The story opens up with a man, we'll assume he's an angel... he's dead that's for sure, and he's polishing some stars. Then the boss calls him into the office and they get to talking about his life, about whether or not he had any regrets or any unfinished business back on earth. He then begins to flashback to when he met his wife. The dead man's name was Billy Bigelow, and he made his living barking for carousels... that is standing in front of a carousel and bringing in customers, and on one night a pretty girl comes to the carousel, and he's quite taken with her. The owner of the carousel, an older woman with a bit of a thing for Billy, sees Billy's attraction and bans the girl, Julie, and her friend from the carousel. After Billy stands up for Julie, the carousel owner fires him, and Julie then chooses to leave her job (which fires female workers if they don't make curfew) to be with Billy, and the two of them get married. The story kind of goes downhill from here. Billy knows nothing else but barking and can't seem to find any work... and doesn't try very hard to get it either. The couple live off of Julie's cousin, and neither of them seem to be overly happy about their situation, Billy because he has nothing to do all day (not because he's a leech), and Julie because Billy is miserable... and sometimes takes it out on her. Billy starts becoming more and more elusive and angry as the days go by, to the point where he even beats Julie one night out of frustration. An old acquaintance seeks Billy out and tries to convince him to steal some money with him, but Billy isn't persuaded, until he learns that Julie is pregnant. Things don't go as planned, obviously, and Billy ends up dead. After telling his otherworldly warden this story, he is given the option to go back down to earth, and have the chance to help out the wife and baby daughter he left there. Will he go back, and if he does, will he be able to do anything to help the troubled family he left with nothing?!?!
This isn't my favourite Rodgers and Hammerstein, not by a long shot. Billy is a weak- willed, immature, good for nothing, lowlife who manages to catch the eye of pretty girl. He then proceeds to treat her poorly and leech off of her family members, rather than try to provide for her himself... and said after that he didn't mind it either. He's just an undesirable kind of man, cast in a romance and almost idealized... but watching this I couldn't feel that it was a love story. The guy didn't even want to see his own daughter because he thought she was in trouble... that's a good guy right there, someone who runs away from responsibility and challenges, even after death. And Julie was no better. She made more excuses for him than anything else, even after he beat her, which is only mentioned, we aren't shown that scene. I guess that was acceptable for the times, stand by your man and all... but grow a backbone.
Aside from that, movie wasn't wholly bad. Actually it was pretty good. The songs were pretty good and the storyline was alright if you're able to overlook the main characters' failings. The ending is also pretty sweet, and has a nice, 'don't let where you come from hold you back from where you're going' sentiment. Not a keeper, but worth a watch.
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