Musical Madness: On the Town

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...

While I'm on the Subject of Victorian Wares...

I have to say, now that late summer is upon us, my circadian clock (which is always set two months ahead) is putting me in a bit of a fall mood.  How fortuitous that Victorian Trading Company's fall preview arrived at my home last week.  While I'm more of a mid-twentieth century kind of gal, I still enjoy their array of Victorian knick-knacks, especially their Halloween paraphernalia.   If you're into antique replicas it's worth a look.        

Musical Madness: Meet Me in St. Louis

For some reason I've had the urge to re-examine some of my favourite Hollywood musicals of yesteryear.  I don't know if it's the summer, or that it seems like a lot of them have been turning up on TCM lately, but I just feel like doing a feature on them.  There are a lot of great musicals from the thirties, but for my money's worth nothing tops the Technicolour masterpieces came out during the forties and fifties.  This era of movie musicals was helmed by some of the greatest singers and dancers of all time, and not co-incidentally most will come up in more than one film.  But, enough about the genre, let's start a look at our first feature... which as the title espouses is Vincente Minnelli's charming musical on family life in turn of the century St. Louis, Meet Me In St. Louis (1944). 

Meet Me in St. Louis is most famous for the song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, which the incomparable Judy Garland sings towards the end of the film.  As a result it is often unjustly labelled as a Christmas film (much like It's a Wonderful Life), even though only a quarter of the film takes place during the Christmas season.  It could just as easily be labelled a Halloween film or a summer film, or even a turn of the century party film by that assumption.  In truth, the film tells the story of a year in the life of the Smith family as St. Louis gears up for the 1904 World Fair.  We see them first in summer, then in fall (Halloween to be exact), in winter (Christmas), and then in Spring when the fair finally begins. It stars Judy Garland as second born daughter Esther Smith who is trying to win the affections of John Truett (Tom Drake), the cute boy next door.  Older sister Rose ( Lucille Bremer ) is trying to get her long distance beau Warren to propose to her.  Only son Lon (Henry H. Daniels Jr.) is longs to be with Rose's rival .  Second youngest sister Agnes (Joan Carroll) is the picture of a know-it-all kid.  Youngest sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brian in a particularly irritating performance) obsesses about death.  Crotchety father Alonzo (Leon Ames) is trying to get ahead at the office.  Equally crotchety housekeeper Katie (Marjorie Main) is constantly antagonizing Alonzo. Mother Anna (Mary Astor) tries to appease her cranky husband and keep the peace.  Kind-hearted Grandfather (Harry Davenport) is always there with wise words for all. 

Instead of a grand sweeping story involving all the characters we are entertained with several vignettes which show each character's arch throughout.  Towards the end a plot twist arises that involves the entire family, and indeed it is the only real crisis of the film.  But, being a Hollywood musical it is resolved and all is happy again by the end.  As I have previously mentioned both Christmas and Halloween are highlighted in the film.  What a treat it is to get a picture of what those holidays were like back in the "good old days"  when people danced the reel at Christmas balls and Halloween was more about tricks than treats.  Despite the charm and the wholesome family values espoused in this film it has it's eyebrow raising moments.  The most shocking of which being the Halloween sequence, which starts out cute enough but by the end it is revealed that the two youngest Smith girls have committed a serious crime,  which probably resulted in several people getting injured and serious property damage.  What do you think the punishment is?  No ice cream with their cake and Esther scolding them! Whatever happened to the strap?  Or, forcing kids to spend a day in prison?  Esther doesn't even do it because of the people they probably hurt or the thousands of dollars of property damage.  It's because Tootie accused John Truett of trying to kill her.

Like most musical the story is secondary to the musical numbers, and there are definitely some memorable ones in this one.  Other than have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas the standouts in this film with have to be the Trolley Song, Skip-to-my Lou, and Under the Bamboo Tree (probably the only time Margaret O'Brian is partially tolerable on screen).  It also has its share of schmaltzy numbers that kind of throw the momentum off track a bit (there's at least one in the majority of the films I'm about to talk about).  In the case of Meet Me In St. Louis the two offenders are The Boy Next Door (too syrupy for my tastes) and You and I (a duet between Ames and Astor which brings the film's momentum to a screeching halt). 

