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On The Town (1949)
In co-director Stanley Donen's and dancer/choreographer
Gene Kelly's musical comedy - a fresh, energetic, exuberant, kinetic
and innovative landmark MGM musical that was the first major musical
to be filmed on location - the exuberant musical masterpiece won
the Oscar for Best Musical Score; most of the film was composed of
dances of a trio of sailors in the NYC streets (often with their
three female companions):
- three sailors performed in the opening show-stopping,
two and a half-minute song-and-dance number "New York, New
York (It's a Hell of a Town)"; they were : Gabey (Gene Kelly),
shy Chip (Frank Sinatra) and Ozzie (Jules Munshin), who were looking
for romance during a 24-hour shore leave/furlough after docking
in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, beginning at 6 AM: ("New York,
New York, a wonderful (helluva) town. The Bronx is up and the Battery's
down")
- the number included their viewings of many prominent
sights of New York City, such as Wall Street, Little Italy, Chinatown,
the Lower East Side, the Statue of Liberty, the Hudson River, the
Elevated Subway, Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, Grant's
Tomb, Riverside Church, Central Park, the observation deck of Rockefeller
Center, and the Statue of Prometheus
"New York, New York" - Sights of NYC
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- during the dream sequence about 'Miss Turnstiles'
of the Month, the selected June subway billboard 'dream girl' -
Gabey fell in love with Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen) via her poster;
in the number, she portrayed a high-society girl as well as a sporty
athlete with various suitors
Dream Girl Ivy Smith ("Miss Turnstiles Ballet")
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- other musical numbers were also performed with their
new girlfriends - with the sailors always in white, and each of
the females represented by a different color scheme - Claire (green),
Hildy (yellow), and Ivy (pink):
- sexy, toe-tapping anthropologist-student Claire Huddesen (Ann Miller)
(whom Ozzie met in the fictional Museum of Anthropological History)
performed the song/dance "Prehistoric Man" (also one of
the museum's displays) with Ozzie,
before the group accidentally collapsed the anthropology museum’s
dinosaur skeleton [Note: it duplicated the ending of Bringing
Up Baby (1938)]
- lust-crazed female Globe Cab driver Brunhilde "Hildy" Esterhazy
(Betty Garrett) advanced on innocent-minded and shy Chip in "Come
Up to My Place", and they together performed the duet "You're
Awful" atop
the Empire State Building
- ballet dancer Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen) performed a traditional
boy-meets-girl duet with lovelorn Gabey in "Main Street" after
he met her studying classical ballet with her imperious teacher Madame
Dilyovska (Florence Bates)
- the film's climactic title number "On the Town" was
performed by the three couples on the Empire State Building's open
rooftop and then on a wide street-level sidewalk
- the stylized and innovative dream sequence titled "A
Day in New York" - also performed by Ivy and Gabey, was mostly
viewed in a red spotlight (with black silhouettes) in front of
a balance beam [Note: It was significant in that the number presaged
or was the forerunner of the magnificent final ballet of An
American in Paris (1951)]
"A Day in New York" - Instrumental Dream
Dance Between Ivy and Gabey
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- the final scene was the reunion between Gabey and
Ivy on Coney Island where he found her performing as a cooch dancer
at a Middle Eastern concession (in order to pay for her ballet
lessons), before the three sailors dressed in drag to evade the
police while being chased
- they were captured by the shore
patrol and taken back to their ship that was scheduled to depart
at 6 AM (24 hours after their leave began); fortunately, the three
girlfriends caught up to them on the dock just before they left,
and offered lots of kisses, embraces, and goodbye waves, with a
reprise of "New York, New York" (by a new trio of sailors
leaving the ship)
Goodbye Kisses at the Dock
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6:00 AM Departure
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(l to r): Three Sailors on Leave: Ozzie, Gabey, and Chip
"Prehistoric Man" Performed Between Anthropologist
Claire and Ozzie
"Come Up to My Place" and "You're Awful" by
Cab Driver Hildy and Chip
"Main Street" Duet Between Ivy and Gabey
Gabey Reunited with Cooch Dancer Ivy at Coney Island
Sailors Dressed in Drag to Evade Police |