It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)

SINATRA WAS A VERY FINE ACTOR, NO KIDDING

There is a duke of Dunstable at the beginning of the film; as he is a nice duke, it is not a P.G. Wodehouse story. Not a bad screenplay by Isobel Lennart: the character of Sinatra is well handled, but it is a MGM pix vith the MGM vices: by the book editing, conservative cinematography (by the gifted ROBERT PLANCK!), story line overdeveloped so the film slows when Lawford arrives in Brooklyn and rates only two or three stars.
MGM's obsession with prestige overloads the film with TWO opera main arias: the Mozart one does not serve Sinatra, but Grayson is very good.
Our own Delibes piece is supposed to be sung in french: I really couldn't understand what Grayson was singing. Any way it is an opera with an extravagant libretto and the aria is ridiculous, sung by anybody, even Joan Sutherland or Natalie Dessay. MGM couldn't quit: we have long Beethoven pieces (played beautifully by a 17 years old unseen André Previn) It is a 1946 movie! That kind of old fashioned boring silliness had nothing to do with motion pictures. Gay patrons were not recognised by the industry, so we don't have a prestige scene: Sinatra as a swan or the hunter in SWAN LAKE.
Sinatra is quite good and has nice Cahn-Styne songs.The song "Brooklyn bridge" is sung on the bridge, without process photography. Not ON THE TOWN but very pleasant.Durante does not do unsanitary things with the scenery and is very good. The friendship with the Sinatra character is very nice. Young people are not shown in a derogatory manner. Grayson looks very young and charming. Too bad she had so few parts. Gloria Grahame looks weird as an army lieutenant nurse.
The great GEORGE SIDNEY should have directed the picture. RICHARD WHORF directed just a few pictures. CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR (available in DVD) is a winner. TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY was one of the most boring pictures ever made. You can see Sinatra, in some kind of super white tuxedo, sing "Ol' man river" The line "I sweat..." is a riot. Maybe I had fallen asleep and was having a bad dream.(Grayson was in the SHOWBOAT extracts too)


November 13, 2008

fine MGM musical with a stellar cast

Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Jimmy Durante and Peter Lawford star in this very good MGM musical from the golden age of Hollywood musicals. At times the plot meanders a bit too far but the fine musical numbers more than outweigh the slightly less than perfect plot.

The action begins in England when Danny Miller (Frank Sinatra) is just about to leave Europe for America now that WWII is over in Europe. By chance he meets extremely shy Jamie Shellgrove (Peter Lawford) and his grandfather who is a bon vivant English Duke. Danny casually mentions to Jamie that he should look him up if ever he were to come to America--and, to Danny's surprise, that's just what Jamie does!

Meanwhile, Danny meets Anne Fielding, (Kathryn Grayson), his first Brooklyn girl since his return to his native Brooklyn. Danny starts to fall for her--but of course there are Jamie's ideas as well. Enter Jimmy Durante as the kindly older janitor at Danny's former Brooklyn high school and NOW you've got a movie!

The plot becomes obvious but you watch this film for the great musical numbers and not for the plot. Kathryn Grayson does a superlative job of singing a beautiful number from an opera entitled "Lakme." Frank and Jimmy Durante perform "It's Gotta Come from the Heart" in the record store where Frank's character Danny works; and Frank sings "Time After Time" to perfection. There is also an except of a piano recital by Leo Kardos (William Roy); he plays beautifully even if MGM had to do some minor damage to the plot in order to squeeze in this fine excerpt. Great!

The cinematography works well with pictures of Danny (Sinatra) on the Brooklyn Bridge right after he returns home to Brooklyn; and the choreography works wonders for the song and dance number in the school gymnasium for Durante, Sinatra and a young boy whose tap dancing will impress you greatly.

Overall, the plot could have used more work; but I give this film high marks anyway for the very impressive array of musical numbers displaying the usual sublime MGM talent. I highly recommend this film for fans of the classic MGM musicals of the day; and people who like Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Kathryn Grayson and Durante will always love this movie.

Four and one-half stars.
September 8, 2007

Old charming Musical, easy going

My mother being a shut-in and a music fan enjoys watching musicals and I rent or purchased practically every one I can find so she can watch them all. For a modern movie lover this may seem a bit slow and obviously the script is simplistic and like other movies of it's day not as polished as many modern movies. It's almost corny in many spots. But it's easy going, you see the skills of these different stars and there's enough good points to make this a great movie.

My mother actually has physical pain from elevated blood pressure and excitement so even moving old time musicals can get on her nerves. This is an easy going movie that she has watched and can watch many times. Funny thing is the more I see it the more I like it and the more genius of the individual stars and their talents show through. I wish this was on DVD. I wish it was in color, but of course it's what it is. It's about common people living for the most part with talents and dreams not only working their way up, but helping others. All the ingrediants of a great movie, that are somehow lost in most modern day movies, but somewhat loosely put together. Actually some of the formulas and seemingly simpliness of the movie is what makes it so endearing when you watch it, but perhaps I've been watching to many musicals with old mom.

If you like Terminator and other action films with a ton of special effects, then this will put you to sleep. If you like interesting little sketches with very talented and likable actors (even if you know it's an act they do a great job), then this is a MUST SEE. I really like it. Other sometimes under-rated films that are like this would be Holiday Inn, another good easy going movie that has a kind of unexpected and loose script. Holiday Inn's script is tighter. Both good movies.

Greg August 5, 2005

Great film!

This film is great and a must see. Great for all Katheryn Grayson fans It's romantic funny and enjoyable to see each time. I highly recommend it. June 6, 2003

Sinatra Sings Mozart?

Indeed he does (La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni) with Kathryn Grayson, and quite gracefully too. This unique duet is worth the price of admission, but in addition you get loveable Jimmy Durante, an icon of vaudeville and early television (where ARE those shows?), and charming Peter Lawford, Kennedy in-law and Rat Packer-to-be! The plot is indeed forgettable, but the highlights make it worthwhile. February 18, 2003

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