The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Hollywood's traditional take on Broadway musicals was already in its twilight by 1964, the year this MGM adaptation of Meredith Willson'sfollow-upto his smash hit,The Music Man, was released.  Tellingly, the film version ofThe Unsinkable Molly Browndebuted in the same year that the Beatles'A Hard Day's Nightarguably marked the end of what had been a four-decade film tradition. But ifMolly Brown(based on the true, rags-to-riches exploits of a tough Colorado woman whose improbable résumé included surviving the sinking of theTitanic) represented one of the last of Hollywood's successful conventional film musicals, it was far from a whimper, thanks to rousing performances byDebbie Reynoldsin the title role and the underratedHarve Presnellas the love of Molly's life. This edition marks the first CD release of the film soundtrack (which includes two numbers Willson penned specifically for the film) in nearly a decade, newly remixed and now supplemented by over 15 tracks of previously unreleased instrumental cues.--Jerry McCulley