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It's Always Fair Weather
MGM knocked it out of the park with their 1955 triumph It's Always Fair Weather an effervescent and imaginative musical romp that rivals some of the best musicals to come from the studio.
Ted (Gene Kelly), Doug (Dan Dailey), and Angie (Michael Kidd) are three soldiers who return from WWII pledging eternal friendship and agreeing to reunite 10 years later but the decade finds them completely different people and at the mercy of a bitchy television hostess (Dolores Gray) and her clever program director (Cyd Charisse).
Kelly and co-director Stanley Donen originally conceived this musical to reunite the stars of On the Town; however, Jules Munshin was having health issues and was unavailable and Frank Sinatra had won an Oscar and thought he was too good for musicals so Dan Dailey was pegged for Munshin and Michael Kidd for Sinatra, though they don't really play Chip. Gaby, and Ozzy here, the basic idea is similar.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green's screenplay is intelligent and surprisingly deft, rich with effective potshots at television and the advertising business while never forgetting these three likable characters who definitely change through the course of the story and even though we watch and accept the struggles these guys go through, we still want them to be the same three joyous GI's we meet at the beginning of the movie.
This musical contains one musical highlight after another. I loved the ash can dance where the leads dance with trash can lids on their shoes and Charisse's big number at the boxing gym, "Baby You Knock Me Out". Loved the number in the restaurant too. There's another great dance with the three leads dancing next to each other even though the characters are in different locations and Gray has a couple of showstoppers with "Music is Better Than Words" and "Thanks a lot but No Thanks". Of course, this film is most famous for "I Like Myself" a fabulous number which finds Kelly gliding all over Times Square on roller skates...just amazing.
Kelly and Donen work magic with their cast, with Kidd a standout, even though he would find greater fame as the choreographer of the film versions of Guys and Dolls and Hello Dolly. Dailey's drunk scene is a lot of fun too. This uderrated gem is a must for MGM fans.
MGM knocked it out of the park with their 1955 triumph It's Always Fair Weather an effervescent and imaginative musical romp that rivals some of the best musicals to come from the studio.
Ted (Gene Kelly), Doug (Dan Dailey), and Angie (Michael Kidd) are three soldiers who return from WWII pledging eternal friendship and agreeing to reunite 10 years later but the decade finds them completely different people and at the mercy of a bitchy television hostess (Dolores Gray) and her clever program director (Cyd Charisse).
Kelly and co-director Stanley Donen originally conceived this musical to reunite the stars of On the Town; however, Jules Munshin was having health issues and was unavailable and Frank Sinatra had won an Oscar and thought he was too good for musicals so Dan Dailey was pegged for Munshin and Michael Kidd for Sinatra, though they don't really play Chip. Gaby, and Ozzy here, the basic idea is similar.
Betty Comden and Adolph Green's screenplay is intelligent and surprisingly deft, rich with effective potshots at television and the advertising business while never forgetting these three likable characters who definitely change through the course of the story and even though we watch and accept the struggles these guys go through, we still want them to be the same three joyous GI's we meet at the beginning of the movie.
This musical contains one musical highlight after another. I loved the ash can dance where the leads dance with trash can lids on their shoes and Charisse's big number at the boxing gym, "Baby You Knock Me Out". Loved the number in the restaurant too. There's another great dance with the three leads dancing next to each other even though the characters are in different locations and Gray has a couple of showstoppers with "Music is Better Than Words" and "Thanks a lot but No Thanks". Of course, this film is most famous for "I Like Myself" a fabulous number which finds Kelly gliding all over Times Square on roller skates...just amazing.
Kelly and Donen work magic with their cast, with Kidd a standout, even though he would find greater fame as the choreographer of the film versions of Guys and Dolls and Hello Dolly. Dailey's drunk scene is a lot of fun too. This uderrated gem is a must for MGM fans.