*It’s Always Fair Weather (1955) was the third collaboration between Gene Kelly and director Stanley Donen. The first two were On the Town (1949) and *Singin’ in the Rain *(1952).
The story is pretty simple – there’s just enough of a plot to provide plausible excuses for some wonderful dance numbers. Three soldiers come back from the war and swear eternal friendship; when they reunite 10 years later, they find they have little in common, but the reunion forces each of them to take a look at his life and decide to return to the ideals he’d had when last they met.
What struck me the most about this film on this viewing (my second –- the first was at the behest of ArchiveGuy, I think in an earlier incarnation of the Musicals Group) is how much of the story is told by who’s dancing with who.
For instance, the primary relationship is that among the men, and the changes in it are shown in two contrasting numbers. The first, of course, is the piece that opens the film -– the joyous carousal through the streets of New York (with the virtuoso hoofing in which they each have a trash can lid on one foot). The other comes about halfway through the film, in which they each do the same rueful dance -– but separately, with the unison shown through the use of split screen.
Strikingly, though there’s a love story between Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse as a secondary theme (the relationship being both a vehicle for and an expression of Gene’s redemption), Gene and Cyd don’t dance together -– the emotions are expressed in dance only by Gene’s killer tap routine on roller skates. (Note: the DVD extras includes a number with the two of them set in the costume shop where they went after leaving the gym -– it was cut from the final version, I think correctly.**)
Another solo is Dan Dailey’s drunken shenanigans at his boss’s house, as we see him getting fed up with the phoniness around him and preparing to return to the authenticity “the guys” represent to him (“What’ll they say when they see I’ve shaved off my moustache!”).
In fact, the only one who doesn’t get a solo to express the changes he’s going through is Michael Kidd, who’s treated very much as an also-ran to the bigger stars he shares the screen with.
There are a couple of other numbers that don’t have quite the same story-telling function, like Cyd’s “Baby You Knock Me Out” number at the gym (did you catch that move where she’s standing on the floor next to the ring and the guy lifts her up and swings her over the ropes in one smooth move? yikes!) and the piece with the chorus boys and the hostess of the TV show. Nice numbers, both of them –- but I was reminded of Michael Kidd’s preference for dance that furthers the story, as we discussed in the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers thread when I was raving about his choreography. (BTW – he’s also the choreographer for Guys and Dolls, which will be our next film.)
Overall – a really good film, and one that I enjoyed. (I came out of it thinking “Yanno, I should buy a copy of this.”) Enough of a story to tie it all together –- some killer dancing –- a bit of satire (which didn’t age all that well, as satire often doesn’t) – an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
- Donen made a slew of classic musicals with people other than Kelly, including *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers *(choreographed by Michael Kidd), Funny Face (starring Fred Astaire), and Damn Yankees (choreographed by Bob Fosse) –- so clearly the man has an appreciation for the art of the dance.
** For those who watched the extras –- was the sound track really funky? In the Michael Kidd number, it was almost completely gone, except for some counting a couple of times; in the Gene-Cyd number, the music was there, but the dialogue track was gone.