On the Town (1949)

Directors:

Stanley Donen
Gene Kelly

Writers:

Adolph Green (screenplay) and
Betty Comden (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 December 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Come On, Everybody, Let's Go On the Town!

Plot:

Three sailors on a day of shore leave in New York City look for fun and romance before their twenty-four hours are up.

Plot Keywords:

Sailor | Anthropologist | Turnstile | Prehistoric Man | Miss Turnstiles

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Gene Kelly	...	Gabey
Frank Sinatra	...	Chip
Betty Garrett	...	Brunhilde Esterhazy
Ann Miller	...	Claire Huddesen
Jules Munshin	...	Ozzie
Vera-Ellen	...	Ivy Smith
Florence Bates	...	Mme. Dilyovska
Alice Pearce	...	Lucy Schmeeler
George Meader	...	Professor

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #13929) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Argentina:Atp | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U

Filming Locations:

5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

In his later years, Gene Kelly held this film in very high regard. In one BBC interview he said something to the effect of, "We made better pictures than that, but that was the apex of our talent. That was it."

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Spectators can be seen watching the filming of the "New York, New York" number in Rockfeller Center (though it could be argued that the sight of three men in navy uniforms singing and dancing might attract attention, even in New York).

Quotes:

Chip: Gee, Gabey, why d'ya wanna chase girls all the time?
Gabey: I'll tell ya when your voice changes, junior.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: The Best of Molly Shannon (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

On the Town

Textbook case: how to f*** up a film

I HATE this movie. It has everything going for it, except (1) taste, (2) music, (3 )intelligence.

Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green wrote a great musical called "On The Town." It's about three sailors with a 24-hour leave in New York City in the middle of WWII. It's still a great musical, a musical with a great book of the quality of that of "Oklahoma!" that tracks the adventures, romantic as well as touristic, of three guys who cross the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan and want to drink in the whole city at once.

MGM takes an estimable amount of talent: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Vera- Ellen (the prosecution exhibit for "Tap Thighs," but lovely nonetheless), Betty Garrett (the least well-used comedienne of the era) and Ann Miller (exploited but never really employed), and turns what could have been a landmark film into a dismal excursion that would leave the average guy wondering why anybody would want to live in NYNY.

This is one of the supreme examples of why I hate MGM, the outhouse of the movie musical.

They dump the wonderful "Carried Away" number in favor of the inane "Prehistoric Man" number for Ann Miller to dance to. Gee, thanks, Roger Edens! They eliminate Hildy's great "I Can Cook, Too!" not to mention "Ya Got Me," "I Wish I Was Dead," "Imaginary Coney Island," "The Real Coney Island," and the incredibly lovely "Some Other Time" with more Roger Edens crap.

The stars that MGM hired to do this movie were capable of making a masterpiece, but MGM, in its infinite wisdom, knew how to turn it into a colossal dump, and they did. Part of the problem was the pretentious image it decided to project for Gene Kelly (speaking of crap, what about "American in Paris*?") This is part of my prelude to "Why MGM Musicals Suck" essay; You can see my top 10 movie musicals (there are really 12 so far) in my review for "You Were Never Lovelier."

Stanley Donen went on to make some wonderful movies ("Charade" and "Bedazzled," which features Raquel Welch as one of the seven deadly sins, guess which? among them. But MGM, especially when "adapting" Broadway musicals, showed an uncanny propensity for turning great theatre into execrable cinema, piling Pelions of goo on Ossas of substance, and doing no one any good in the process. MGM certainly didn't bring out Donen's best.

*In its Ferde Grofe orchestration, the most perverted of George Gershwin's great works--but that's for another discussion!