Please don't let a couple of lacklustre songs and an annoying child star keep you from watching this film.  Even though the quaint wholesome quality of the era portrayed here can be off putting to someone used to modern films, it is well worth the time and effort.  Judy Garland gives one of her greatest performances and is a joy to watch during the musical sequences, and the charms of the film shine through.  I haven't even started on the magnificent Victorian art design, especially the Smith home which is a character in itself.  If you have't seen this film, do yourself a favour and watch it.  It's a family friendly starting point for classic musicals.

Here's a sample of the Trolley Song...

Check-Out These Awesome Pin-up Glasses!

Isn't this the best retro ad for George Petty pin-up glasses?  Judging from the font and style of the ad this has to be from from the mid-to-late fifties.  I can just imagine a bunch of blue collar Joes smoking cigars, playing a game of poke using pornographic playing cards (at least as pornographic as playing cards got in those days) drinking hi-balls from these glasses.  Wouldn't it be great to track down a set of these?

Me-thinks I have a date with e-bay...

A Bombshell for the Ages: Esther Williams

Today's Bombshell for the Ages made waves in Hollywood as the first lady of the aqua-musical.  Esther Williams rose to fame in the forties and fifties through a series of films which featured her either performing in a wide variety of synchronized swimming routines or underwater ballet sequences, swimming the English channel, or even taking part in the odd water skiing number; essentially any sort of aquatic spectacle creative brass at MGM could come up with.  There was no other actress in Hollywood did what she did.  Let's take a closer look MGM's Million Dollar Mermaid.

Esther Williams was born in Inglewood California in 1922 to Louis and Bula Williams.  She was the youngest of five children.  As a young girl her older sister took her to the beach and swimming pools where she discovered her love for the water.  When she got older she began working as a towel counter at the pool in exchange for the five cent entry fee.  There she began taking lessons from the male lifeguard in proper stroke technique.  In those days strokes like Breaststroke and the Butterfly were only taught to men, however young Esther convinced the lifeguard to impart his knowledge on these strokes.  Before long Esther was setting  national records in freestyle an breaststroke.  She set the national AAU record in the 100m freestyle in 1939 and would have competed in the 1940 Olympics, had the second world war not broken out.

Once she graduated high school, Esther began attending Los Angeles Community college and working at a department store where she started as a stock girl, and eventually moved into modelling for the store.  While working at the department store she was contacted by an agent about appearing in the Billy Rose's Aquacade show (basically a big synchronized swimming extravaganza).  While performing with the Aquacade Esther was spotted by MGM scouts who were looking for a female athlete to mould into the next Sonja Henie (a 1930s Olympic figure skater turned Hollywood star).  She signed with MGM in exchange for a guarantee that she could swim in the Beverly Hills Hotel pool everyday.   She took part in studio training to mould her into a singing, dancing, and acting superstar.  As with most burgeoning starlets of the era much of her early time with the studio involved taking plenty of pin-up photos and visiting wounded soldiers in army hospitals as a part of the war effort.

Esther's first film role was opposite Mickey Rooney's eponymous character in Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942).  Her first aquatic role would occur two years later in Bathing Beauty (1944).  She went on star in several other aquatic themed films, each with a bigger better aquatic set piece to outdo the last.  Among her most popular include The Thrill of Romance (1945), Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1949),  Neptune's Daughter (1949), Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), Easy to Love (1953), and Dangerous When Wet (1953).  In spite of her athleticism and skill in the water the underwater feats performed by Esther in her films often took their toll on this aquatic bombshell.  She almost drowned on more than one occasions, once due to improper swimming attire (a heavy flannel bathing suit that became so heavy that it dragged Esther to the bottom of the pool) and from not being able to find the trap door to exit an enclosed water tank.  She also ruptured her eardrums on several occasions and even broke her neck after attempting an 115 ft drive for the movie Million Dollar Mermaid (1952).  This spinal injury left her in a body cast of 7 months.  By the mid-fifties she had fallen out of favour with MGM and left the studio.  She signed with Universal International, and made a few non-musical dramatic films.  None of the Universal films came close to the success that her films with MGM, and by the sixties she retired from acting.

In the years since her retirement, Ms. Williams has been anything but idle.  She is the namesake of both a retro swimwear company and pool manufacturer.  She has also created a series of Mom and Tot swimming instructional videos.  She currently lives in Beverly Hills with her fourth husband of 16 years.

Here's a little taste of an Esther Williams aqua-musical: