ShangLuda Admirable film.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

calvinnme I never caught this movie in its entirety when it aired on TCM, so I pulled out my DVD of the film and gave it a try. It is basically a typical (but wonderful) MGM movie musical of that era that centers around a baseball team called the Wolves, where Kelly, Sinatra, and Munshin are the star players ("O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg"). Esther Williams' character becomes suddenly more involved with the team than they'd like, and Betty Garrett's Shirley falls hard for Sinatra's Denny Ryan.All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and found myself humming along to the tunes, and chuckling at some of the funny dialogue. Naturally, Esther has a short swimming scene (I expected as much), Frank falls for Gene's girl initially and then changes his mind, and Betty Garrett is absolutely adorable. Look out for Jules Munshin (whom you will recognize as the exasperated waiter in "Easter Parade; 1948").Recommended if you need to smile and put your mind on hold. But then that is true of most of the MGM musicals of the Dream Factory era.

Gord Jackson When I was about ten years old, I had my tonsils and adenoids removed. In recovery back home, I well remember sitting up on our sofa with my my loving, supportive parents offering encouragement to me that "Yes Gordon, you will get your voice back, no Gordon your throat will not always be sore." I equally well remember my father excitedly promising me that if I was good and did everything I was supposed to do and got well, we would all go (me, my parents and my brother) to see TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME when it opened next week at a local neighbourhood theatre for a Thursday-Saturday run . I was madly in love with the movies then (as I still am) and you bet, I wanted to see that picture. My father, bless his heart loved most sports and he took my brother and me to see almost everything he went to - football, baseball, hockey, wrestling, lacrosse, etc. Not surprisingly he also loved sports movies so tantalizing me with the prospect of seeing TMOTTBG was a slam dunk. (Trust me, my recovery trajectory had only one way to go.) Last week, when I saw the film available on DVD through our local public library I got to thinking about those events, so much so that I decided I would pick it up for a re-see, the nostalgia associated with the title proving too hard to ignore. More an occasional base hit than a grand slam home-run, the picture is the sort of pleasant, breezy musical-comedy entertainment as only MGM could produce them. Starring Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Jules Munshin and Betty Garrett, it's based upon a Kelly idea/homage to the early days of America's national sport, not that the plot means anything. It's well acted, comical, corny and interspersed with enough musical numbers to retain one's attention. What it does not have for me is very little that is memorable about those musical numbers. Betty Garrett's energetic "It's Fate, Baby, It's Fate" has its moments but only "O'Brian To Ryan To Goldberg" really registers thanks more to Jules Munshin than either Kelly or Sinatra.I am sure as a ten year old kid sitting in our favourite row in the Strand Theatre I would have loved TMOTTBG. As an adult re-viewing it sixty plus years later, not so much.

Turfseer You would think that any musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra has to be superb, but 'Take me out to the ballgame' is proof that even megastars are capable of the occasional misstep. The only catchy number in the entire film is the title track, and I guarantee that you will not leave the theater humming any of the others.The big problem with 'Take me out to the ballgame' is that the writers decided at the outset that the principal characters, Eddie O'brien (Kelly) and Dennis Ryan (Sinatra), would be more entertaining if they were portrayed as a bunch of buffoons instead of actualized human beings. Sinatra in particular is portrayed as Kelly's spineless buddy, who immediately crumples to the ground whenever socked (many times quite lightly) in the head. It's quite deflating to see an icon who usually plays manly roles, reduced to a certified wimp, but unfortunately that's what happens here.The plot takes quite a long time to pick up. O'brien and Ryan are the stars on the fictional major league baseball team, the 'Wolves', circa early 1900s. During the off-season, they're vaudevillians, which accounts for all the song and dance routines throughout the film. The big joke which constitutes the inciting incident of the film, is that the Wolves are taken over by a new owner, K.C. Higgins, who (wouldn't you know it) is a woman (played by Esther Williams). Before she reveals her identity, O'brien and Ryan speak disparagingly of the new owner in her presence, with the team's manager playing a little game of Charades in a fruitless attempt to get them to shut up.The film's first act involves O'brien devising a scheme to 'break camp'—the players have a 10 o'clock curfew and risk a $50 fine if they're found outside their hotel room during the late hours. O'brien eggs Ryan on to ask Higgins out on a date and he ends up serenading her with a romantic song. O'brien's plan is ask two other girls out for himself and Goldberg (Jules Munshin), the third member of the dynamic infield combination of O'brien to Ryan to Goldberg (an obvious play on the Dead Ball era's famed 'Tinkers to Evers to Chance'). O'brien makes it clear that once the three couples find themselves out on the town, he'll have free reign to go after Higgins himself. Unfortunately for O'brien, Higgins sees through his ruse and ends up fining him the $50 for breaking the players' curfew after he too serenades her past the 10 PM deadline.Because of this, O'brien basically sours on Higgins and it's not until a plot development late in the second act of the film, that O'brien begins pursuing the team's owner again. Meanwhile, Ryan falls for the ditzy Shirley (Betty Garrett) who basically has been stalking the hapless ballplayer all over the ball park. Why Ryan falls for the goofy Shirley is never really explained, unless of course you realize that Ryan is just as silly as the girl who has fallen in love with him.It's not until the midpoint that we're introduced to the true antagonist of the story, Joe Lorgan, a slick gambler played by Edward Arnold. Lorgan lures O'brien into a scheme, offering him double his salary if he rehearses for a vaudeville show he's producing. Lorgan's true intent is to tire O'brien out so he's no longer able to play effectively on the ball field and then he can bet $20,000 on the Wolves' opponent during the final playoff. Higgins mistakenly comes to believe that O'brien's poor play on the field at the crucial hour is due to her rejection of him rather than exhaustion from all the rehearsals. But when Lorgan confronts O'brien with Higgins present, and reveals that he's been rehearsing every night, she benches him for not only breaking curfew but basically betraying her.O'brien won't be undone and conscripts a bunch of kids to root for him to be re-instated during the final playoff game. Higgins relents and it looks like O'brien will be back in, but Ryan, fearing that the gamblers will do his buddy harm, beans O'brien with a real baseball during their vaudeville routine before the game. Lorgan sends his two henchman into the clubhouse, posing as physicians, who rough him up even more, as he lies unconscious after being beaned by Ryan. O'brien only wakes up after Higgins whispers in his ear that Ryan is getting all the glory while he's off the field. O'brien's jealousy propels him to hit the winning home run but ridiculously continues to chase Ryan even after they've both crossed the plate! If this isn't silly enough, Kelly and Sinatra sing one last number but step out of character, pronouncing that Kelly has gotten Williams and Sinatra, Barrett. The little chemistry between Kelly and Williams is borne out by Williams' account of her experience on the set. According to Williams, she was treated poorly by Kelly, who felt uncomfortable because she was taller than him.In the end, it's the poor script that sinks 'Take me out to the ballgame'. Should we really care about characters who can do nothing more than engage in a petty rivalry while prancing about in a series of base slapstick routines? If there is one saving grace, it's the excellent work of the costume department. It's a joy to see such colorful costumes that evoke the bygone era of our national pastime.

weezeralfalfa 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