| It's Always Fair Weather | |
| Producer: | Arthur Freed |
| Music: | André Previn |
| Cinematography: | Robert J. Bronner |
| Editing: | Adrienne Fazan |
| Distributor: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Runtime: | 102 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $2,771,000[1] |
| Gross: | $2,374,000[2] |
It's Always Fair Weather is a 1955 MGM musical satire scripted by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who also wrote the show's lyrics, with music by André Previn and starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Dolores Gray, and dancer/choreographer Michael Kidd in his first film acting role.
The film, co-directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, was made in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor. Although well-received critically at the time, it was not a commercial success, and is widely regarded as the last of the major MGM dance-oriented musicals. In recent years, it has been recognized as a seminal film because of the inventiveness of its dance routines.
It's Always Fair Weather is noted for its downbeat theme, which may have hurt it at the box office, and has been called a rare "cynical musical".[3]
Three ex-G.I.s, Ted Riley, Doug Hallerton and Angie Valentine have served in World War II together and become best friends. At the beginning of the film, set in October 1945, they meet at their favorite New York bar, Tim's Bar and Grill before their release from the service. When Riley receives a Dear John letter from his girlfriend telling him she has married another man, his friends comfort him and join him hitting every other bar in town. They dance drunkenly through the street together ("The Binge") before returning to Tim's. Barman Tim is dubious about their vows of eternal friendshiphaving heard similar claims made by many other discharged servicemenand wagers them they will forget about each other. The trio protest that they will be different and promise to reunite exactly ten years later at the same spot, tearing a dollar bill in three parts and writing the date of October 11, 1955 on each piece.
In the years after the war, the three men take entirely different paths, as shown through the "10-Year Montage". Riley had wanted to become an idealistic lawyer, but instead has become a fight promoter and gambler, associating with shady underworld characters. Hallerton, who had planned to become a painter, has gone into a high-stress job in advertising, and his marriage is crumbling. Valentine, who had planned to become a gourmet chef, is now running a hamburger stand in Schenectady, New York that he calls "The Cordon Bleu." He has a wife and several children.
The three men keep their promise to meet at the bar ten years later, and quickly realize that they now have nothing in common and dislike each other. Hallerton and Riley view Valentine as a "hick", while Riley and Valentine think Hallerton is a "snob", and Hallerton and Valentine think Riley is a "punk". Sitting together in an expensive restaurant as Hallerton's guest, munching celery, they silently express their regrets in "I Shouldn't Have Come", sung to the tune of "The Blue Danube".
At the restaurant, they encounter some people from Hallerton's advertising agency, including Jackie Leighton, an attractive and brainy advertising executive. Jackie gets the idea of reuniting the three men later that evening on a TV show hosted by Madeline Bradville. She and Riley gradually become involved, though at first Jackie seems motivated by wanting to get Riley on her show. She joins Riley at Stillman's gym, where Jackie demonstrates a deep knowledge of boxing while cavorting with beefy boxers to the tune of "Baby You Knock Me Out".
Riley gets into trouble with mobsters because he refuses to fix a fight. Evading the gangsters by dashing inside a roller skating ring, he skates out on the streets of Manhattan, where he realizes that Jackie's affection for him has built up his self-esteem, and he dances exuberantly on roller skates ("I Like Myself"). Hallerton, meanwhile, has misgivings about the corporate life ("Situation-Wise").
The three men are reluctantly coaxed into the TV reunion, while the gangsters track Riley inside the studio. The three ex-service buddies fight and defeat the gangsterstricking the head mobster into confessing on live television. The brawl brings the trio back together and they escape from the studio when the police arrive. At the end, they are friends again, but go their separate ways without making plans for another reunion ("The Time for Parting").
Uncredited
Betty Comden and Adolph Green originally conceived It's Always Fair Weather as a sequel to On the Town to reunite Gene Kelly with his On the Town co-stars Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin; it was to be produced as a Broadway show. At Kelly's insistence, however, they made it into an MGM musical. Kelly, at this point in his life, had been making films in Europe, such as Invitation to the Dance, to take advantage of a tax law for resident Americans. But the films in Europe failed financially and the tax law was revoked, forcing Kelly to return to America.
Dore Schary, MGM studio head, refused to hire either Sinatra or Munshin; Sinatra, due to his difficult working reputation, Munshin, because his popularity had waned. Ultimately, Kelly chose fellow dancers Dan Dailey, who was under contract to MGM, and Michael Kidd, who had more experience as choreographer (he choreographed the Broadway and film versions of Guys and Dolls, as well as The Band Wagon) than as an actor. Kelly was also forced to shoot the movie in Cinemascope, which he did not find suitable for screen dancing. Many of the numbers in the film, such as "The Binge" and "Once Upon a Time" show Kelly's efforts to make use of Cinemascope. Comden and Green wrote the songs with André Previn providing the music as well as the accompanying score; it was Previn's second major assignment on an MGM film, following Bad Day at Black Rock.
Kelly asked his old friend and collaborator Stanley Donen to co-direct with him. Donen, who had just scored a major success with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (with Kidd as choreographer), did not want to go back to collaborating with Kelly, but reluctantly agreed. Kelly and Donen clashed over creative issues in the film, with Donen tending to side with Kidd against Kelly. After this film, Donen and Kelly never worked together again, and their friendship ended permanently, as Donen later confirmed.
It's Always Fair Weather received good reviews upon release, Variety calling it a "delightful musical satire",[4] while Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote it was a "bright film" that spoofed "the whiskers off TV".[5] It was also voted one of the year's 10 best films by the New York Film Critics.[6] However, the studio did not hype the film with the fanfare it had given previous musicals. Instead, the film was released to drive-ins as a double bill with the non-musical Bad Day at Black Rock, and It's Always Fair Weather never recovered its cost. The film's bleakness may have been a factor (audiences at the time were not accustomed to unhappy musicals); but also, more Americans were staying at home watching television than going to the movies at this time. André Previn claims the film's failure had to do with its being a musical; he felt that it would have been a better film had it not contained any songs. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 88% based on 7 positive and 1 negative critic review.[7]
In her book 5001 Nights at the Movies, critic Pauline Kael called the film a "delayed hangover", and wrote that its "mixture of parody, cynicism and song and dance is perhaps a little sour". She had praise for Dailey's "Situationwise" number and wrote that "to a great extent this is Dailey's movie".[8]
It's Always Fair Weather was nominated in 1955 for Academy Awards for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and for Best Story and Screenplay.[9]
In recent years, the film's reputation has grown among fans of musicals and of Gene Kelly, whose dance on roller skates to "I Like Myself" is seen as the last great dance solo of his career.[10] Scenes from the film were included in MGM's 1976 film That's Entertainment, Part II, in a segment hosted by Kelly and Fred Astaire.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
| Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards[12] | Best Story and Screenplay | Betty Comden and Adolph Green | ||
| Best Scoring of a Musical Picture | André Previn | |||
| Writers Guild of America Awards[13] | Best Written American Musical | Betty Comden and Adolph Green |
According to MGM records, the film earned $1,380,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $994,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $1,675,000.[1]
| It's Always Fair Weather | |
| Type: | soundtrack |
| Artist: | André Previn |
| Cover: | It's Always Fair Weather (André Previn album) coverart.jpg |
| Length: | 41:28 |
| Label: | Sony Music (1991), Rhino Handmade |
| Producer: | Dan Rivard |
Soundtrack recordings have been issued by Rhino Records and in 1991 by Sony Music.
Track listing:
Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green; music score by André Previn. All pieces played by MGM Studio Orchestra conducted by André Previn. Between brackets the singers.