CATCH A CLASSIC Rodgers & Hammerstein
TCM, beginning at 5 p.m.
Get ready to tap your toes tonight when Turner Classic Movies presents the immortal sights and sounds of four of the most memorable big-screen musicals based on stage hits, or created originally, by the legendary composing team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. First is The King and I (pictured), the Best Picture Oscar-nominated 1956 adaptation of the duo’s 1951 theater production, itself based on Margaret Landon’s 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam. Yul Brynner won a Best Actor Oscar for his reprisal of his stage role of King Mongkut. The film costars Best Actress Oscar nominee Deborah Kerr as Anna, and the Oscar-winning score includes classic Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes like “Shall We Dance?” and “Getting to Know You.” Next is Carousel, also from 1956, based on the composers’ 1945 musical. Starring Gordon Macrae and Shirley Jones, the film features such notable songs as
“If I Loved You” and “You’ll Never Walk
Alone.” After that is the only Rodgers and
Hammerstein musical written directly for film — 1945’s State Fair. The movie introduced popular hits like “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” and “It Might as Well Be Spring,” which earned the composers a Best Original Song Oscar. Finally, Flower Drum Song is the Oscar-nominated 1961 big-screen adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1958 stage musical. It was the first major Hollywood feature film to have a majority Asian American cast in a story about contemporary Asian American lives, and among its songs that have remained popular is “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” — Jeff Pfeiffer