- Actors: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin
- Directors: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
- Writers: Adolph Green, Betty Comden, Jerome Robbins
- Producers: Arthur Freed, Roger Edens
- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English, French
- Region: (US and Canada This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- Release Date: May 2 2000
- Run Time: 98 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004RF9J
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #38,838 in DVD (See Top 100 in DVD)
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From Amazon.co.uk
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
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
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
New York, New York......,
By Melanie (Alma, AR USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On the Town (Full Screen) (DVD)
It's a wonderful town! And a wonderful movie as well. One of the best of Gene Kelly's career (part of the three year stretch that produced 'Singin' In the Rain' and 'An American in Paris'), this movie has everything. Singing, dancing, and comedy. Ann Miller shines in her "Prehistoric Man" number, one of the best to showcase her talents. And Gene Kelly, well, he's Gene Kelly.Do I really have to elaborate on that. The cast also includes the comedy of Jules Munshin and Betty Garrett, the dancing talents of the lovely Vera Ellen, and, of course, the riot-inducing crooning of a pre Rat Pack Frank Sinatra. The plot (three sailors on a twenty-four hour leave) is somewhat thin, but the musical numbers more than make up for that. I've never seen or heard the original play, but I understand they cut quite a few of the original numbers out and changed some others. Chalk it up to politics of the time and the strict Hays Office. It doesn't undermine the spectacular peformances that are given in this movie. Definitely one of the gems of MGM.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best, by a long shot,
By
This review is from: On the Town (Full Screen) (DVD)
Although Kelly, Donen, and Comden/Green would go on to movie greatness together ("Singing in the Rain", 1952) this one comes up short. The problem is simple: MGM didn't respect the original material enough (the Bernstein/Comden/Green Broadway musical of the same name)-- most of the fine Bernstein songs were jettisoned in favor of distinctly second-rate stuff ("Main Street", "You're Awful", etc.), as well as dumping all the great dance numbers save two ("A Day in New York", "Miss Turnstiles"). The other problem is that after Gabey, Ivy, and their friends finally get together atop the Empire State Building, the movie really goes downhill; the whole denouement at Coney Island is silly and takes much too long. There are some good performances, esp. from the women (Betty Garrett and Ann Miller really give the movie oomph and a sense of fun, and Alice Pearce's "I got the gargle!" bit is classic). Sinatra and Kelly are fine as always, but you have to be a big Jules Munshin fan to weather his supershticky performances, both here and in "Take me Out to the Ball Game" (also with Sinatra, Kelly, and Garrett). I know this movie is a big fan favorite; I just hope that people who think On the Town is a fine musical take the time to check out the really superior products of MGM's famous Freed unit: "Singing in the Rain", "Gigi", "Meet me in St. Louis". When the Freed unit clicked on all cylinders, as they did in those three movies, nobody made better movies of ANY kind.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not all there,
By lynn del sol "lynn_del_sol" (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On the Town (Full Screen) (DVD)
My kids thought it was a riot, but any fan of the original musical can't help but being shocked and disappointed that so many of the original Bernstein numbers were cut or substituted with pallid Hollywood fare. Great cast, good fun, but it could have been soooo much better.
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