Question on the Final Scene (Spoliers)

the final parade is pure fantasy... or perhaps taken from the townies' viewpoint in which the band's first effort to play the minuet will be remembered as the grandest parade river city had ever seen. it's a story that will grow in glory with every subsequent retelling.

i don't think it's meant to be taken literally.

I don't think it's just implied that the final scene is much later - it HAS to be much later. The prior "trial" scene had been at night, everyone was still costumed for the sociable...but then the last scene is in the full light of day, and everyone is totally differently dressed. The "magic" switching of the old uniforms to the new was just artistic license...and perhaps implies there had to be a WHOLE lot of magic...or think method...in order for the pathetic little band to evolve into a full-fledged marching band.

The only thing that confounds the "much later" explanation is the appearance of the anvil salesman in the credits. He needed his time in the credits, of course, but in the "much later" reality he'd have been long, long gone...

The stage play ended with the kids just honking on their horns, playing nothing but tuneless cacophony. The parents, of course, were delighted, crying out "That's my Johnny" and such. But this is a movie, and a big final number was needed, so they went into fantasy, with their cheap little uniforms transforming into handsome equipage, and playing the "big number" from the show as an encore. Just go with it, and have fun. No logic about "a much later time" needed.



We provide ... Leverage.

Think of the band playing the Minuet and the think of the credits coming on - just printed credits rolling. It wouldn't have worked. After a big, spectacular movie musical like this, you need a big ending. To just cut out would have been worse than anticlimactic.

Given that, the magical transformation of the band uniforms, the change from night to day, and the fact that the finale band has over a hundred members (far more than a small town could supply) and the fact that they are not young boys all indicate that that final sequence is not to be taken as part of the movie but is an elaborate staging of the end credits.

I remember when I first saw it in 1962 how the audience cheered and applauded each actor or group of actors, just as if they were on stage live. That's how much everybody was caught up with enthusiasm for the film.

By the way, if you want to see the ACTUAL 1912 boys' band of Mason City, Iowa (which "River City" stood for) I posted a link to a photo of them a while back but it's still on the message board here on page 3.

I just got through doing the play, playing the anvil salesman (Charlie Cowell). The script ends with Mayor Shinn's line "Look, Mrs. Paroo, there's Winthrop!" The focus seems to be on Winthrop coming out of his shell as his coronet playing is to be the loudest. This justifies Marion and Harold being together and the whole town loving Harold. When reading the script, this ending is written in the style of a screwball comedy (i.e. it all ends when all hell breaks loose). There's no realistic ending and it ends in a futile mess, but the twist is that the "neck-bowed hawkeyes" described at the beginning of the play actually buy the schlock Harold is selling. The film could have effectively ended (albeit a postmodern take) with Harold grimacing at the band as they murdered the minuet and the Mayor giving his line to Mrs. Paroo, with both her and Marion looking on, smiling, and a close-up on Winthrop. Fade to ending title card and miniature soldiers for the instrumental curtain call. Still, DaCosta's ending is ideal for a stage-to-screen adaptation...so much so that when we staged our version, the director took scriptural liberties and added a line to lead into the marching band coming onstage. Winthrop ran to Harold, yelling "It all happened just like you said! River City has a band!" The Mayor responded with "Three cheers for Harold Hill" and those cheers cued the band to march through the audience. Charlie effectively ducked out just as the chase ensued. No recurrence.

Btw, while the guy who played Charlie in the film was fantastic, I would have loved to have seen Paul Reed (Car 54) reprise his Broadway role and the entire Rock Island included. The cast recording is brilliant!

You're seeing the band through the parents' eyes, a factor that Prof. Hill had overlooked. Haven't you ever seen a group of parents at a school play or music recital, enthralled with their children's performances, and convinced their children will grow up to be operatic sopranos, rock stars, Broadways stars, or whatever? That's what is happening in the last scene.

I agree that it is a quasi-fantasy sequence seen from the viewpoint of the town people. Marian has just given her impassioned speech in defense of Harold Hill. She has just admonished the town folk to remember what they were like before he came to town, and then what happened all summer while he was there. She had also just told Winthrop that everything he had promised over summer had happened in the way that people looked out for each other and the excitement they all felt in anticipation of the Band.

Remember it was Zaneeta who was the first to actually see the transformation. Tommy came out and as Zaneeta was watching him with love in her eyes, he transformed into the fully dressed drum major. Then the drummers transformed, then she did. This was a confirmation that the town folk believed in Harold Hill.