On the Town

Three sailors get twenty-four hours' leave in New York. Gabey sees a poster in the subway: Ivy Smith, Miss Turnstiles of the month. He decides to find her and the other two come along. In one day they cross the city from Rockefeller Center to the Museum of Natural History, from the top of the Empire State to Coney Island. Its place in film history comes from the opening: the song New York, New York was shot on real New York streets, the first time a major studio had staged musical numbers on location. The idea was Kelly and Donen's; Louis B. Mayer refused at first and, after they held out, allowed a limited number of days. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen directed together, the first film for both. Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin play the sailors. It came from Arthur Freed's unit at MGM. Most of Leonard Bernstein's music from the Broadway show did not survive into the film; everything except New York, New York and Come Up to My Place was dropped, and Roger Edens wrote six new songs instead. Edens and Lennie Hayton won an Academy Award for the work. Who it is for: anyone who likes classic Hollywood musicals and films built on a city. Who it is not for: anyone looking for story. The plot is thin, the comic passages have aged, and apart from the dinosaur skeleton in the museum the second half sags.