Watch On the Town For Free

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Excellent adaptation.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Party all the way through all New York and out again, with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra leading the show, accompanied by a bunch of irresistible girls, like Vera-Ellen and Ann Miller dancing both their shoes and their heads off, but there is an uncountable number of other dancing girls as well. We also have the irresistible Lucy Shmeeler melting into the party and doing all she can to spoil it, particularly by coughing and sneezing, There are other party crashers as well, like their fellow seamen from the same ship, like Simpkins and Gobarsky, and other swell fellas like Ozzy (Jules Munshin) managing to bring down a giant Dinosaur in the museum in a rubble like the Twin Towers, bringing out all New York in chase of him, I think I would choose Lucy Shmeeler and Jules Munshin for my favorites here, and of course Brunhilde Esterhazy (Betty Garrett) as a perfect wedding cake pudding as a taxi driver. Comedy is the mark of this glorious film of entertainment about the hazards of some sailors' permit for one day in all the night clubs and loose ends of New York with glorious music and high gear dancing all through - it should be tiresome with so much constant dancing and entertainment, but it isn't. It works the other way and is only thoroughly enlivening and brilliant cheer of sustained energetic inspiration increasing all the way. The result is one of those films you always will return to in order to laugh some more and get even higher spirits.

Another simple story, another time for some cool musical numbers, dance and quality music(Leonard Bernstein, Saul Chaplin, Betty Comden, Roger Edens, Adolph Green, Lennie Hayton, Conrad Salinger) and some comic moments. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are the stars. But neither Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen and Jules Munshin are not outdone. They all shine together in various locations of New York, which is the 7th star of the film. If you love musical comedy of high standard, you can not miss this, must be seen. It's the first movie directed by Stanley Donen(together with Gene Kelly this one). They've made together another masterpiece called Singin' in the Rain(1952). But, all alone, Donen directed a few other great movies, like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Funny Face (1957), Charade(1963).

Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's On the Town (1949) is one of the best musicals that I have seen in a long time. The movie tells the story of 3 sailors named Gabey (played by Gene Kelly), Chip (played by Frank Sinatra),and Ozzie (played by Jules Munshin) who are on a day of shore leave from the Navy plan to get some dates and see New York's landmarks before their one day break has expired, and the whole thing is mostly successful when it comes to getting girls to date in which Chip is dating a taxi driver named Hildy (played by Betty Garrett), Gabey ends up dating a girl named Ivy Smith (played by Vera-Ellen) and Ozzie dates an anthropologist named Claire (played by Ann Miller) who thinks that Ozzie is the perfect of a caveman, but the only part of their day that gets worrisome especially for Gabey is that Ivy is gone and they look all over the city for her until Gabe finds her at the symphony hall and talks to her for a few minutes until he is forced to leave. Besides this being a musical to me it was more of a love story because of the love and emotion all of the major characters show one another which made the movie very good, and of-course the dance choreography is well staged as well as the songs well written (which the songs unfortunately didn't get recognized by A.M.P.A.S.)but however it did win an Oscar for best music scoring which it didn't get nominated for anything else. This for me was a nice and enjoyable movie to watch with memorable songs and dance moves and a movie that I could never get tired of.

On the Town (1949)There is so much going right with this movie--from the photography (yes) by Harold Rossen and the music (famously) by Leonard Bernstein, from the leading actors (Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly) to the directors (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly)--it's hard to realize how dated or almost bad some moments have become. This is delightful, fantastic, and inspired stuff, total fun top to bottom. But it also has moments that are cringe inducing.And I like musicals.If you don't like musicals in particular, you should start with specimens with wider appeal, and higher standards: "Singin' in the Rain" and "West Side Story" would work for me, if we're talking classics. Throw in "Swing Time" or "Top Hat" if you want an Astaire classic, too. Or a Garland singing musical.This one is from the amazing run of polished hits by producer Arthur Freed. The choreography varies from excellent to wonderful. If it's choreographed dancing you like, check this out. Some of the format it is from the standard style of the Golden Age, where the characters break into song or dance in the middle of their normal doings--in this case, three sailors racing through Manhattan on 24 hour leave.Other parts have choreography, probably by Gene Kelly, that becomes abstract and cinematic, a Hollywood innovation (also seen, famously, in "Singin' in the Rain" and "An American in Paris"). The scenes, whether stylized or realistic, are fabulous. The standards are high--space, light, and control of color (Technicolor, of course) inside and out.What drags the movie down is some awful writing, both in the dialog and even in some of the songs. I know lots of musical lovers who don't give a hoot if the lyrics make sense or are especially good--they become secondary to the rest of it, and the artifice is part of the game. But I know others who, like me, prefer the clever, the lyric, the original. And there are some real wincing moments.And in fact, the movie as a whole is awkward, a series of vignettes that do eventually string together into a chronology, but they hardly have to. They survive, or struggle, independently. Some of the acting is forced and you may or may not like the sidekicks like the third sailor, who's just too comic and goofy for my taste. Even the lead actresses, Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen, are no match for Debbie Reynolds, let alone Judy Garland.Now, let's finally add--the best of the songs, and the dancing and photography, are top notch. For all musical lovers. The great final pieces at about 1:17 into the movie is amazing stuff.Note: Bernstein's music originated in a ballet, "Fancy Free," which turned into the Broadway play "On the Town" in 1944. But when this film was made, most of Bernstein's music was replaced with new stuff--some of which is the mediocre music that brings the production down a notch.At times the biggest star in the show is New York itself. Love it.