Saturday, October 26, 2019

They did it Frank's way...

One of my favorite movies.



Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin and Gene Kelly in the musical “On the Town”, 1949

On the Town is a musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on Jerome Robbins' idea for his 1944 ballet Fancy Free, which he had set to Bernstein's music. 

The musical introduced several popular and classic songs, among them "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "I Can Cook, Too" (for which Bernstein also wrote the lyrics), and "Some Other Time". The story concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City during wartime 1944. Each of the three sailors meets and quickly connects with a woman.

On the Town was finally made in to a Technicolor musical film in 1949. The film was directed by Gene Kelly, who also choreographed, and Stanley Donen in their directorial debut, and stars Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, and Ann Miller, and features Jules Munshin and Vera-Ellen. It was a product of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM, and is notable for its combination of studio and location filming, as a result of Gene Kelly's insistence that some scenes be shot in New York City, including at the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Rockefeller Center.



The film was an immediate success and won the Oscar for Best Music—Scoring of a Musical Picture, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography (Color). Screenwriters Comden and Green won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical.

Sinatra and Gene Kelly worked really well together. 
Kelly was a GREAT dancer & choreographer

See for yourself here:

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