On the Town (1949)

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

Directors:

Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly

Writers:

Adolph Green (screenplay), Betty Comden (screenplay)

Stars:

Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited 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 Shmeeler
George Meader	...	Professor

Storyline

Three sailors - Gabey, Chip and Ozzie - let loose on a 24-hour pass in New York and the Big Apple will never be the same! Gabey falls head over heels for "Miss Turnstiles of the Month" (he thinks she's a high society deb when she's really a 'cooch dancer at Coney Island); innocent Chip gets highjacked (literally) by a lady cab driver; and Ozzie becomes the object of interest of a gorgeous anthropologist who thinks he's the perfect example of a "prehistoric man". Wonderful music and terrific shots of New York at its best.

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Plot Keywords:

shore leave | central park | empire state building | hippodrome | rockefeller center | 

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Taglines:

Championship Musical of Them All!

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

The only musical numbers retained from the original musical were "New York, New York", "Come Up To My Place", "Miss Turnstiles" and "A Day In New York". Roger Edens composed six new songs for the film to replace the following songs: "I Can Cook, Too", "Some Other Time", "Lucky To Be Me", "Lonely Town", "Carried Away", "I Understand", "Carnegie Hall (Do-Do-Re-Do)", "So Long Baby", "I'm Blue" and "Ya Got Me".

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Goofs

The cab is a 1947 DeSoto, but the cutaway used for the interior shots is obviously a much earlier, pre-WWII model, the shape of the windows, particularly the rear windows, being noticeably different.

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Quotes

Claire Huddesen: You oughta feel proud that three sailors from the United States Navy got off the ship for one day, and what did they do? Were they thirsty for hard liquor? No. They were thirsty for culture. Were they running after girls? No. They came running to the museum to see your dinosaur. For months out at sea they were dreaming about your dinosaur.

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Crazy Credits

Before the actual credits the film opens with an embossed card on a silver dish, reading: "A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Silver Anniversary Picture." Most of the studio's 1949 releases opened with this.

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Connections

Referenced in Confetti (2006)

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Soundtracks

On the Town
(uncredited)
Music by Roger Edens
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung and danced by Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Ann Miller, Betty Garrett, and Vera-Ellen

User Reviews

Enjoyable Enough for Anyone in the Mood for Soft-centred Escapist Entertainment

This film has a very simple plot. Three sailors have 24 hours shore leave in New York. They met three attractive girls, and three romances blossom. And that's about it. The characterisation is really no more advanced than the plot development. The sailors and their sweethearts are each given their own idiosyncrasies, but none of them really emerges as a rounded individual. Fortunately, however, a complex plot and well-developed characters are not always essential to the musical genre, and "On the Town" manages to succeed reasonably well without these elements.

The film's most important quality is the energy and vivacity of its song-and-dance numbers. It was shot on location in New York itself, and the city is portrayed as a vibrant, exciting place, a new world as far as the sailors, who are all country boys, are concerned. There is also plenty of humour, such as the scene where Frank Sinatra wants to go sight-seeing, unlike his new-found girlfriend, a man-hungry female cab driver, who would rather take him back to "my place", Gene Kelly's search for "Miss Turnstiles", whom he imagines to be a glamorous and famous beauty queen, and the scene where the three men manage to demolish a dinosaur skeleton in the city's Museum of Anthropology. (Jules Munshin's girlfriend is described as a lady anthropologist, although the scriptwriters seem to have blurred the difference between anthropology and palaeontology). The songs are tuneful, although with the possible exception of "New York, New York" none of them are particularly memorable. Some have criticised the more formal balletic sequence near the end, but as far as I was concerned this was one of the best parts of the movie. After all, if you are going to make a film starring a dancer as talented as Gene Kelly, you might as well use his talents to the full.

This is not really my favourite musical. It lacks, for example, the indefinable magic of "Singin' in the Rain", which also starred Kelly, or the depth and social comment of "West Side Story", Leonard Bernstein's other New York musical made twelve years later. (The contrast between these two films shows just how far the genre had progressed in just over a decade). Nevertheless, it is enjoyable enough for anyone in the mood for soft-centred escapist entertainment. 7/10

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 December 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

On the Town

Filming Locations:

Third Avenue El, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,111,250 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1