Starring Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd
Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
Music by Andre Previn; Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
This began life as Comden and Green's sequel to the 1949 hit On the Town. When Kelly's co-stars from that film Jules Munshin and Frank Sinatra proved to be unavailable, they changed the story to focus on three unrelated best friends during World War II who meet again ten years later. Donen wasn't happy to work with Kelly again; in fact, their friendship fractured during the making of this film. They weren't the only ones with problems, either. How problematic was this unusually dark musical? Let's turn back the clock and start at a bar in New York, just as World War II ends, and see three former soldiers begin a friendship they think is forever...
The Story: Angie Valentine (Kidd), Ted Reilly (Kelly), and Doug Hallerton (Dailey) have big dreams for their futures after they're released from the Army. Angie wants to become a celebrated chef, Ted a lawyer, and Doug an artist. They vow to meet again at the same bar 10 years later, despite Tim the bartender (David Burns) claiming it won't last.
Each man goes their separate ways, but their lives don't become anything like they hoped. Doug goes into the high-paid world of advertising, but he hates his job creating copy for a cutesy campaign and his marriage is crumbling. Angie loves his wife and huge family, but wishes he ran more than a diner. Ted's a shady gambler who wins a corrupt prize fighter in a poker game. When they meet again in 1955, they learn they have nothing in common and hate each other.
That might have been that, if Doug's fellow advertising executive Jackie Leighton (Charisse) hadn't found out about their reunion. She thinks their story is perfect for Madeline Bradville (Dolores Gray), a singer with a popular late-night TV show specializing in guests with heart-tugging histories. The guys aren't sure at first...but they later discover that the reunion has changed their lives, and their perception of who they really want to be.
The Song and Dance: You've probably already noticed from the plot description, but despite the upbeat musical numbers and sunny title, this is not your typical MGM musical. I don't know too many other musicals that realistically explore how hard it can be to maintain a friendship, why friends grow apart, and how connecting with others can help us find ourselves. Though Kelly's good in the role of the heel who realizes he can be something better, the real stand-outs are Dailey as the artist who gave up his dreams for a soulless executive job and Dolores Gray as the temperamental TV diva whose toothpaste smile hides a selfish heart.
Favorite Number: "The Binge" is the famous instrumental number set after they join a rejected Ted in getting drunk all over New York. They're so gone, they tap dance in an alley with trash can lids on their feet. "I Shouldn't Have Come Here" is the guys' number at the fancy restaurant where Doug takes the others on his expense account. They sing their frustrations and their opinions of what the others have become in a rant set to "The Blue Danube Waltz."
Charisse joins a gaggle of punch-drunk fighters at Stillman's Gym as she relates her encyclopedic knowledge of boxing and shows off her great gams in "Baby You Knock Me Out." The trio do a triple split-screen tap routine that makes great use of the CinemaScope camera in "Once Upon a Time." Ted realizes that "I Like Myself" in Kelly's last great solo number, a virtuoso tap dance on roller skates through the streets of New York. "Situation-wise" is Dailey's big number, as he gets drunk at a company party and reveals what he hates about his job. Gray reveals her true material girl nature as she tells a group of fawning young men "Thanks a Lot, But No Thanks" and finds creative ways to get rid of them.
Trivia: Gene Kelly bought the roller skates used in "I Like Myself" at a store down the street from his home in Los Angeles. They were ordinary skates that weren't altered for the number, making his dancing there all the more extraordinary.
Three numbers - a solo for Kidd and his children at the diner, "Jack and the Space Giants," a comic duet for Kelly and Charisse, "Love Is Nothing But a Racket," and "I Never Thought They'd Leave" for Gray - were cut from the film. Footage of the first two, along with more of "The Binge," have been found and is included on the DVD, along with the audio for "Leave."
Gray's character, her show, and the "Thanks a Lot" number spoofed the cheery excesses of TV during the pioneering 50's, especially The Dinah Shore Show and the sob story game shows Queen for a Day and Strike It Rich.
What I Don't Like: First and foremost, this is obviously not for you if you're looking for a more upbeat or optimistic romp through New York. It's as dark as the MGM musical was willing to go in 1955. I wish they'd made better use of choreographer Kidd...but this was his first acting job in the movies, and he's so stiff in what little dialogue he does have, maybe it's just as well. They at least should have kept Kelly and Charisse's comic duet in. The romance between the two feels perfunctory and there just because musicals were still required to have a romantic subplot then. It doesn't help that Dailey, Kelly, and Kidd lack the chemistry of Kelly, Sinatra, and Munshin. They're more believable as fracturing strangers than the best buddies they claim to be in the opening sequences.
The Big Finale: Too mature and thoughtful for its time and for many audiences even today, this odd hybrid of sunniness and cynicism is worth checking out for the amazing dance routines alone.
Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming, the former from the Warner Archives.
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