It's Always Fair Weather

US (1955): Musical/Comedy/Dance

The third collaboration between Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, It's Always Fair Weather falls short of the classics On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), mostly due to a slow plot and middling songs by Andre Previn, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. In a story reminiscent of On the Town, Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd play three GIs who return from the war vowing to stay buddies forever. When they reunite 10 years later, however, they find they have little in common, other than having given up on their dreams.

Best known as the choreographer of such MGM evergreens as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), the diminutive Kidd proves adept at kicking up his heels in front of the camera. Cyd Charisse plays a scheming television producer (an unusually down-home character) and Delores Gray is the toothy TV show host. (Gray gets to sing and Charisse dances a little, though not with Kelly.) The best moments, of course, are the dance numbers Kelly choreographed, including the three GIs' trash-can-lid dance, Charisse's solo supported by a crew of boxers, and Kelly's number on roller skates, "I Like Myself," which combines some of the free spirit of "Singin' in the Rain" with the stunt footwear made famous by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in 1937's Shall We Dance. Enjoyable, but not quite a classic. (David Horiuchi, Amazon.com)

 Use this link to view the original theatrical trailer for It's Always Fair Weather on TCM.com.

2 nominations