Liliom

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Liliom is a 1909 play by Ferenc Molnár, famous as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.

Plot

Molnár's most famous play, it concerns Liliom, a tough, cocky carousel barker who falls in love with Julie, a young woman who works as a maid. When both lose their jobs and Julie discovers that she is pregnant, Liliom, unbeknownst to Julie, agrees to participate with his friend Ficsúr, a criminal, in a holdup to obtain money to provide for the child. The holdup is a disaster, but Ficsúr escapes, and Liliom kills himself to avoid capture. He is sent to a fiery place, presumably Purgatory. Sixteen years later, he is allowed to return to earth for one day to do a good deed for his now teenage daughter, whom he has never met. He fails in the attempt, and is presumably sent to Hell. The ending, though, focuses on Julie, who obviously remembers Liliom fondly.

A contrasting subplot involves Julie's best friend, Marie, and Wolf Beifeld, a rather pompous hotel porter who marries Marie and eventually becomes the wealthy owner of the hotel at which he once worked. The two eventually have seven children, but the children never appear onstage in Molnár's play, although they are a very unpleasant bunch in Carousel, in which the number of children is increased to nine rather than seven. There is also a Carpenter in Liliom who is in unrequited love with Julie, and who, in contrast to Liliom, has a stable job.

Reception and adaptations

Liliom was a failure in Hungary when it was staged there in 1909, but not when it was staged on Broadway in an English translation by Benjamin Glazer in 1921. The production starred Joseph Schildkraut and Eva Le Gallienne. The two also starred in the first revival, in 1932. In 1940, a second revival, starring Burgess Meredith and Ingrid Bergman, played New York. In 1945, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Carousel, an American musical adaptation of the play, which became one of the great classics of musical theatre.

Even though the musical adaptation took liberties with Molnár's play, changing the ending so that the ex-barker is successful in his return to Earth, Molnár applauded Carousel. The character of Liliom's daughter, Louise, is made more poignant in the musical, in which she is snobbishly taunted and rejected because her father was a thief. In Carousel, the characters of Marie and Wolf Beifeld in Liliom become Carrie Pipperidge and Mr. Snow, and Snow, who becomes a fisherman in the musical, is made even more pompous than in the original play. It is Carrie and Snow's children who so viciously taunt Louise, although, in an effort by Hammerstein to keep Carrie sympathetic, she is totally unaware of this, and in contrast to Mr. Snow, is supportive of a potential budding relationship between Snow's eldest son and Louise. (The relationship is quickly cut short, however, when Snow's son insults Louise by stating outright that marrying her would be "beneath his station").

Carousel also Americanizes the story, setting it in Maine during the last part of the nineteenth century, and including a New England clam bake as the setting for some of the more cheerful songs in the show. The names of most of the other characters were changed as well. Liliom became Billy Bigelow, the criminal Fiscúr became Jigger Craigin, and Mother Hollunder, the boarding house keeper, became Julie's cousin Nettie. There is no Carpenter in Carousel.

There is an added layer of social commentary in Liliom which is deliberately omitted from Carousel. The intended holdup victim in Molnar's play, a cashier named Linzman, is Jewish, as is Wolf Beifeld. In Carousel, Linzman becomes Mr. Bascombe, the wealthy owner of the cotton mill at which Julie once worked.

However, many elements of Liliom are retained faithfully in Carousel, an unusual step for a musical play of that era. Molnár's basic plotline for Liliom and Julie is largely adhered to, as is much of his dialogue (although Hammerstein makes it more colloquial and gives it a New England flavor). Billy Bigelow is a womanizer and an abusive husband, as is Liliom in the non-musical play, but the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicalization is careful to stress that he has hit Julie only once, and that other characters erroneously believe that he is a habitual wife-beater. Carousel also retains the attempted robbery scene and Liliom/Billy Bigelow's suicide early in the second act.

Film adaptations

Liliom has been filmed several times, beginning in the silent era:

• The first film version, directed by Michael Curtiz in 1919, was aborted in mid-production because of Curtiz's flight from Hungary, and never finished.
• The second, a somewhat disguised and altered version reset in Coney Island, was made in 1921 and was titled A Trip to Paradise. It starred Bert Lytell.
• In 1930 came the first talkie version, a faithful adaptation made in English by Fox Film, although Ficsúr was called "The Buzzard" in this version. The character Hollinger, who is alluded to in the stage version but never actually appears, was one of the supporting characters in this film, and Mother Hollunder, the boarding house keeper, was re-christened Aunt Hulda. Directed by Frank Borzage, the film starred Charles Farrell and Rose Hobart, and was not a success.
• Next came the most notable film version of Molnar's original play - the 1934 French film, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Charles Boyer and Madeleine Ozeray. This one is available on DVD. On the whole, it was a very faithful adaptation. Lang, however, changed Molnar's pessimistic final scene into something more hopeful. He also omitted the characters of Wolf Beifeld and the Carpenter. Mother Hollunder was renamed Mrs. Menoux. In Lang's version, Hollinger again appears onscreen. He serves as a substitute for the Carpenter, and is changed by Lang into a rather twerpy young man foolishly infatuated with Julie. The criminal Ficsúr, who leads Liliom into committing a holdup, was renamed Alfred.
• The play has also been adapted for both Austrian and German television, respectively.
• Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical adaptation, Carousel, was made into a De Luxe color film by 20th-Century Fox in 1956, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. The movie version of the hit musical failed to attract wide public attention at the time, although its soundtrack album was a best-seller and remains so to this day, but it has since taken its rightful place as one of the Rodgers and Hammerstein film classics. (See the article on the film, Carousel.)
• A television adaptation of Carousel, starring Robert Goulet and an unknown singer-actress named Mary Grover, aired in 1967 on the ABC network.

Major Characters in 'Liliom'

Liliom, a carousel barker
Julie, a housemaid who falls in love with Liliom
Mrs. Muskat, owner of the carousel
Fiscur, a criminal
Mother Hollunder, owner of the boarding house at which Liliom and Julie are staying
Young Hollunder, her son
Marie, Julie's best friend
Wolf Beifeld, a hotel porter and Marie's fiancée
A Carpenter, in unrequited love with Julie
Louise, Liliom and Julie's daughter
Linzman, a payroll clerk
The Heavenly Magistrate
Two Policemen from the Beyond

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Last updated on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 15:12:35 PST (GMT -0800)
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