It's Always Fair Weather

Infobox Film
name = It's Always Fair Weather


image_size = 200px
caption =
director = Gene Kelly
Stanley Donen
producer = Arthur Freed
writer = Betty Comden
Adolph Green
starring = Gene Kelly
Dan Dailey
Cyd Charisse
Michael Kidd
Dolores Gray
music = Betty Comden
Adolph Green
André Previn
cinematography = Robert J. Bronner
editing = Adrienne Fazan
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = 1 September 1955
runtime = 102 mins
country = United States
language = English
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0048216
It's Always Fair Weather is a 1955 MGM musical film scripted by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who also wrote the show's lyrics, scored by Andre Previn and starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Michael Kidd, and Dolores Gray. Directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen, the film is about three ex-G.I.'s who have served in World War II together and became best friends. Ten years after the end of the war, they decide to reunite at an old hang-out. However, they soon realize that they have steadily grown apart in the intervening years and are now very different people. Unbeknowst to them, a manipulative television program reunites the trio live on air where they brawl with sordid individuals connected with Kelly's character's underworld connections. Eventually, the three men put their differences aside and reconnect as they did in their old army days.

Production History

Betty Comden and Adolph Green originally conceived this film as a sequel to On the Town; to reunite Gene Kelly with his "On the Town " costars Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin, with the plans to be 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 But the films in Europe failed and the tax law was revoked, forcing Kelly to return to America.

Kelly asked his old friend and collaborator, Stanley Donen, to co-direct with him. Donen, who had just scored a major success with his first solo directorial effort, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, did not want to go back to collaborating with Kelly, but he reluctantly agreed. MGM, under new production chief Dore Schary, did not want to hire either Sinatra or Munshin; the former due to his difficult working reputation, the latter because he was not popular with audiences anymore. Ultimately, Kelly chose fellow dancers Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd, who had more choreographic experience than he did acting (he choreographed the original Guys and Dolls and Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon). Kelly was also forced to shoot the movie in Cinemascope, which he felt did not suit 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 Andre Previn providing the music as well as the accompanying score; it was his first major assignment on an MGM film.

The tension on the set was reportedly very thick, as Kelly was clashing with Donen almost from the beginning. Donen, who did not want to do the film, did not want to be relegated to co-director when he knew Kelly would receive most of the credit for the film anyway. Tensions also arose between Kelly and his dance instructor (formerly Donen's wife), Jeanne Coyne. When the film was finished, Michael Kidd's big dance number, "Jack and the Space Giants," had to be cut out. Although those who worked on the film say it should have remained in the film, they hint that Kelly wanted it cut because Kidd did the number with children; something Kelly felt was his thing (he had done it in An American in Paris. Unfortunately, by cutting the number, Kidd's role in the film feels unessential; he is the only one of the three men without a solo dance number.

"It's Always Fair Weather" received good reviews when it came out, but the studio did not open it with the fanfare it had with previous musicals. Instead it released in as part of a drive-in double bill with Bad Day at Black Rock and the studio did not make their money back. The film's bleakness may have had something to do with it; audiences at the time were not accustomed to unhappy musicals, but also, more Americans were staying at home with television than going to the movies at this time. Andre Previn claims the film's failure had to do with it being a musical: he feels that it would have been a good film had it not had any songs.

In recent years though, the film has gained reputation in the minds of musical aficionados and Kelly fans, who point to his tap dance on roller skates, "I Like Myself," as the last great dance solo of his career. Some have even claimed it to be a precursor to Stephen Sondheim's musicals Company and Follies, in terms of its cynical views on the nature of relationships. Scenes from the film were included in MGM's "That's Entertainment, Part II", hosted by Kelly and Fred Astaire. The film itself has been shown on Turner Classic Movies.

CD Release (Soundtrack)

Fortunately, the original multitrack prerecordings of the score survive to this day, having enabled Rhino Records to reissue the soundtrack in true stereo (Rhino Handmade RHM2-7766).

Sources

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*The World of Entertainment, by Hugh Fordin

External links

*imdb title|0048216