Take Me Out to the Ball Game - MGM 1949 distributed by Warner Home Video 2003

Principal Cast: Frank Sinatra; Gene Kelly; Esther Williams; Betty Garrett;

Director: Busby Berkeley

SYNOPSIS

As compared to the other two musicals I have reviewed lately (see Singin’ In the Rain and 42nd Street) this is without question a musical comedy without any pretence of a serious storyline. The plot, for what it’s worth, involves the romantic fortunes of two members of a baseball team (Kelly and Sinatra) in the 1890s that is taken over by a female manager (Williams in a non-swimming role!). The big production numbers are interspersed with dramatic and comedic interludes glorifying the good old American pastimes of chasing the girls and playing `ball. As such it is pure escapism, and not to be taken seriously.

All the big names are there in the crew, with the story by Kelly and Stanley Donan (co-writers of Singin’ In the Rain), directed by Busby Berkeley and produced by Arthur Freed.

The last musical number “Strictly USA” is interesting in that Kelly and Sinatra move out of their film roles and quote the actual names of the female stars, and similarly, the women quote the names of famous contemporaries.

EXTRAS

This DVD contains a few extra features from the standard scene selection menu:

In the cast and crew page there are multi-page biographies of both Kelly (Gene, not Grace as printed on the cover sleeve!) and Sinatra - intriguingly (and disappointingly) other nominated cast members are not given the same respect

Three theatrical trailers featuring the above two stars in “Anchors Away” from 1945 and “On the Town” from 1949, along with the featured movie

There are also two musical numbers deleted from the film - “Baby Doll” and “Boys and Girls Like You and Me”. Both pieces have quite interesting histories as prefaced before the outtakes - quite fascinating actually!

Format NTSC, Running Time 1hr 33mins,

OVERALL

A harmless piece of all-dancing, all-music, all-fun puffery. To my tastes, not as enjoyable as the other two musicals I have reviewed because of the weakness of the storyline, but at the same time it was not an unpleasant experience.