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote in 1945 (although it didn’t come to the big screen until 1956), directly after Oklahoma, was an attempt to move things forward even further, with a more complex plot and themes, and a far more sophisticated score. Rather than the normal pattern of song-scene-song-scene, it took lessons from opera in how to use the songs to create character and have one song after another which dynamically contrast different people against one another.
There’s also the song Soliloquy, which Bill sings about his hopes and fears for his unborn child. It’s often cited as the first example of a musical tune where it takes you inside a character’s head and actually shows the person changing, so that they’re a different person at the end of the song than they were at the beginning. With Soliloquy, Bill starts out worried and concerned about his impending fatherhood, goes through fantasies of what it might be like, while coming out the other end with a new resolve to be the best dad in the world, and that he needs to change in order to do that. Changing characters through song is something that’s become a staple of musicals, but it started here.
However while more interesting and sophisticated in many ways, Carousel wasn’t as big a hit as many of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s other musicals such as The King and I and Oklahoma. The problem is partly that while it’s a very good score, it’s less memorable than some of their others. The only full-on stand-out tune is You’ll Never Walk Alone, which is now probably more famous (in the UK at least) for being Liverpool Football Club’s anthem, rather than from coming from Carousel.
However there’s also a problem with the characters, which particularly in this day and age makes the film rather awkward. Billy is a bit of a lout. He’s quick to anger and irresponsible, ready to lash out and do the wrong things (although occasionally for the right reasons). At one point he even hits his wife – and this is where the problem comes
[Spoiler Alert] In the original Hungarian play the musical is based on, Billy gets his single day back on Earth where he has a chance to redeem himself, but he fails and as a result realises he’s that there’s no hope for him. However lyricist Oscar Hammerstein was an eternal optimist and decided he didn’t like that idea, and so invented a new happier, slightly bittersweet ending. In order to do that he has to get Julie to forgive her dead husband, and he does it in a bizarre and rather problematic way.
Billy comes back to meet his daughter, Louise, but screws it all up, scares her and then slaps her. Once he’s gone, Louise says “Honest, there was a strange man here, and he hit me hard. I heard the sound of it, Mother, but it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. It was just as if he kissed my hand... But is it possible, Mother, for someone to hit you hard like that - real loud and hard - and it not hurt you at all?”
To which her mother replies, “It is possible dear, for someone to hit you, hit you hard, and it not hurt at all.” This is the moment Julie forgives her husband, but it doesn’t really work. She may be talking metaphorically and the ‘hitting’ is merely her way of forgiving her husband for everything he did to her, but it undoubtedly sounds like she’s saying wife-beating is okay, as long as you really love your husband. To be honest, that’s not an uncommon theme in musicals, as you also have things like Nancy in Oliver, who sings about how she doesn’t mind being beaten up by Bill because they love each other. Both Oliver and Carousel try to sell this as somehow romantic, but it doesn’t really work in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (in Oliver later events put Nancy’s feeling in perspective).
However while love conquers all is normally a good theme, when it involves someone forgiving somebody who’s hit them and generally treated them badly, just because they love them (but there’s no preceding action to warrant it), it seems rather morally dubious and a quick, easy answer that doesn’t work. It means that while the film has been leading up to this moment, it’s rather underwhelming, especially as it seems to make excuses for hitting your wife. The song You’ll Never Walk Alone offers some emotional impact, but what’s happening to the characters to back it up doesn’t feel valid.
It means that while as a musical Carousel is really interesting both historically and with what it tries to do, but as a piece of entertainment it’s slightly lacking and morally a little suspect.
TIM ISAAC
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