Four-star movie: On the Town

[carbonel]

On the Town
Director: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
1949

This is complete and total fluff. It takes place in the sort of movie-plot universe where one can find one particular girl (there are no women these sorts of movies) in New York by visiting all the museums, because she likes culture. And where police officers will search all day and night for (and eventually find) three sailors because one of them caused a dinosaur skeleton to fall apart by bumping it in the kneecap.

It also contains one of my major squicks -- the clueless obnoxious roommate who doesn't understand that she's unwanted. Here, she's alternatively played as obnoxious and pathetically grateful when she gets any attention.

I enjoyed the production numbers (which do not generally advance the plot), and I'm glad none of the sailors pledged eternal love to any of the girls they connected with. Mostly this was a cotton candy movie, and I tried to watch it in the spirit it was intended and ignore the almost total gender fail (though all the girls are career girls of sorts, and portrayed as competent).

Comments

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the roommate thing is unfortunate but as you note, it's mostly fluff and a product of its time. At least the taxi driver was portrayed as being way smarter and more competent than the Frank Sinatra character! (BTW, they had a lot of trouble filming on location because of the bobbysoxers chasing after Frank.)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I've even seen this in the last few years, and all I remember is the toddlin' town piece. Definitely in the forget-your-troubles, light sort of musical. They're all just bits of scotch tape to hold the production numbers together, aren't they.