On the Town (1949) |
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On the Town Cast |
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On-Screen Couples |
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Gene Kelly
with Vera-Ellen
(as Ivy Smith)
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Movie Highlights |
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Other InformationAwardsBest Film from any Source BAFTA Awards [1951] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Written American Musical Writers Guild of America, USA [1950] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Cinematography - Color Golden Globes [1950] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture Academy Awards [1950] (Won/Nominated: Won) Plot SummaryChip, Gabey, and Ozzie, three sailors on a twenty-four hour shore leave, look for adventure and romance in New York City and seek out the city`s best known attractions. Following a whirlwind tour of Manhattan that includes stops at the Empire State ... TaglineThey Paint The Town With Joy! Come On, Everybody, Let`s Go On the Town! DiscographySinglesThat`s All There Is, Folks A Day In New York Count on Me On the Town You`re Awful Main Street Come Up To My Place Prehistoric Man Miss Turnstiles New York, New York I Feel Like I`m Not out of Bed Yet |
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Full Cast and Crew |
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Trivia |
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Trivia and QuotesQuotes Brunhilde Esterhazy: [as Lucy prepares to go out] Don`t worry, Lucy, I`ll do the same for you one of these days.
Lucy Schmeeler: When will you ever get the opportunity?
Chip: Goodbye, Miss Schmeeler.
Lucy Schmeeler: Goodbye, Mr. Chips!
Claire Huddesen: You oughta feel proud that three sailors from the United States Navy got off the ship for one day, and what did they do? Were they thirsty for hard liquor? No. They were thirsty for culture. Were they running after girls? No. They came running to the museum to see your dinosaur. For months out at sea they were dreaming about your dinosaur.
Gabey: Gesundheit.
Lucy Schmeeler: That`s the nicest thing anybody ever said to me!
Gabey: Top of the Empire State Building.
Ivy Smith: But it`s so high up!
Gabey: Oh it won`t seem high to me. I`m in the clouds right now. Claire Huddesen: How`d you feel if someone broke your dinosaur?
Ozzie: Never had one. We were too poor.
Chip: Gee, Gabey, why d`ya wanna chase girls all the time?
Gabey: I`ll tell ya when your voice changes, junior.
Gabey: Hilde, do you know where we can hide?
Brunhilde Esterhazy: Sure, I know a place right across the Brooklyn bridge where they`ll never find us.
Gabey: Where is it?
Brunhilde Esterhazy: Brooklyn! Lucy Schmeeler: Did you see "The Lost Weekend"?
Gabey: Yes. I think I`m living through it.Trivia A total of 5 days was spent filming in New York City. The 2 major problems faced by the crew was the weather (it rained for most of the shoot) and the popularity of Frank Sinatra. Gene Kelly explained that the movie was filmed at the height of Sinatra mania and Frank would be instantly recognized by people on the streets. To avoid crowds the cast insisted on taxis instead of limousines for transportation and that the camera be hidden inside a station wagon. During the finale of the "New York, New York" musical number, which takes place in the sunken plaza at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in front of the statue of Prometheus, you can see at the top of the frame of the last shot, the heads of hundreds of curious spectators staring at the three stars over the wall behind the statue. "On the Town" originally debuted on Broadway on December 28, 1944 at the Adelphi Theatre running 462 performances with a cast that included Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Nancy Walker.
Ann Miller commented in a TCM interview that at least one take of her big tap number to "Prehistoric Man" was ruined because of her own costume. She had been dancing very close to the large `Pithicampetus Erectus` dinosaur, and during a series of her trademark tap spins, the flared skirt she was wearing brushed against some of the bones and brought the entire exhibit crashing to the ground. Filming was halted for a considerable time while it was put back together. This movie marked the screen debut of actresses Carol Haney and Bea Benaderet. According to information contained in the file on the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the Academy of Motion Pic Arts & Sciences Library, the Breen Office refused to allow the use of the word "helluva" in the song "New York, New York [it`s a helluva town]." M-G-M later changed the word to "wonderful." Before purchasing the film rights to the musical, M-G-M had assigned George Abbott, the director of the stage show, to direct the film version. However, Louis B. Mayer and other studio executives disliked the stage show when they saw it and regretted their involvement in the property. By November 1945, the studio had assigned Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen to direct the film, and contracted Betty Comden and Adolph Green to rewrite the book with much of Leonard Bernstein`s original score discarded. The film features only four songs from the original musical, those composed by Leonard Bernstein, and six that were created especially for the screen. The movie was based on the stage musical of the Jerome Robbins ballet entitled Fancy Free, which opened at the Ballet Theatre in New York in the spring of 1944. In addition to writing the book for the stage version of On the Town (1949) and writing the screenplay for the film, Betty Comden and Adolph Green appeared in the stage version in the roles of "Claire" and "Ozzie." Arthur Freed, the producer of the film, sent a memo to Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen during shooting, saying, "I just ran the cut musical numbers of On The Town, and they were the greatest and most inspiring works I have seen since I have been making moving pictures. [Emeric] Pressburger and [Michael] Powell can`t shine your shoes - red, white or blue. Much love from your proud producer." In his later years, Gene Kelly held this film in very high regard. In one BBC interview he said something to the effect of, "We made better pictures than that, but that was the apex of our talent. That was it." When the film premiered at the Radio City Music Hall there was then the largest line to get in, in that theater`s history. After the film`s initial success, Arthur Freed, the producer of this film, recalled that his unit was in the MGM commissary passing the Joe Pasternak unit (which made less expensive musicals), the Pasternak unit said, "There goes the royal family." Indeed, this picture was at the time the second largest-grossing in MGM history, next to Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). For the first time in a movie, four trained ballet dancers subbed for four of the leads - Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Betty Garrett, and Ann Miller (the latter had tap, but not ballet, experience) in one dance sequence. Arthur Freed had to convince Louis B. Mayer to purchase the movie rights of the hit Broadway musical. Mayer had criticized the stage production as "smutty" because of a scene in which a black woman danced with a white man. Robert Williams, who plays the police sergeant in Car 44, also played the policeman who chases Gene Kelly off the street at the end of the title number in Singin` in the Rain (1952). Frank Sinatra, who was very thin, had to wear prosthetic padding to fill out the seat of his uniform. In a TCM interview, Ann Miller said that Sinatra was extremely sensitive about his padding and did not appreciate the usual movie set horseplay involving his lower half. When Gene Kelly dismisses the beauty of a passing New York girl, Jules Munshin asks, "Who you got waiting for you in New York, Ava Gardner?" Frank Sinatra was having an affair with Gardner at the time. The crew tried to keep the location filming in New York City as low-key as possible. Many of the scenes were filmed from the back of a station wagon. At the end of "New York, New York", as the camera tilts up at Rockefeller Plaza, you can see the skating rink lined with spectators watching Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly. This was the first musical feature film to be shot on location. In a TCM interview, Ann Miller took the credit for pleading and persuading Louis B. Mayer to do the shoot on location as she had "never seen New York". Jules Munshin was terrified of heights. While performing on the tiny rooftop during the song "New York, New York" the only way he could perform the number was while one end of a rope was secured around his waist under his sailor suit. The other end of the rope was secured, off camera, to Stanley Donen. And even so, alert viewers of the scene will notice that during the scene Munshin is almost always touching a wall or a prop or another actor. In her screen debut, Alice Pearce repeated her 1944 Broadway stage role as Lucy Shmeeler (the roommate with the unfortunate sneezing problem). Alice Pearce is also fondly remembered as the first actress to portray nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz on TV`s "Bewitched" (1964). | ||
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