This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

How sad is this?

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Great concept, great cast, great songs and music. The theme, plot, and story all boils down to one thing. That would be the "Music Man Syndrome". What that is, is the way a parent perceives their childs level of talent. When it comes to demonstrating any kind of talent, the parent thinks their child is best. I know I do.

So corny, it hurts. Robert Preston plays the scoundrel and despite his fast talking does not have the talent to make him likable. Totally overrated movie and the music is far from being stellar. The 2 points are for Shirley Jones alone. Don't waste your time with this cornball and listen to a real good musical

Confidence man Harold Hill arrives at staid River City intending to cheat the community with his standard scam of offering to equip and train a boy's marching band, then skip town with the money since he has no music skill anyway. Things go awry when he falls for a librarian he tries to divert from exposing him while he inadvertently enriches the town with a love of music.This movie gets points for having Opie Taylor (Ron Howard), even if it had nothing else going for it. But it actually has some pretty good songs. Most are not well known, but some are (like "76 Trombones") and some should be ("Marian the Librarian").This may not be my favorite musical (I am not sure what would be), but it is quite a bit better than a lot of them out there, and seems to be generally not as well known. Probably because of the lack of big stars. And that is a shame, because this is really quite the story.

Robert Preston, the vivacious actor, did outdo himself in this heart-warming musical classic about a typical film-flam man who, in the first score of years in the twentieth century, claimed to be a music professor when the truth of the matter was he didn't know the first thing about music. He steps off the train in this Iowa town where too many people were very naive, and their naivete was something upon which this "music professor" (known by the pseudonym Harold Hill) preyed. Little did people know, however, that he would bring the community much good. Shirley Jones, (who even at the age of seventy-eight is still a very pretty lady,) does a fine turn as the librarian Marian Peru (sp.) (?), a lady who definitely distrusts and dislikes the music man. (Her thoughts about him do later change.) Ron Howard, who even here is like Opie, does a superb acting job as Marian's little brother Winthrop. (Who would have thought then that many years later he would be producing such movies as "Backdraft" and "A Beautiful Mind"?) Paul Ford is nutty as Mayor Schinn, a cantankerous man who is, to some extent, someone no one fears. The mayor's wife, played by the veteran actress Hermione Gingold, is equally as amusing. Buddy Hackett, there in the movie mainly for decorative purposes as well, is convincing in his role as "Harold Hill"'s conniving friend. The costumes are colorful, there is much good humor, good acting by a great cast, excellent directing by Morton DaCosta, and, again, it is a wonderful story. Truly, it is Meredith Willson's "signature work".