Billy

If I recall correctly, Sinatra recordrd "Soliloquy" for Columbia in the late 40's-early 50's. The score would have to have undergone a change of style for him. I don't think Gene Kelly could have done it justice. They're both more the Joey Evans type, not Billy Bigelow.

I totally agree with the pro-Gordon camp. In fact ,he was 4th choice. The back of the laserdisc states that Howard Keel (who played Curly in London and was thus known to R+H) was sought for the role as soon as Frank walked off the picture. (Fox sued him and won- his compensatory work for them was in the lacklustre movie version of CAN CAN, in which a new character was written to accomodate his inclusion and the storyline altered dramatically.Ironically it was a financial hit for Fox. By the way, Henry Ephron records in his memoirs that Sinatra could not record the final portion of SOLILOQUY at the sessions before the location shooting began.Also, R+H were not happy with his casting and wrote Mr Ephron of their approval of the movie after the premiere in NYC). Mr Keel was unavailable (finishing up KISMET? A performance which is often under-rated) so Gene Kelly was the next choice. I'm sure he was a great PAL JOEY, but on Broadway that character was a dancer, not a singer. According to the laserdisc notes Kelly refused to have his vocals dubbed, so Fox finally went with the best Billy Bigelow ever, Gordon MacRae. Mr MacRae had not really played a challenging dramatic role at this point apart from a film noir at Warners called BACKFIRE. He had played Billy on stage and-like Betty Hutton and Annie Oakley- felt the part should ultimately come his way. He sang and acted it magnificently and should at least have been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. His final scenes in particular are done with great subtlety and sensitivity, unmatched by few others in film musicals which come to my mind.(Natalie Wood in WEST SIDE STORY is one who does). Although Fox abandoned CAROUSEL at Oscar time to put its weight behind THE KING AND I (a worthy title but not superior to CAROUSEL in my opinion), the Director's Guild championed Henry King, voting him a "Finalist" for Best Director of 1956 for this movie. Also the Writers Guild voted for it as one of the 5 best-written film musicals of that year (and I'm one of the few who view the "flashback" device as an improvement on the original stage libretto, possibly the Writers Guild felt the same way!). According to Henry Ephron, the film outdid OKLAHOMA! in New York for much of its run at the Box Office and it had the biggest financial take of a Fox movie in NY since THE ROBE in it's opening few weeks. It did very well in England and Australia and if anything, has grown more appreciated over the years as a fore-runner of "downbeat" film musicals, which were few and far between before '56. Any ill-advised remake will only make this superb production look better in comparison.

Actually, it was just a couple of years ago that Shirley found out that the real reason Sinatra left was that Ava Gardner, who was filming Mogambo with Clark Gable, told Frank that if he didn't get his butt over to the set of Mogambo, Ava would have an affair with Gable. Sinatra went almost immediately, using the dual-film-format issue as a convenient excuse to bail out of Carousel.

It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. -- Derek

I dislike Frank Sinatra personally. Sometimes I like him professionally (notably, Guys And Dolls and From Here to Eternity). But I'm glad he didn't play Billy.

On the other hand I've always wished for someone other than Gordon McRae. His acting is good enough but then that operatic baritone comes barrelling out of Billy's whiny, sulky, weaselly mouth. It just doesn't fit for me (nor does it complement Shirley Jones' voice).

Actually I'm still waiting for the perfect male sung version of If I Loved You. I've heard so many versions but not one seems to capture perfectly what the song needs. Any suggestions?