Happy 4th of July! - Take Me Out to the Ball Game

MGM, 1949
Starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, and Betty Garrett
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Music by Roger Edens and others; Lyrics by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and others

We celebrate America's birthday with a movie about it's favorite pastime. Kelly and Sinatra came together for a second time to play baseball stars who moonlight as vaudeville performers in the off-season, joined by popular comedienne Garrett and a land-locked Esther Williams. Does this sports tale hit a home run with audiences today, or does it strike out? Let's head to Opening Day for the Chicago Wolves at the turn of the 20th century and find out...

The Story: Dennis Ryan (Sinatra) and Eddie O'Brian (Kelly) return from vaudeville to discover that the Wolves have a new owner. K.C Higgins (Williams) is not only a woman, but is smart, athletic, and knows as much about baseball as the guys do. Dennis is smitten with her, but Eddie thinks she's a pain when she pushes their training. Dennis has his own fan, the very determined Shirley Delwyn (Garrett). Eddie's annoyed by K.C at first, until he too starts to see her charms.

Meanwhile, two gangsters have money on the Wolves losing in the pennant, and they think the best way to do that would be keep their best player, Eddie O'Brian, away from the team. They first offer him a dancing gig to tired him out, and when he quits that, outright knocks him out to keep him out of the game. When Shirley figures out what's going on, she, K.C, and Dennis have to find a way to get Eddie back in the game.

The Song and Dance: Charming confection features some enjoyable dances, glowing Technicolor costumes and sets, and a unique ball-field-meets-backstage plot. There may be a few other musical baseball tales, but not ones where the players are also performers. Kelly and Sinatra show all the chemistry and spirit they'd displayed five years before in Anchors Aweigh and would with Munshin again later that year in On the Town. Garrett is also having a lot of fun as she tries to get Sinatra to see her as more than just a groupie.

Favorite Number: Kelly and Sinatra start off strong with their vigorous rendition of the title song as part of their vaudeville act. "The Girl Said No" and "O'Brian to Ryan to Goldberg" are their numbers with Munshin, describing their adventures with various ladies across the US and their big winning triple play respectively. "Strictly USA" is the sole large chorus number, sung first by the guests at Garrett's big 4th of July clambake, then at the end by the four leads as part of their vaudeville act finale. Kelly's soft-shoe solo spoofs another holiday with an authentic Irish song, "The Hat My Dear Old Father Wore Upon St. Patrick's Day."

Trivia: Berkeley didn't direct that much of the movie, despite his name being on the finished film. He dropped out due to personal problems, and the film was finished by Kelly and Stanley Donen.

Ginger Rogers was originally supposed to play K.C Higgins, but dropped out a month before filming began. She replaced Judy Garland, who left due to her ongoing substance abuse problems.

What I Don't Like: It's pretty obvious Williams, despite her real-life athletic prowess, was a last-minute choice for K.C. She gets one short swimming scene, has zero chemistry with Kelly (and didn't get along with him or Donen in real-life), and doesn't really have that much to do after she shows up the guys on the ball field. The gangster plot also seems shoehorned in to give the second half more of a lift. I actually think seeing the guys go back-and-forth to their two jobs and how they dealt with that would have been more interesting without the cliched betting story. Not to mention, the finale is really kind of abrupt and rather ridiculous.

The Big Finale: Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half between barbecues on the 4th of July if you're a fan of any of the stars or the big MGM Technicolor musicals of the 40's and 50's.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, usually for under 10 dollars.

DVD
Amazon Prime