It's Always Fair Weather

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.

It's Always Fair Weather
Directed by
Produced byArthur Freed
Written by
Starring
Music byAndré Previn
CinematographyRobert J. Bronner
Edited byAdrienne Fazan
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • September 2, 1955 (1955-09-02)[1]
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,771,000[2]
Box office$2,374,000[2][3]

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".[4]

Plot

Three ex-G.I.s, Ted Riley (Kelly), Doug Hallerton (Dailey) and Angie Valentine (Kidd) have served in World War II together and become best friends. At the beginning of the film, set in October 1945, they dance through the street celebrating their upcoming release from the service ("The Binge") and meet at their favorite New York bar. They vow eternal friendship, and before going their separate ways, promise to reunite exactly ten years later at the same spot.

In the years after the war, the three men have taken entirely different paths ("10-Year Montage"). Riley, who had wanted to become an idealistic lawyer, 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", and has a wife and 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 (Charisse), an attractive and brainy advertising person. Jackie gets the idea of reuniting the three men later that evening on a TV show hosted by Madeline Bradville (Gray). 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 ("Baby You Knock Me Out").

Riley gets into trouble with gangsters because he refuses to fix a fight. As he seeks to evade gangsters from 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, with the gangsters tracking Riley to the studio. They jointly fight and defeat the gangsters, which brings them back together and 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").

Cast

Uncredited

Production history
Michael Kidd, Gene Kelly and Dan Dailey dancing on trash can lids in the "Binge" number

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 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 and the tax law was revoked, forcing Kelly to return to America.

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, who was under contract to MGM, and Michael Kidd, who had more choreographic than acting experience (he choreographed the Broadway and film versions of Guys and Dolls, as well as 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 André Previn providing the music as well as the accompanying score; it was his second major assignment on an MGM film, after 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.

Reception

It's Always Fair Weather received good reviews when it came out, Variety calling it a "delightful musical satire",[5] while Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote it was a "bright film" that spoofed "the whiskers off TV".[6] It was also voted one of the year's 10 best films by the New York Film Critics.[7] However, the studio did not open it with the fanfare it had given previous musicals. Instead it was released as part of a drive-in double bill with Bad Day at Black Rock, and the studio did not make its 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. André Previn claims the film's failure had to do with its being a musical; he felt that it would have been a good film had it not had any songs.

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]

The film 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 has gained reputation in the minds of musical and Kelly fans, who point to "I Like Myself", his dance on roller skates, as the last great dance solo of his career.[10] Scenes from the film were included in MGM's That's Entertainment, Part II, hosted by Kelly and Fred Astaire.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Awards and nominations

28th Academy Awards, March 21, 1956

Box office

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.[2]

Soundtrack
It's Always Fair Weather
Soundtrack album by
André Previn
Length41:28
LabelSony Music (1991), Rhino Handmade
ProducerDan 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.

  1. "Overture" 1:04
  2. "March, March" (Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Michael Kidd) 1:21
  3. "The Binge" 5:07
  4. "The Time for Parting" (Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Michael Kidd) 2:01
  5. "10-Year Montage" 2:18
  6. "The Blue Danube (I Shouldn't Have Come)" (Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Michael Kidd) 2:30
  7. "Music Is Better Than Words" (Dolores Gray) 2:10
  8. "Stillman's Gym" (Lou Lubin) 2:10
  9. "Baby You Knock Me Out" (Carol Richards [singing for Cyd Charisse], Lou Lubin) 2:40
  10. "The Ad Men" (Dan Dailey, Paul Maxey) 0:48
  11. "Once Upon a Time" (Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Michael Kidd) 3:33
  12. "Situation-Wise" (Dan Dailey) 2:49
  13. "The Chase" 1:04
  14. "I Like Myself" (Gene Kelly) 4:10
  15. "Klenzrite" (Dolores Gray) 1:34
  16. "Thanks a Lot, but No, Thanks" (Dolores Gray) 3:47
  17. "The Time for Parting (Finale)" (David Burns and chorus) 1:46
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See also

References

Citations
  1. "It's Always Fair Weather - Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
  2. The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. "1955 Top Film Grossers". Variety. January 25, 1956. p. 15 – via Archive.org.
  4. Feaster, Felicia. "It's Always Fair Weather". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  5. "Review: It's Always Fair Weather". Variety. August 24, 1955. p. 6.
  6. Crowther, Bosley (September 16, 1955). "Movie review: It's Always Fair Weather". New York Times. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  7. "It's Always Fair Weather – Miscellaneous Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  8. Kael, Pauline (2011). 5001 Nights at the Movies. New York: Macmillan. p. 49. ISBN 9781250033574.
  9. "It's Always Fair Weather – Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  10. DiLeo, John (2002). 100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember, But Probably Don't. Limelight Editions. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-87910-972-1.
  11. "AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-13.

Additional sources
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