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One of the most enjoyable of the MGM Technicolor musicals, ON THE TOWN (1949) was produced by Arthur Freed and co-directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. The witty Betty Comden and Adolph Green screenplay, based on the Broadway musical, stars Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin as three love-starved sailors given 24 hours shore leave in Manhattan. The movie goes non-stop from 6:00 a.m. until the following 6:00 a.m. and benefits from a lot of rare on-location filming.

(CAUTION: PLOT SPOILERS THROUGHOUT THIS REVIEW!) First of all, the guys fall in love with a poster of Miss Turnstiles of the Month (Vera-Ellen) in the subway, then find her for real and do not let her out of their sight. Kelly is paired off with her for some sensational dances. Sinatra sets his sights on a lady taxi driver (a wonderful Betty "Come Up to My Place" Garrett) as the gang heads to the Museum of Natural History. There, Munshin moons over anthropologist Ann Miller ("Modern Man"). Before you know it, the gang is doing "New York, New York" on top of the NBC Building in Rockefeller Center, with its spectacular aerial view of Manhattan. (The gone World Trade Center towers were not even built yet.)

ON THE TOWN boasts rich color and imaginative production design as we move into nighttime. The sextette meets on top of the Empire State Building at dusk, then in a hilarious series of restaurants with waiters fawning over Miss Turnstiles, and finally Coney Island in the middle of the night and a nutty police escort on the Brooklyn Bridge in the pre-dawn hours. (The dinosaur has collapsed at the Museum of Natural History.) Fear not, though, there is a happy and romantic ending (a reprise of "New York, New York") to this tuneful and rather underrated musical delight. The six actors have seldom been better or more charming. (Reviewed from videocassette)

This exhilarating musical comedy, featuring (respectively) the fancy footwork and infectious crooning of GIs Kelly and Sinatra, perfectly captures the optimistic spirit that held sway in the post-World War II boom. Co-starring dancers Vera-Ellen and Ann Miller, "On the Town" was one of the first color films shot on location in Manhattan, and remains one of the grandest, liveliest Hollywood musicals ever made.

The brilliance of this film is, more than anything else, its energetic, frenzied story and adaptation. Sailors-on-leave movies have been done in the past, but few have been done with this level of exuberance. As a result, the film is upbeat but not always perfect (it slows down in pace in the last 25 minutes, and the re-hash of the plot in the Kelly 'art ballet' is totally unnecessary). But there are unforgettable moments as well: shots of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard which bookend the film; the ravishing opening number/music video of "New York, New York;" the couples reunions on the rooftop of the Empire State Building in Act 2; and ongoing suspense maintained by a crawling timestrip which always reminds the viewer of the remaining time left. Plot-wise, it's a circus: Kelly meeting, than losing sight of, poster girl Vera-Ellen is a perfect springboard for the day-long cab chase which unites Frank Sinatra with the rambunctious Betty Garrett, stopping en route to bring Jules Munshin together with Ann Miller (who performs an electrifying, leg-displaying, tap number in the film's best song, "Prehistoric Man"). By the time the sextet has sung "On The Town" from the roof to the lobby of the Empire State Building, 60 minutes have passed and the film's lighter than air pace comes to a grinding halt. At that point, it doesn't matter. You might as well sit back for the rest of the ride. Get the DVD and dream of old New York.