Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)

How sad is this?

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The second of 3 Kelly-Sinatra comedic musical romances, being released only months before their more highly acclaimed "On the Town". Kelly was coming off two swashbuckler roles in the previous year: the highly accaimed historical drama "The Three Musketeers", and the innovative, but poorly received, Minnelli musical "The Pirate".Sinatra had most recently starred in the much criticized musical "The Kissing Bandit"(which neither he nor Kathryn Grayson wanted to do).Thus, it was decided that Sinatra apparently needed to be reteamed with Kelly to make a blockbuster film. They hit a home run twice in one year, with different leading ladies for the aggressive Kelly, but the same man-hungry lady(Betty Garrett) immediately falling for the skinny shy Sinatra character. It was Kelly who conceived the idea of combining vaudeville with baseball. Thus, Kelly and Sinatra are an unlikely pair of vaudeville performers in the off-season, and key players on the hottest team in the American League. Even more unlikely, their new owner is a beautiful single classy woman(Esther Williams, as K.C. Higgins), who insists she knows more about how to play the game than the players. Naturally, there is a clash with the braggart Kelly: the offensive and defensive star of the team, leading to some comedic moments.I have not read it as fact, but I strongly suspect that the name Higgins is derived from M.J. Huggins, who managed the NY Yankees during the Babe Ruth years of the 1920s. Sinatra(as Ryan) and Kelly(as O'Brien) vie for the heart of Miss Higgins, Shy, seemingly a bit retarded, Ryan has the initial lead but, as always, the more experienced extrovert Kelly character ultimately triumphs. Ryan gets the man-hungry baseball enthusiast Shirley(Betty Garrett) as a consolation prize. Betty had established vaudevillian talents, which film writers Kelly and Stanley Donen apparently thought were deficient in Esther. Hence, the much discussed unhappiness of Esther during much of the making of this film. Obviously, Kelly and Donen would have much preferred Judy Garland, the original choice as Higgins, or some other established top female known as a singer or dancer. Esther was most famously billed as a stunt swimming beauty, but she showed she could sing and do the comedy and dancing bits well enough. I'm not sorry she got the part. The ego-sensitive Kelly was also put off by the fact that Esther was a bit taller than him, which he thought looked bad when they were standing close.The drama of the last portion of the film centers around O'Brien's decision to moonlight as a show performer shortly before the end of the baseball season, baited by bookies who have bet his team won't win the pennant. His performance on the field greatly suffers and he is fired for violating curfew. A hesitant offer to rejoin the team for the last game has dangerous consequences for O'Brien, which precipitates the resulting drama. The closing scene has Kelly and Sinatra back on a vaudeville stage, now accompanied by Esther and Betty, and instead of singing the title song again, they do a reprise of the patriotic song "Strictly USA". Although not quite the flag waver of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and some of the other musicals made during WWII, this film has its pro-America moments.I found all 5 of the vaudevillian song and dance routines entertaining, including Kelly's famous solo "The Hat My Dear Old Father Wore Upon St. Patrick's Day", part of which reminded me of Cagney's classic "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Vaudevillain Jules Munshin, who played the third leg of the double play trio, added an additional comedic element and would find an expanded role in "On the Town". The long chorus-accompanied "Strictly USA", at the claim bake, was also good, and served as a build up to Kelly's solo dance. Of the musical numbers, only two are romantically centered, one("The Right Girl for Me") sung, ironically, by Sinatra to Esther, the other("It's Fate, Baby, It's Fate") sung primarily by Betty to Sinatra. They are both good songs, but we are missing romantic ballads sung by Kelly to or with Esther, and sung by Sinatra to Betty. These would have provided additional breaks from the drama-comedy scenes and helped cement these relationships. Actually, such were filmed, but cut: a big mistake to my mind! They can be seen as outtakes on the 2008 Warner DVD. My rating of the film would go up a notch to nearly the equal of "On the Town", if these has been included. Cut was the catchy Harry Warner-Johnny Mercer "Baby Doll", sung by Kelly, with some comedic gesturing by Esther and prancing by Kelly. Later, Astaire would sing it to Vera-Ellen, followed by their dance, in "The Belle of New York".In summary, I found this a top notch entertaining musical, nearly the equal of "On the Town", with multiple good vaudevillian song and dance routines and lots of comedy, but missing two of the best filmed songs. I only wish they didn't always make Sinatra seem so dopy and naive compared to Kelly(no doubt a Kelly-directed characterization). It gets better each time I view it:the mark of a true classic. Rating 9.5

