On the Town (1949)
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On the Town Movie Review
On the Town is a 1949 musical film directed by and starring Gene Kelly. It’s such a good, hugely enjoyable genre flick.
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“Oh you bad boy!
Now I won’t wash my cheek for a year“
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When it comes to musicals as a genre, I look at them the same way I look at comedies or horror movies. If those make you laugh or make you scared, they are good movies no matter what. So if a musical is energetic and memorably scored, it’s successful regardless of its other flaws.
I preface that because On the Town is very much a flawed movie in every respect besides the music. It’s very much in the vein of ‘An American in Paris’, though weaker of course than that genre classic. Yes, the storytelling here is very slight. And yes, the movie overall is a one giant slim affair, but it’s a greatly entertaining diversion and I’ve had a lot of fun so I can’t really blame it for the plot issues.
Three sailors are in New York for a day and they are off to a great adventure while they have the time. Each one of them encounters a romance with a colorful female character. Yes, one of the strengths of the film is actually the diverting of the expectations when it comes to gender roles.
All of the women here are chasers as they objectify the men and chase them romantically. That not only led to a different, more modern movie, but a funnier one too as some of those sequences are very amusing in dialogue.
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I also personally loved the friendship between the three men. They are sweet together, and their interactions are excellent. Jules Munshin is of course the weaker part of this trio both in acting and in characterization, but Frank Sinatra is very good in his role, and of course Gene Kelly is wonderful per usual both in his incredible charm and singing/dancing abilities.
Let’s talk about the music as that’s the most important thing for this genre as I’ve stated before. That either breaks or makes the musical, and this one mostly makes it. Firstly, I wasn’t thrilled with the songs as those from the first half are much weaker, and they felt rather pedestrian overall with only New York, New York being even remotely memorable.
But there are two great numbers later on that really make the film pop. Those are You’re Awful and Count on Me. The former is just the funniest part of the film. As the guy starts the sentence with a negative word, but changes it to the positive, we see their facial expressions and they are priceless. This is the sweetest, most amusing part of the movie.
The latter number is where the movie truly shined in terms of spectacle. It’s a very entertaining song, but it’s bolstered by truly tremendous choreography that is instantly memorable in many of the poses and placements of the actors. This is the musical, energetic peak of the film.
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On the Town is not all that greatly directed by Gene Kelly, though he’s great as an actor here. The pacing and editing could have been better, and the overall structure to the film is flawed with the placements of the songs sometimes not being all that polished. But the dialogue is tremendous, its heart is in the right place and the energy and charm are off the roof.
On the Town is extremely slight in terms of storytelling and some songs are weaker than others, but two stand out: You’re Awful and Count on Me. The former is the funniest, most endearing part of the film whereas the latter is the most spectacular in terms of choreography. It’s a musical that benefits from palpable energy, amusingly reversed gender roles and a profusion of charm.
Exuberant, nonstop dashing about the streets of New York City while on shore leave, three sailors chase down love in one of the first musicals to use actual location shooting. The three sailors, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin, each have their own idiosyncratic charms, but it s their gal friends who keep the movie from getting stale. Especially Betty Garrett (who d later go on to play neighbor to both Archie Bunker and Laverne and Shirley), whose super-sexed taxi driver character chases down a poor, bewildered Frank Sinatra (and he just wants to see the sights of the city, not get all involved with some wacky dame). There is one particularly memorable song ( New York, New York, it s a wonderful town! ), and some less memorable ones, but they are all pretty entertaining. And that s probably the best way to describe On The Town, not very memorable, but entertaining.