I Watch Films: On The Town

On the Town

Three sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Mucnhin) have 24 hours leave in New York*. One immediately falls in love with the poster of Miss Turnstiles for June (Vera-Ellen), the monthly subway pin up. But what are the odds of meeting her?

They immediately do, then lose her and go to look for her. They meet a taxi-driver (Betty Garrett) who falls for one of them, then in the museum of anthropology a student (Ann Miller) realises the third looks just like a pre-historic specimen and they get together.

There’s a bit of sightseeing and some awkward dates, and quite a lot of singing and dancing. There’s a pretty good joke in which they get the same table in the Samba, Dixieland and Shanghai clubs who all have the same floor show except for the racy (and slightly racist) costumes of the girls. They end up on the run from the cops and there’s a bit of cross-dressing when it turns out that Miss Turnstiles isn’t the posh society girl described on the poster and is a cooch dancer in a Coney Island burlesque show.

Watch This: An energetic zany musical that’s fun and gives all the characters something to do
Don’t Watch This: You hate singing and dancing and although it’s fairly open-minded for the 40s, it’s still a 40s musical

* New York New York It’s A Wonderful Town, The Bronx is up, The Battery is down, the people ride in a hole in the ground, New York, New York