Beau fixe sur New York

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.

A perfect antidote or bookend to ON THE TOWN this excellent, mature and solid cinemascope musical is an absolute knockout. Made by MGM to placate Kelly for refusing to loan him to Samuel Goldwyn for GUYS AND DOLLS this film is probably one of the few 50s MGM efforts that plays well to audiences in 2004........but only of one sees it in cinemascope. Inventive use of the widescreen allows superb choreography to become ironic and witty......and the bewildering idiocy of TV stations to only show the center of the screen is an insult to any audience seeking to enjoy this clever and thoughtful musical. A small profit on first release and a drive in future saw this pic drop from view early in its life. the dance numbers are uniformly (no pun) astonishing and sometimes hilarious (especially Dolores Gray) BUT... I yi yi...Cyd Charisse in Baby You Knock Me Out lives up to its title. Trivia alert: one of the old boxers at Stillman's Gym is Gus Mecurio, father of STRICTLY BALLROOM lead dancer and actor Paul Mecurio. Kelly on skates is as good as Kelly singin in the rain...it's the same number but on wheels!.....this is a great film and a perfect musical. Imagine Kelly's rage at MGM after refusing him the Guys and Dolls loan out and they they distribute that film for Goldwyn anyway! No wonder WEATHER is such a suitably dark film of the disillusionment met head on in the American mid 50s. A full revival is much deserved.

It's Always Fair Weather will go down in history as the film musical which "could have been". Had it been made a few years earlier it could have been in the same leagues as Singin' In the Rain and On the Town but several shortcomings, some determined by the period the film was made prevent it from being so. Even the studio had that little faith in it they dumped it as a second feature alongside Bad Day At Black Rock.

It's Always Fair Weather differs from other musicals of its time in its sombre tone with the tale of three war buddies who are reunited ten years later to find out they can't stand each other upon discovering one is a hick, a snob and a goon. This is juxtaposed to a world of beautiful, bright colours and welcome artificiality with urban sets to die for. It's Always Fair Weather was originally conceived as a sequel to On the Town, reuniting Gene Kelly with co-stars Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin. However, by 1955, Munshin no longer had box office credibility while Sinatra was too big a star that the studio was unwilling to work with him. In their place, we get Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd, both of whom get the job done but lack the same electric chemistry Kelly's On the Town co-stars possessed. Frank Sinatra in particular I find is sorely missed as I loved his three-picture partnership with Kelly in which they made an excellent comedic duo. None the less the roaster does get a big boost with the casting of the great Cyd Charisse, whom like Ann Miller in On the Town, plays a glamorous woman with contradictory personality and an encyclopedic knowledge of well, pretty much any topic.

However, I find It's Always Fair Weather's biggest drawback are the sections of the film which are uneventful and doesn't have the lightning-fast pace of On The Town or Singin' In The Rain. The film could definitely benefit from the trimming or removal of whole scenes; there is a faster-paced, snappier film in here. The film does help make up for this though in its musical numbers. It's Always Fair Weather does showcase some of the best moments of any MGM musical with the soundtrack being one of the best in the MGM catalogue. The musical numbers and compositions are fantastic and all written for the film itself by the great Betty Comden and Adolph Green, while the majority of MGM musicals took their songs from their back catalogue as well as other stage musicals.

The five-minute Gershwin like dance number "The Binge" showcases the then-new cinemascope format by having three dancers occupy their own third of the screen as they dance and create percussion with trash can lids on their feet as they work together in great physical tandem of drunken joy. Once Upon a Time, on the other hand, is a heart aching number if there was one as the three men sing about their broken dreams while Music is Better Than Words couldn't be more enchanting if you asked for it. The centrepiece of the film, however, is Gene Kelly's number 'I Like Myself', featuring him tap dancing on roller skates, no trickery! Like Singin' In the Rain, the number is an encapsulation of pure happiness (just look at the faces of the onlooking extras). This is of my favourite musical numbers of all time and is an unbelievable display of talent if I ever saw it. The film's only crime in the song and dance department is the lack of a dance number between Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, despite one actually being filmed.

I feel widescreen technology came too late the MGM musicals which could have used it to great advantage but by 1955 musicals had already lost most of their economic viability due to the rise of television. It's Always Fair Weather is Hollywood coming to terms with the existence of its rival television but relishes the opportunity to satirize the format as superficial and ridden with advertising.

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.

I just saw this again on TCM, in the only format it deserves to be viewed in: letterbox. While it is a Gene Kelly vehicle and the leads are three buddies from wartime, that's pretty much where the "On The Town" similarities end. It is a surprisingly sharp, cynical story in which the heroes' dreams are voiced, but not realized (at least not at first), due to life circumstances. The daring plot of three soldier buddies who part company at the end of the war, reunite 10 years later to settle a bet they've made with a barkeep, and then realize that they really don't have anything in common except a dislike for each other, probably broke amazing ground back in the 1950's when it dared to show what happens to friends who 'don't' live happily ever after. (After all, musicals are usually free of such cynicism and vulgarity.) Betty Comden and the late Adolph Green- responsible for so many great film scores as well as the scripts of "Auntie Mame," "Bells Are Ringing," and "What A Way To Go-" contribute very witty songs here, including the three-way, split-screen dance "Once Upon A Time-" which shows the three buddies reflecting on their wartime friendship and whether or not they'll ever get it back; Dolores Gray's wicked "Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks;" and the requisite Gene Kelly solo (on roller skates), "I Like Myself." The big revelation, however, is Cyd Charisse- fine as ever, but in a rare, 'real' acting role which calls upon a bit of cynicism and smug defensiveness. Her cool demeanor is wonderfully thawed by the wise-guy boxers who worship her in the the gymnasium ditty, "Baby, You Knock Me Out." She goes from a diva to a siren in a tight green sweater and skirt in just 2 minutes. Have mercy!!