The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection (South Pacific, The Sound Of Music, The King And I, State Fair, Carousel, & Oklahoma!) [VHS]

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection (South Pacific, The Sound Of Music, The King And I, State Fair, Carousel, & Oklahoma!) [VHS] Overview

This lavish set contains film versions of the five major works by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who helped define the American musical landscape and rewrite the direction of musical theater. After enjoying extremely successful careers working with others, Rodgers and Hammerstein first teamed up in 1943 for the prairie tale Oklahoma!, with songs including "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" and "People Will Say We're in Love." The subsequent 1955 film starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, who teamed up again for 1956's Carousel. While that film's dark nature made it less popular than its predecessor, the score ("If I Loved You," "You'll Never Walk Alone") was Rodgers's favorite. The King and I (also 1956) featured stage star Yul Brynner as the King of Siam and Deborah Kerr as schoolteacher Anna Leonowens, who must learn Asian customs even as she tries to instill some of her Western ones. The somewhat bloated version of South Pacific (1958) follows two couples during World War II and features standards such as "Some Enchanted Evening" and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" from stars Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi. The last film, The Sound of Music (1965), proved to be the most popular, with Julie Andrews winning the hearts of seven children and their father with her blissful songs. And if the perhaps saccharine music and plot may test the patience of some, there's no doubt that songs such as "My Favorite Things" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" have charmed audiences around the world for decades.

Accompanying the Big 5 in this set is the relatively minor State Fair from 1945 (though it does have "It Might as Well Be Spring" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing"). Some may prefer other entries in the R&H canon such as Flower Drum Song or the television production Cinderella, but State Fair was included because it was one of the five films (not including Sound of Music) released in 1999 in sumptuous remasterings that allow their scores and locales to truly shine. The remasterings ensure good sound and picture quality throughout this historic collection. --David Horiuchi

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Union Pacific [VHS]

Union Pacific [VHS] Overview

"The legend of Union Pacific is the drama of a nation, young, tough, prodigal and invincible, conquering with an iron highroad the endless reaches of the West." This stemwinder of a foreword strikes the pseudo-biblical/American Empire keynote for Cecil B. DeMille's "history" of building the transcontinent railroad. Only the bombast--and Arthur Rosson's second-unit direction--rises to the film's epic mission. The mustache-twirling villainy is right out of 19th-century melodrama, and the romantic triangle of Joel McCrea's railroad troubleshooter, Barbara Stanwyck's aggressively "Oirish" postmistress-on-wheels, and their black-sheep chum played by newcomer Robert Preston is a feeble distraction. Worse, the stars do their stuff on studio sets, in sterile isolation from the locomotives, Indians, and buffalo hovering slightly out of scale on process screens behind them. There's not one but two train wrecks (always a DeMille favorite); in every other department, John Ford had C.B. beat 15 years earlier with The Iron Horse. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

My favorite western of 1939, with the excuse of Cooper, Wayne, Fonda and Power. Joel McCrea as efficient as the hero, but Cooper or any of these would make a much more romantic partners-in-the-wings for Barbara Stanwyck, perfect for their roles. Yes, the plot seems a bit 'crazy, maybe there are too many flag-wavers and stereotypical characters, but you have an entire train with famous people, a series of action sequences and a complicated romanticDance with Stanwyck through most of this movie long. Things are never boring, because there is a pantry full of thieves, the deal becomes a stage for McCrea and his gay bodyguard, often humorous. Anthony Quinn does not like his role as a crooked beard, refused to order another film by DeMille to make his future father-in-law too. Brian Donley is perfect as another devil in human form. Robert Preston, who often confused with Donlevy, has a more complicated tasktry to whose side you Stanwyck and decide who is really in love.

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