It's so hard for so many to watch this movie and realize that it's really the only time we ever got to enjoy a more-or-less unspoiled Judy Garland, even though the studio-imposed pep pills and near-starvation diet were already beginning to take their toll on the goddess-to-be. But it will always remain timeless, as much for Garland's performance and delivery of "Over the Rainbow" as the supporting performances of Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Margaret Hamilton, Charles Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Billie Burke and the Singer Midgets. The simple truth is that it's impossible not to love.
3. The Music Man (1962)
Robert Preston (much like Angela Lansbury just a few years later) faced inevitable obstacles when he emerged on Broadway as a musical star; he was very simply a leading man for the movies and that was that. But nobody else on earth could have done such a miraculous job as Professor Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's masterpiece or become that great a stage star overnight. If anything remains a tragedy about the casting of the film, it was using Shirley Jones as Marian Paroo who, no matter how splendid, could have easily given way for Barbara Cook to become a movie star if it was in the cards. But supporting turns by Pert Kelton, Ronny Howard, Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold, Timmy Everett, Susan Luckey and the barbershop quartet the Buffalo Bills only add to the magic.