Moving further into the musical abyss, I find myself five years later than my first entry into this series. While there were many musicals made in-between
Meet Me in St. Louis and today's feature,
On the Town, many are difficult to find on DVD, Blue Ray, or by other conventional means, the ones that are don't really do it for me. On the bright side,
On the Town happens to ranks as one of my all time favourite movie musicals. Co-directed by Stanley Donan and Gene Kelly and with a cast featuring Kelly and Frank Sinatra,
On the Town (1949) represents the Technicolor musical at its most fun.
On the Town revolves around three sailors, Gabey, Chip, and Ozzie (Kelly, Sinatra, and Jules Munshin respectively), who are on 24 hour shore leave in New York City. It's their first time in the Big Apple and they want to pack in all the sites and dames that they can, and as you would expect misadventures abound. The main plot thread that extends throughout the picture is Kelly's pursuit of Miss. Turnstiles, aka. Ivy Smith (played by Vera Ellen), the New York Subway's flavour of the month pin-up. As the sailors search the city for Miss Turnstiles, each picks up a lady friend to aid in their quest. First, female cabby Brunhilde (the incredibly underrated comedian Betty Garrett) takes a shine to Chip and decided to give them access to her cab. Then while searching the Museum of Natural History they happen upon anthropologist Claire (Ann Miller) who declares Ozzie to be a perfect specimen of prehistoric man; unfortunately a lively song and dance number brings down an entire dinosaur skeleton, and puts the heat on our growing group. They decide to split up with the two newly formed couples taking off with each other and Gabey left to search on his own. Of course, he just happens to meet up with Ivy again and after melting her seemingly haughty veneer gets her to meet up with he and the group for a night on the town. The rest of the film is devoted to their night on the town and the continued hijinks of the three sailors and their gals as they try to do it all and avoid the cops.
On the Town is one of the more successful musicals in the fact that it does not sacrifice story for the musical numbers (a crime that many other musicals of the era are guilty of). While the story is pretty light and fluffy, it is always enjoyable and the enthusiasm of the performers shine through and infect the viewer with joy. The film never takes itself too seriously. I also can't think of a bad musical number in the whole film. The introductory number
New York, New York might be one of the most fun musical numbers put on film (the song is also an incredible earworm) and the film's centrepiece
On the Town is similarly enjoyable with the six main player singing and dancing their hearts out.
Where the film falters (only slightly!) is the five minute
A Day in New York ballet number where Gene Kelly, Vera Ellen and four other dancers representing the other character in the group pantomime the exact story we've just seen (the group on their night on the town). It's a bit redundant, but of the extended dance sequences in Kelly's movies (there is usually one per picture in the films where he has some creative control) it is probably the shortest and least jarring. It's also the least visually interesting. I'll get into Gene Kelly's obsessive devotion to the art of dance and the demands that he made of the actresses appearing opposite his in future musical madness articles (there are more interesting tales to be told with regards to other films). Of these films this one suffers the least under these creative demands.
On the Town is a wonderful film that doesn't demand much of the viewer. It is light and airy and presents the talents involved at their best. Noteable also is that this the first Hollywood musical to film on location. Just to infect you with a little bit of the fun, and show off some of those great on location shots, here's the great
New York, New York opening...
