Robert Preston reprises the title role from the stage version, starring alongside Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Ronny Howard, and Paul Ford.

The film also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Preston and Jones were both nominated in their respective acting categories.

Hill's wooing of Marian, who mistrusts him, has little effect, though he succeeds in winning the admiration of her mother and befriends her unhappy younger brother, Winthrop.

When Marian discovers that Hill's claim to being a graduate of Gary Conservatory is a lie, she attempts to expose him, but is interrupted by the arrival of the Wells Fargo wagon, delivering the band instruments that the townspeople had ordered.

When Winthrop, after years of moody withdrawal, joins in the townspeople's singing and speaks effusively about his new cornet, which had arrived in the wagon, Marian changes her mind about Hill.

The members of the original Broadway cast who appear in the film are Robert Preston (Harold Hill), Pert Kelton (Mrs. Paroo), The Buffalo Bills (The School Board), Peggy Mondo (Ethel Toffelmier), and Adina Rice (Alma Hix).

Susan Luckey (Zaneeta Shinn) and Harry Hickox (Charlie Cowell) both reprise their roles from the first national tour while Monique Vermont (Amaryllis) was a replacement.

Willson reminded Warner that the author-composer had cast approval written into his contract, and threatened to cancel the entire project unless Preston played the lead.

[9] Source: AllMusic[10] During the recording of the soundtrack musical numbers in late 1961 and early 1962 to which the cast would later lip-sync on the soundstage, some sessions included work on the song "Chicken Fat", a.k.a.

[11] Several phrases were altered for the film, as the writers felt they were too obscurely Midwestern to appeal to a broader audience; the minced oath "Jeely kly!"

Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote "It's here, and the rich, ripe roundness of it, the lush amalgam of the many elements of successful American show business that Mr. Willson brought together on the stage, has been preserved and appropriately made rounder and richer through the magnitude of film.

[17] Leo Charney reviewing for AllMovie wrote that the film "is among the best movie musicals, transforming Meredith Willson's Broadway hit into an energetic slice of Americana.

"[18] In 2005, The Music Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".