Billy Bigelow, a rough-talking, macho, handsome carousel barker, and Julie Jordan, a young, innocent mill worker, live in the small town of Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

However, worried about finances and lacking work experience, Billy secretly agrees to join his pal Jigger Craigin in robbing Bascombe.

Fifteen years later in another world (apparently Purgatory, or the back door of Heaven), Billy is told that he can return to Earth for one day to make amends.

Billy returns to find his daughter Louise emotionally scarred by constant taunting because her father tried to commit a robbery.

He did not cut his hair after he finished filming Oklahoma!, and in July he starred in a Dallas State Fair production of Carousel.

"[8] Filming took place in the Maine locations of Boothbay Harbor, Camden, Newcastle, and Augusta as well as Paradise Cove in Malibu, California and the 20th Century-Fox studios.

[9] The film follows the stage musical faithfully except for five major changes: The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote:"Carousel," like "Oklahoma!"

before it, is a beautifully turned out film, crisply played and richly sung by a fine cast that is fully worthy of the original musical show.

Musical-theater scholar Thomas Hischak stated that the film "was a box office success across the country and 20th Century-Fox earned a considerable profit on the picture".

[12][13] However, Allmovie states: "The film's often downbeat tone ... did not resonate with 1950s audiences, making Carousel a surprising box-office flop.

The soundtrack album also features the complete version of "Carousel Waltz", which is first heard at the beginning of the original stage musical and early in the film.

Because of its length, only an abridged version of the waltz is heard in the film, and many stage productions of Carousel shorten the piece as well.

The later release was shortened by approximately five minutes by abridging the opening instrumental "Carousel Waltz" because of technical limitations of stereo.

A large team of orchestrators contributed to the complex musical arrangements, including Nelson Riddle, Herbert W. Spencer, Earle Hagen, Edward B. Powell, Bernard Mayer, and Gus Levene.

The rights then were obtained by Angel Records, which issued a second edition of the album featuring the complete "Carousel Waltz" in stereo for the first time.

The film was first telecast on The ABC Sunday Night Movie on March 13 and June 26, 1966 in a pan-and-scan, slightly edited format.

[18] It was shown on Turner Classic Movies for the first time on April 18, 2013 in letterbox format[19] and anamorphically enhanced in its proper aspect ratio.

The DVD edition debuted in 1999 and was rereleased in November 2006 for the film's 50th anniversary, concurrent with the 50th-anniversary release of The King and I and South Pacific.