The Music Man

(Morton DaCosta, US 1962, 151 min., 35mm)

Resolution #4: Learn how to play an instrument. Robert Preston gives a tour-de-force performance as Harold Hill, the incorrigible con man who brings “Trouble” to the small town of River City, only to be won over by its middle American charms and, of course, Marian the Librarian (Shirley Jones) and her son, Winthrop (Ron Howard). This lavish adaptation lost nothing in the translation from Broadway to the big screen. One of the most beloved musicals of all time features such songs as “Seventy-Six Trombones” and “Till There Was You.”