On the Town (1949)
Honors:
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra take audiences on a whirlwind
trip in the Big Apple in this screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical On
the Town. In the directorial debuts of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen this
picture dresses up the romance of New York City in a song and dance filled
production of precision and artistry. The next step of feature film musicals
take shape with Kelly undoubtedly its king as this film delivers a simple, yet
fun plot, wonderful choreography, its fair share of laughs, and plenty of charm
to deliver a Broadway style production with a Hollywood flare that simply
leaves viewers smiling.
On the Town is a musical comedy of three sailors with
a 24 hour leave in New York City on the look out for excitement and a bit of
romance. Gabey (Gene Kelly), Chip (Frank Sinatra), and Ozzie (Jules Munshin)
are three Navy sailors with a 24 shore leave while their ship is dock off New
York City and look to make their first visit to the big city a memorable one.
With initial plans for sightseeing everything they can Gabey becomes
infatuated with the image of a young lady on a subway poster and makes it his
mission to meet what he believes to be a beautiful big city celebrity. Along
the way to find “Miss Turnstiles” the boys find help in and become romantically
connected to two other ladies, Chip with aggressive female cab driver Hildy
(Betty Gerrett) and Ozzie with intelligent and elegant paleontology student
Claire (Ann Miller).
Gabey eventually finds his Miss Turnstiles, Ivy
(Vera-Ellen), and the two instantly fall in love, but Ivy is reluctant to
explain she not a celebrity and is in fact originally from the same small town
in Indiana as Gabey. Ivy’s abrupt end the group’s triple date sends our sailor
into a state of despondence, but they eventually discover Ivy needing to keep a
work engagement as a low-level Coney Island dancer, finally revealing her true
status to everyone. The group share the remainder of the fun filled night
together until the guys have to return to their ship where the next batch of
sailors come ashore looking for their own fun… on the town.
The feature is a bright, colorful piece of cinematic fun
that is pure entertainment for entertainment sake. A musical centered around
the artistry of dance with a loose, overly simplified plot as a vehicle for simple
fun with admiration towards the dance choreography execution of Gene Kelly and
his fellow players. This film takes what is fun about the movies and
romanticizes it for upmost enjoyment. It’s a simple film that allows the
audience to turn off their brains, put away their worries, and just let the images,
music, and talents take you on a vacation if only for an hour and a half. The
dancing is masterful, the images bright and awe inspiring, and the music catchy,
and sometimes iconic. This movie is set up to appear so casually fun and simple
despite all the hard work that went into making it.
An adaption of the Broadway musical of the same name, this
motion picture is the result of Gene Kelly’s successes under MGM finally
allowing him control of his own production along with co-director Stanley Donen.
Following the earlier success of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, which was
released earlier in 1949 directed by famed musical director Busby Berkley
despite all the lobbying of Kelly to direct it himself, On the Town was
a reward of sorts for Kelly for his fine work. It would be a trial run for him
to be given some creative control of at a larger level while MGM invested only
a fraction of a budget it would for other such productions for its debuting
director who happened to be its star.
A portion of the play’s music, including the most famously
the icon tune “New York, New York,” would find its way into the cinematic
adaption, but much of it would be axed for its more operatic tones in favor of
more upbeat melodies penned by Roger Edens. Because of this Bernstein would
boycott the film, distancing himself from the movie. For Kelly this was to be a
picture that was tailored to his skill set and to make this picture as flashy
as possible for movie audiences.
Kelly and Donen lobbied greatly for filming on location in
New York, being the city was the center of the adventure and in a way a central
character. Initial opposition by studio head Louis B. Mayer saw it as an
unnecessary expense when his studio backlot contained a section that could
stand in the metropolitan setting. Mayer would eventually relent allowing
production only a week of shooting in New York while the rest was contained to
the MGM studio lot. In that short time the production would make the most of
its stretch working on creative establishing shots and the memorable opening,
especially for the “New York, New York” number. Gathered were a series of
romanticized visuals in and around the Big Apple many that had to be shot
creatively from moving cars, or from low-key sets ups that did not draw
attention to the picture’s two popular stars while filming out in the open.
Apart from the whirlwind week in New York the technicolor
feature was shot on the MGM lot where the relatively low budgeted musical
feature flourished into the spectacle that it would come out to be. Kelly would
bring in his co-stars from Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Frank Sinatra
and Jules Munshin, to be his fellow sailors in this musical adventure. Sinatra
was still one of the most recognizable names and faces in the entertainment,
but beginning to dwindle in popularity, here playing a distant second fiddle to
Kelly who did everything he could to make Frank look like a gifted dancer.
For the female accompaniment the talents of Betty Garrett,
with her dancing talent and comedic delivery, and Ann Miller, with her long
legs and dancing grace, added to the appeal of the picture. Newer to the movie
scene was Vera-Ellen who portrayed the very crucial love interest to Gene
Kelly. It is clear Vera-Ellen was chosen for her immense dancing skill as she
and Kelly both manifest strength in their dancing precision and grace that can
be likened to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were in their heyday. Simply by
watching how she carries herself a viewer can tell how she was tailored for the
art of dance, while her acting was not quiet as keen as her counterparts.
Like many Gene Kelly musicals this film was a vehicle for
himself and his creative vision. The picture was centered his form of dancing with
camera placement, moments, and editing to planned to his exactness. Kelly as
director focused on the dancing while Donen, a dance choreography in his own
right, focused on the visuals of the beyond Kelly’s numbers. Donen’s care is
seen in the elaborate way the colors and locations pop within the frame. Kelly is
able to tell stories with his form of dance unlike many other contemporaries
could. Kelly’s style has a charm that gives his dance moves a charisma or ease,
simpleton in nature despite how difficult and calculated it was.
At the onset of the third act Gene Kelly takes over the
picture with an all-encompassing musical dance number that recounts the first
two acts in a glamorous Broadway style way of storytelling. In this number all
characters other than Kelly and Ellen are replaced far more gifted dancers as caricatures
to deliver a modern ballet of sorts that demonstrates the full range of vision
Kelly had as a filmmaker. He would deliver similar plot breaking dance creations
in other features, perhaps the most well-known in Singin’ in the Rain
(1952), but with that number being nothing about the rest of the picture.
Apart from the singing and dancing the picture is rather
simple in a wonderful way. The bright use of Technicolor is done so
wonderfully, even using simple primary colors to make each female character pop
on screen and easy to distinguish from each other in their dance numbers. New
York is made to look unpretentious, but the way it is displayed in the movie
gives it the romanticism that has lived on generations later. “New York, New
York” alone would become a representation of the city greatly from the way
Kelly staged the number throughout the iconic locations of Manhattan.
Audiences and critics would embrace the picture instantly.
The catchy movie, despite its fluffy nature, remains one of the most beloved
Hollywood musicals of all time. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Musical
Score the film is tops by the “New York, New York” number that has been
reenacted parodied countless times to manifest its culturally impact. Today On
the Town remains beloved by enthusiasts of the musical with its lighthearted
Hollywood fun forever linking it to the most iconic city on the United States.
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