Watch Take Me Out to the Ball Game For Free

Powerful

Lack of good storyline.

A different way of telling a story

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra reunite for third time in Take Me Out to the Ball Game, but instead of sailors on leave, they play baseball players who work as vaudeville performers in the off-season. Just as in On the Town, they're joined by Jules Munshin and Betty Garrett, and they sing and dance their way through a pretty silly story.Esther Williams is the new owner of the guys' baseball team, and while most of the players aren't happy with a woman in charge, Frank Sinatra falls madly in love with her. Once again Gene Kelly enters the love triangle; the plot isn't a difficult one to predict. Of the three Gene and Frankie pairings, this one is the least famous since there aren't any well-known musical numbers to come out of it—no offense to Betty Comden and Adolphe Green. If you're looking for the "Gene and Jerry" number, watch Anchors Aweigh, and if you're looking for "New York, New York", check out On the Town. This one is really only to be watched by die-hard fans of the three leads. Anyone looking for a good quality musical should look elsewhere.

A film that proves even the MGM musical formula of the 1940s could result in some real duds.Apparently, several principals involved in the making of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" didn't get along while filming, and it shows. But even if they had, I don't know that the film would have been much better for it. Under the best of circumstances, I'm usually pretty resistant to Gene Kelly's charms, but he's nearly unwatchable in this, mugging constantly for the camera like he's playing to the back row of a vaudeville house. Frank Sinatra fares better as his bumbling sidekick, and Esther Williams is inoffensive if pretty bland as the love interest for Kelly. A dingbat plot is strung together with a bunch of songs, which can work if the songs are good enough, but they're not here. In fact, aside from the title tune, which I associate with the seventh inning stretch of Cubs games anyway, not a single song in the film is memorable, and the musical numbers are all the same -- two or three characters standing in a line singing directly into the camera. My attention wandered greatly during this film; in fact, I might have even dozed off.Three strikes and you're out.Grade: D

Fans of the principals and early MGM musicals will find this film entertaining enough, however I got the impression that it was terribly dated in the way it portrayed it's leading men. Gene Kelly in particular mugged his way through too many of the musical numbers, and I imagine the Frank Sinatra of a few decades later would have thought the one in this picture a cream puff. I can't say it's all Sinatra's fault either; MGM typecast his character in their early films as a nerdy type, more relaxed while reading a book than chasing skirts. The first part of the picture portrays him that way here, and Sinatra fans may seem baffled by it.I liked the premise well enough, a new owner of the 'Wolves' baseball team turns out to be a woman, and it sets up expectations that she'll try to run the team her own way to the detriment of the players. But it didn't really turn out that way. K.C. Higgins (Esther Williams) utilized her own love of the game to champion the team on the field, while dodging the affections of both Eddie O'Brien (Kelly) and Denny Ryan (Sinatra) in the early going. An obligatory pool scene is inserted into the picture to capitalize on the star's status as a former swimming champion, and it added some credibility to her position running a sports team.A sub-plot with Kelly's character involves a crooked sports gambler (Edward Arnold) attempting to influence the outcome of the Wolves' pennant run, but in an All-American MGM musical this idea won't gain traction for long. O'Brien and Ryan, with some help from the third member of their triple play battery, Nat Goldberg (Jules Munshin), lead the Wolves to their championship victory. Directed by Busby Berkley, the film is heavy on the musical numbers (I counted nine) with the dance choreography handled by Kelly and long time collaborator Stanley Donen. Some are built around a baseball theme, and the film wouldn't have been complete without that old standard, 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game'.

I hadn't seen this film for decades, and I had forgotten what a fine movie it is.Set in 1908, this period piece revolves around the Wolves baseball team, which is suddenly taken over by female owner! The shy character, played by Frank Sinatra falls for her, while the suave character played by Gene Kelly initially holds her in contempt...although he later falls for her, as well. The other part of the plot is that gangsters are trying to fix the games.It is said that Esther Williams didn't like making this film, and in particular didn't like working with Gene Kelly. It never shows. They are quite good together. However, the real chemistry here is between Sinatra and Kelly. While Sinatra cannot match Kelly at dancing, and Kelly cannot match Sinatra at singing, they are very good together. To top it off, the film is visually pleasant to watch with its rich, warm color photography.The other key player in the film is Jules Munshin, who was a remarkably talented performer. He has some very good moments in this film, as he did in the previous Sinatra-Kelly effort "Anchors Aweigh". Later in the film, Betty Garrett becomes enamored of the Sinatra character, and once towering character Edward Arnold plays one of the shady characters haunting the team with gambling overtures.I was tempted to give this film an "8", but I realized that not one truly memorable song came out of this film...a musical!