È sempre bel tempo

Just an aside,really:

You notice how sparsely Gene Kelly's finest numbers are shot? Long takes,little in the way of cinematic flair? Well,ponder this for a moment-he will often do something truly spectacular at the end of a take,leading one to wonder just how many times the poor chap put himself through the preceding minutes before getting it right...

A case in point is the justly famed (among those in the know) "Rollerskate Number":In order to demonstrate that the skates are,indeed,authentic,Kelly will swap-flawlessly-from "tap" to "glide" at the end of each take.

Incredible.

Compare and contrast,by the way,with protege Donald O'Connor's emulation in "I Love Melvin"-we never see thetwo movements co-existing within the same shot.

Gene Kelly made me want to dance when I was 11,and not feel like a poof for doing so.

45 years ago I was only 15. I was in love with films, especially cowboys and musketers. Robin Hood with Errol Flyn was the top! And one evening (or it was afternoon?) I was hit by three things: Gene Kelly was dancing on rollerskates! Cyd Charisse has beautiful and very long legs (and she knows how to move them!)!And music was much better than gunfighters and D'Artagnan movies! Lets talk about the story: War is over and our gang drink a lot and start dancing , singing and be drunk as ever.They promises to be friend all life long and to coming back in the same places ten years later. They also put some money in a ceeling lamp for the future drinks. Time goes by.... Somebody was lucky, for others too bad. Our "friends" meeting each other to discover to hate themselves! But...It's always fair weather!They put apart egotism and nevrosis, memories grow in them and they start smile again! Friendship and Music, Songs and Laughings, Smiles and...Cyd...Wonderfool! After 45 years, It's Always Fair Weather is a beautiful film (and I will pay pure gold to see it on DVD!). Bravo Kelly, Dailey, Charisse and bravo Stanley Donen, brilliant choreographer and director not always acclaimed by public or critics.

It's Always Fair Weather has a somewhat ironic title, because it's not like most every other M-G-M musical in that things don't always turn out perfectly. I believe that its darker-than-average humour (for that time at least) contributed to its being ahead of its time. For instance, the plot has to do with a friendship not being the same after ten years, a boxing match being fixed, a jaded woman (Charisse), a corporation sell-out (Dailey), and a "small-time operator" (Kelly). The numbers, though, are typically excellent, particularly the dance in the beginning where the trio is drunk, Cyd's Baby You Knock Me Out, and Kelly's famous I Like Myself, in which he tap dances on rollerskates! Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's choreography is nothing short of dazzling. And yes, Gene's smile could still melt stone. Cyd Charisse is great and beautiful as always, too bad she had only one number. So go see It's Always Fair Weather, just don't expect anything real fluffy.

For a guy like me who can't dance his way out of a closet, musicals like this are a guilty pleasure. The choreography is great-- flying feet, trash can lids, roller skates—is there any step Kelly can't do. I especially like the boxing gym with its unlikely array of chorus boys. But it's got nothing on Kelly's solo glide over city streets. Nonetheless, Dailey and Charisse appear under-used; this really is a Kelly showcase, which is plenty. Musicals, of course, were right up MGM's alley. Their lavish production budgets could fill up a screen. Here it's a mesmerizing sample of candy-box colors, along with a Cinemascope canvas to color on.

But catch the storyline. It's a little on the dark side for a bon-bon like this. Our three musketeers return from WWII great buddies, swearing to meet again after ten years. But the decade passes and they've changed. Now they can hardly stand each other. Trouble is, as civilians, each has compromised himself. That is, Kelly fixes boxing matches, Dailey cheats inside his swanky position, while Kidd gets pretentious with his hotdog stand. What they have to do is rediscover the ex-GI's they really are. Good thing a leggy Charisse is there to help kick in. Especially for oglers like me. And what a send-up of the old TV hit This Is Your Life. An obnoxious Madeline (Gray) of "Midnight With Madeline" may make you turn off your sets at 9pm, and none too soon.

Anyway, the 100-minutes is a delightful way to pass a slow evening, and even made me want to give the closet another try.

Keep in mind that the era of the movie musical was pretty much in the dust when IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER hit the screens in 1955. Yet the story is an odd hybrid for benign musicals, and a rather dark story of three GI's coming home from the war, vowing a loyal, buddy-buddy reunion, then, upon reuniting years later, realizing they have outgrown one another and have virtually nothing in common. There is a reunion dinner at a posh nightclub, and try as they might, hostility and acrimony flare up among the men as they gradually discern they have now little in common. The movie also teams Dan Daily and Michael Kyd with Kelly, a Grade A, winning combination for the few, but excellent numbers, they perform.

However, this movie should be seen for one and one reason only: Gene Kelly's dance on roller skates to one of the most beautiful tunes ever written by Comden and Green. As the story goes, Kelly had been searching for just the right opportunity to dance on skates in a film for years. Betty Comden has said she lived close to Kelly in Beverly Hills and that he had purchased skates years before at a hardware store near-by and that she'd watched Kelly take his daughter skating many times. It's not a stretch that Kelly spent a lot of hours imagining just where and when he'd do a roller skates number as he flew around Beverly Hills on wheels.

Another delight is the very robust and creative "trash can lids" number featuring Kelly, Dan Daily, and Michael Kyd. With a trash can lid stuck to one foot, the trio bounce up and down a street to a snappy melody while still in uniform. For those who thought lanky Dan Daily was "just another hoofer," this number proves he could hold his own with the best of them.

I have heard Comden and Green also relate the story that after the movie opened someone told them they had seen the film in a drive-in. "I knew that the end had come," (for the movie musical) commented Adolf Green.

IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER is very much worth seeing for being one of the last studio movie musicals of its kind. Moreover, the novelty of watching Kelly teamed with Dan Daily and Michael Kyd--the only time those three dancers appeared together--is supremely enoyable. IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER remains underrated to this day and serves as one of the final signposts for the demise of the great screen musical.

Dennis Caracciolo