On the Town Movie Download

6 / 10

To me, this felt very uneven.
Three sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin) arrive in New York and have a day of shore leave. Oddly, they spend the beginning of the movie running wildly about town seeing all the popular sites. Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think THAT would be the agenda for most sailors! Later, in an odd twist, they meet up with three girls–and mostly (especially in the case of Betty Garrett) they do the pursuing! And what do these frisky sailors want to do now that they’ve got dates–yes, hang out in night clubs!

“On the Town” is a highly regarded musical. Because of this, I feel a bit odd because I was not particularly impressed by it. The film started very well with the “New York, New York” sequence and maintained its momentum for some time, but after a while it started to drag and the quality of the musical numbers seemed to flag as well. To me, the low-light was Gene Kelly’s LONG dance routine–it just seemed interminably long. The over film wasn’t terrible…it just wasn’t very good later in the film. Uneven but worth seeing.

By the way, nearly every MGM film from the golden era includes several shorts (including a cartoon) to make it feel like an afternoon at the movies in the old days. Well, oddly, “On the Town” did NOT include this–for shame Turner Entertainment, we want these shorts!!Read More