Amazon.com essential video: New York, New York--it's a helluva town; the Bronx is up and the Battery's down; the people ride in a hole in the ground.... Well, you get the idea. Those lyrics (by Betty Comden and Adolph Green), set to Leonard Bernstein's music, have made On the Town a permanent part of the psychological landscape of New York City. The story (inspired by Jerome Robbins's ballet Fancy Free) is pretty slight: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin play sailors with 24 hours' leave to take their bite out of the Big Apple. When they meet, and then lose, this month's Miss Turnstiles (Vera-Ellen), they scour the town in search of her, bumping into a lady anthropologist (Ann Miller) along the way. Shot mostly in the studio, but with location exteriors all over town, from Coney Island to the Statue of Liberty to Central Park, this 1949 gem was the first of three great musicals codirected by Kelly and Stanley Donen, followed by Singin' in the Rain (1952) and the underrated It's Always Fair Weather (1955). --Jim Emerson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - On The Town
This is one of my favorite movies and i was super excited to find it! The DVD was in great condition and i watch it all the time!
Rating: - On the town
On the town was so much fun to watch and I loved the musium secean and I can't wait to watch it again
Rating: - WHV DVD release of 13 May 2008
If you're thinking about improving your previous DVD edition of this great movie (WHV release of 2 May 2000), still available on Amazon, don't bother. It's identical, just repackaged...
(FIVE stars for the movie itself!)
Rating: - Top notch musical from co-directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen a pity Warner couldn't chip in some extras...
The story of three sailors Gabey (Gene Kelly), Chip (Frank Sinatra) and Ozzie (Jules Munshin)looking for love (in the form of Ann Miller, Betty Garrett and Alice Pearce)while on a one day leave for the first time in New York , "On The Town" continues to be a marvelous musical. It may lack the flash of later Donen-Kelly collaborations but it never loses sight of its purpose--to entertain. That along with marvelous location shooting in New York (a rarity at the time) makes "On the Town" unique.
Based on the popular 1944 Broadway musical co-written by Leonard Bernstein and directed by ... Read More
Rating: - Another botched musical!
"On the Town" tells the story of three sailors - Gabey, Ozzie and Chip - on 24-hour leave in wartime New York City. Gabey falls in love with a subway poster of Ivy Smith, "Miss Turnstiles" for the month of June. Gabey, aided by Ozzie, Chip and two of their gals, goes on a hunt for Ivy. After several adventures and a disappointing blind date with Hildy's roommate, Lucy Schmeeler, Gaby finds Ivy.
Let me say first that film version of "On the Town" is lively and entertaining, but no more so than many musicals of the 1940s, including "Anchors Aweigh," the very enjoyable 1945 movie starring ... Read More
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