This 1949 MGM musical came out in April of 1949, a mere eight months before than "On the Town", which was a much better film. Not having seen it, we took the opportunity when it showed on a classic cable channel recently. Although we were not disappointed, this musical was not in the same league of other great productions of the studio, something hard to imagine by the talented people involved in the making of the movie.This was the second of the three films that Frank Sinatra made with Gene Kelly. Mr. Sinatra played the naive Dennis Ryan, a ball player of the Wolves, recently bequeathed to K.C. Higgins, who turned out to be a lady. Gene Kelly appeared as Eddie O'Brian, a more mature player that acts as the guide of the less experienced Dennis. Jules Mushkin is also reunited with his two partners as the affable Nat Goldberg. The other female lead is Betty Garrett, who shows what she was capable of doing in a film. There is also Edward Arnold, one of the best character actors of that era, playing a gambler.There are songs and dance routines, as befitting a movie of this genre, but aside from the title song, none of the others heard on the picture stays with the viewer after it is over. It is surprising that the musical was directed by a master choreographer, Busby Berkeley, who only provides with one big production number that takes place in the clambake."Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a pleasant movie to sit through, but it is not an inspired piece of filmmaking.

Busby Berkeley is known as Hollywood's greatest choreographer. I'm not sure if many people know that he was a film director as well. This was the last movie he directed and it demonstrates that he was quite good at that craft as well.This may be considered the least of the three Sinatra-Kelley collaborations. It is a notch beneath "Anchors Away," and "On the Town," but that's like saying, Da Vinci's "Woman with Ermine," us bit as good as his "Mona Lisa" or "Last Supper." It is still a great entertainment and still lots of fun to watch for musical fans.Sinatra is charming and has great chemistry with Gene Kelley. While never a great actor, Sinatra was effective when he was young and didn't stray far from his awkward adolescent personality. In the late 50's and 60's, his personality changed and he became cynical, losing the sweet innocence that his 40's and early 50's movies captured.Kelley is pure charm. He is very close to Frederick March in his naturalness and his dancing is delightful as usual.Ether Williams may have had an unpleasant time making the film according to reports, but she doesn't show it. She doesn't stand out, but she is competent and holds her own. Edward Arnold, the bad manipulator from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," plays essentially the same role here quite efficiently.Betty Garrett does not appear until half way into the movie and manages to equal Sinatra, Kelley, and Williams. It is a great star making performance, repeated in "On the Tow," later that year. It is a sad thing that she was blacklisted the following year because her husband had been a member of the communist party. Except for one role in "My Sister, Eileen," she did not work for a whole decade in films. The best revenge was perhaps the fact that she was the only actor to appear as a regular cast member in the two #1 situation comedies on American television in the 1970's, "All in the Family," and "Happy Days." Her film career lasted for 60 years, a longer career than any of the bastards who blacklisted her.This is a bright, colorful, cheerful movie about Turn of the 19th Century Baseball and Vaudeville. The technical credits are Hollywood at its best. It is mostly worth seeing to bask in the glow of its four stars who were all young, full of energy and exciting to see.

This takes place in the early 1900s. Two ball players--Dennis Ryan (Frank Sinatra) and Eddie O'Brien (Gene Kelly)--are upset when their team starts being run by a woman--beautiful K.C. Higgins (Esther Williams!). Naturally they both fall in love with her.This musical isn't revived much or talked about. It's easy to see why! It is in bright Technicolor, Williams looks great in period costumes and there are some lively song and dance numbers. I was really impressed to see how Sinatra held his own tap-dancing with Kelly. But when there's no musical numbers or singing this is pretty bad. The story is utterly predictable, the dialogue is poor with some truly terrible jokes and Kelly overacts to such a degree that it's actually pretty embarrassing. The characters are all one-dimensional too--then again no one watches old musicals expecting deep meaningful characterizations. The acting is mostly good. As I said Kelly overdoes EVERYTHING; Sinatra is easy-going and charming; Williams is truly gorgeous and holds her own against them (and even has a totally gratuitous sequence in a swimming pool!) and Betty Garrett pops up halfway through and almost single-handedly saves the show. Her lines are terrible but she manages to make them sound funny and she's full of energy! Musical numbers aside though this is a pretty bad picture. Worth catching at least once if you like musicals--but don't expect much.