Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae formed the perfect couple in the movie “Oklahoma!,” and the studio decided to pair them together again in “Carousel.” However, the two movies couldn’t be more dissimilar.
In “Carousel,” MacRae plays Billy Bigelow, a barker at a carousel. He has lived a hard life and picked up some habits he shouldn’t have. Julie Jordan is a young girl in the town who has caught his eye, and she’s interested in him, too. It’s not long before they fall in love, and soon they are married, although her family isn’t so sure it’s a good idea. But you take a naïve girl, show her a “dangerous” man, and it’s a surefire recipe for disaster.
Billy tries to put his rough ways aside, but he has a temper and he can’t seem to get a handle on it. Unfortunately, Julie gets the brunt of that temper on more than one occasion. When she tells Billy she’s expecting, he makes a better effort, but now he has another stress – how will he afford to raise a baby? A boy would be okay; you can give boys a rock and they’ll be happy, but girls need dresses and dolls and pretty things. He’s delighted at the thought of being a father, but desperation for money drives him to take an illegal job, and he ends up being stabbed and killed.
We go with him into heaven to find him being chastised for his choices, and he wants another chance. The angel allows him to go down to earth and see the effect he had on Julie and their child. He’s surprised to find that many years have gone by, and his child, a daughter, is a teenager and getting ready to graduate from school. He’s allowed to talk to her, and for some reason I just don’t understand, his old habits return and he slaps her. Because he’s dead, she doesn’t feel the slap, although she can hear it.
She runs to Julie, and asks her, “Mother, is it possible to be slapped and not feel it?” Julie then utters the stupidest line that has ever been spoken on stage or screen: “When someone you love hits you, you don’t feel it at all.”
What an absolute lie.
I saw a version of this play up at Sundance, and they changed that line to “When someone you love hits you, it hurts worse than anything.” That’s much closer to the truth.
This film does contain some great music; I’ll give it that. But my suggestion is to buy the soundtrack and leave the movie alone. It’s a complete downer, glorifies wife-beating, and leaves you wondering how they ever talked a nice guy like Gordon MacRae into playing such a worthless role in the first place. He should have thrown the script right back at them when it was offered.
Side note: Billy’s daughter Louise is played by Susan Luckey, who went on to play Anita in “The Music Man.”
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