The Seven Best Movie Musicals: #2

.2. The Music Man (1962)
Directed by Morton DaCosta
Starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones
Winner of the Best Adapted Score Academy Award. Nominated for 6, including Best Picture.

One of the most easy to like films of all time, Morton DaCosta's "The Music Man" is one of the few musicals where the story is actually better than the music. And, with a soundtrack this enjoyable, that's saying something. Shirley Jones steals every scene in the film as the tongue-in-cheek librarian Marian Paroo. When she sings, the world suddenly stops (yes, her performance is worthy of these kinds of buzz phrases). Simply suberb.