On the Town

"New York, New York, it's a wonderful town. The Bronx is up and the Battery's down. And people ride in a hole in the ground. New York, New York, it's a wonderful town!" So goes the refrain from the opening number of On the Town, the fizzy musical that once again reteams Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra as sailors on leave. Only this time it's in New York, which is indeed a wonderful town (though in the Broadway version, it was a "helluva" town, but changed to wonderful to satisfy the Production Code).

Based on the musical by Leonard Bernstein, the film jettisoned most of Bernstein's songs ("New York, New York" is one that managed to survive), earning Bernstein's disavowal. I've never seen or heard Bernstein's score, but it must have been better than the forgettable songs by Roger Edens, who as co-producer thought Bernstein's music was too complicated.

Kelly, Sinatra, and Jules Munshin are the three tars on the loose for 24 hours in the Big Apple. Sinatra, playing true to form, is the shy guy, wanting to go sightseeing, using his grandfather's antiquated guide book (he's disappointed to learn that the Hippodrome was torn down). Kelly is the man on the make, looking to score with a chick, as is the pleasantly goofy Munshin.

Each will meet a girl immediately. Kelly, on the subway, falls in love with a girl on a poster. She's the month's Miss Turnstiles (Vera-Ellen), a sort of Playmate of the Month for the Transit Authority, minus the nudity. Kelly is determined to track her down, and while doing so Munshin falls for an anthropologist (Ann Miller)at the natural history museum, who's into him because of his uncanny resemblance to a caveman, and Sinatra is snagged by a man-hungry cabbie (Betty Garrett), who drives the bunch all over town, even though her shift is over and the taxi is way overdue at the garage. Also at the natural history museum, Munshin accidentally knocks over a dinosaur statue (pilfering a bit from Bringing Up Baby) that gets the cops after him.

On the Town is fun but about as shallow as a birdbath. Of course, this was the motif of MGM musicals--make everyone forget they have problems by taking them into a Technicolor world of silliness and dance. Kelly, who co-directed with Stanley Donen, employs his interest in ballet, which he would explore to greater extent in An American in Paris, with a late dance sequence that basically sums up the whole movie in ballet.

Many real New York locations were used, which was unusual in those days, ranging from Grant's Tomb to the Brooklyn Bridge. Sinatra, at one point, says that there will probably be a lot of beautiful girls at Grant's Tomb, a very funny line, considering I've been there. Nope, no pretty girls.