← Back to Reviews
in
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
The MGM Dream Factory had one of its biggest hits with a splashy, turn of the century confection called Take Me Out to the Ball Game, the second of three MGM films to team Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.
Kelly plays Eddie O'Brien, a baseball player who secretly longs for a career in show business and Sinatra plays his teammate, Dennis Ryan, who loves being a baseball player and has a glass jaw. O'Brien and Ryan return to the team after a summer playing the vaudeville circuit and learn that the team has acquired a new owner in the form of one KC Higgins (Esther Williams) and, of course, both of our boys fall instantly in love with the lady.
The plot thickens with a wealthy mobster (Edward Arnold) who is using the team to line his own pockets, but his plans are foiled by his girlfriend, Shirley (Betty Garrett) who falls head over heels for Dennis, even though he only has eyes for KC.
The Arthur Freed unit at MGM have produced a very entertaining musical here, though, if the truth be told, the plot bears more than a passing resemblance to the first film Kelly and Sinatra made together, Anchors Aweigh and elements of both of these films would be incorporated into Kelly and Sinatra's third film together, On the Town, which was released the same year, 1949. Of course, musical fans in the 1940's weren't terribly discriminating so I'm sure most of this went unnoticed.
The folks at MGM know what their fans expect and they deliver it in spades. Sometimes they attempt to mix things up a little but they never want to confuse their audiences too much. Fans were probably initially thrown to see a completely dry Esther Williams in a leading role, but director Busby Berkeley does put fans' worries to rest with the insertion of a scene of Williams swimming in a hotel pool as an affectionate wink to the fans.
Most of the songs were written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who would have their greatest triumph a few years later with Singin the Rain, Musical highlights include "Yes, Indeedy", a Kelly/Sinatra duet that reminded me a lot of "She Begged Me" from Anchors Aweigh; "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg", which also featured another On the Town co-star, Jules Munshin; "The Right Girl for Me" was a dreamy ballad Sinatra sings to Williams; It's Fate Baby it's Fate" finds Garrett chasing Sinatra around an empty baseball stadium and a big production number called "Strictly USA" energetically choreographed by Kelly and Stanley Donen.
Kelly and Sinatra are terrific as usual and Esther Williams was charming as KC Higgins, though I recently learned that Ginger Rogers had originally been signed for this role and had to drop out. Rogers was a superb comedienne and I have to think this film would have been a lot more fun with Rogers in the role. It's not top tier MGM, but the gloss is there and entertainment is provided.
The MGM Dream Factory had one of its biggest hits with a splashy, turn of the century confection called Take Me Out to the Ball Game, the second of three MGM films to team Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.
Kelly plays Eddie O'Brien, a baseball player who secretly longs for a career in show business and Sinatra plays his teammate, Dennis Ryan, who loves being a baseball player and has a glass jaw. O'Brien and Ryan return to the team after a summer playing the vaudeville circuit and learn that the team has acquired a new owner in the form of one KC Higgins (Esther Williams) and, of course, both of our boys fall instantly in love with the lady.
The plot thickens with a wealthy mobster (Edward Arnold) who is using the team to line his own pockets, but his plans are foiled by his girlfriend, Shirley (Betty Garrett) who falls head over heels for Dennis, even though he only has eyes for KC.
The Arthur Freed unit at MGM have produced a very entertaining musical here, though, if the truth be told, the plot bears more than a passing resemblance to the first film Kelly and Sinatra made together, Anchors Aweigh and elements of both of these films would be incorporated into Kelly and Sinatra's third film together, On the Town, which was released the same year, 1949. Of course, musical fans in the 1940's weren't terribly discriminating so I'm sure most of this went unnoticed.
The folks at MGM know what their fans expect and they deliver it in spades. Sometimes they attempt to mix things up a little but they never want to confuse their audiences too much. Fans were probably initially thrown to see a completely dry Esther Williams in a leading role, but director Busby Berkeley does put fans' worries to rest with the insertion of a scene of Williams swimming in a hotel pool as an affectionate wink to the fans.
Most of the songs were written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who would have their greatest triumph a few years later with Singin the Rain, Musical highlights include "Yes, Indeedy", a Kelly/Sinatra duet that reminded me a lot of "She Begged Me" from Anchors Aweigh; "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg", which also featured another On the Town co-star, Jules Munshin; "The Right Girl for Me" was a dreamy ballad Sinatra sings to Williams; It's Fate Baby it's Fate" finds Garrett chasing Sinatra around an empty baseball stadium and a big production number called "Strictly USA" energetically choreographed by Kelly and Stanley Donen.
Kelly and Sinatra are terrific as usual and Esther Williams was charming as KC Higgins, though I recently learned that Ginger Rogers had originally been signed for this role and had to drop out. Rogers was a superb comedienne and I have to think this film would have been a lot more fun with Rogers in the role. It's not top tier MGM, but the gloss is there and entertainment is provided.