On the Town(1949)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

1h 38m

Release Date: Dec 8, 1949 | Limited

94%
83%
7.3

Three sailors wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York City.

Releases

Original Release | Dec 8, 1949

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Current Showtimes

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Sun Aug 23
Mon Aug 24
Tue Aug 25
Wed Aug 26
Thu Aug 27
Fri Aug 28
Sat Aug 29

Director & Top Cast

Stanley Donen
Director

Gene Kelly
Director

Gene Kelly
Gabey

Frank Sinatra
Chip

Betty Garrett
Brunhilde Esterhazy

Ann Miller
Claire Huddesen

Jules Munshin

Ozzie

Vera-Ellen

Ivy Smith

Florence Bates

Mme. Dilyovska

Alice Pearce

Lucy Shmeeler

George Meader

Professor

Murray Alper

Cab Company Owner

Bette Arlen

Dancer

Anne Beck

Nightclub Patron

Bea Benaderet

Brooklyn Girl on Subway

Gladys Blake

Brooklyn Girl on Subway

Eugene Borden

Waiter

Leonard Bremen

Spectator

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

Chip, Gabey and Ozzie, three sailors on a twenty-four hour shore leave, look for adventure and romance in New York City and seek out the city's best known attractions. Following a whirlwind tour of Manhattan that includes stops at the Empire State Building, Central Park and Rockefeller Center, Ozzie and Gabey decide to forgo sightseeing and instead pursue the beautiful women of New York. While riding on a subway, the three sailors see a poster of Ivy Smith, "Miss Turnstiles" for the month of June, and fall instantly in love with her. As they gaze dreamily at the poster, they imagine Ivy coming to life and revealing her life story in a dance. Although they all are taken with her beauty, Gabey is especially smitten with Ivy and vows to find her. To their astonishment, the sailors find Ivy as soon as they step off the train into the subway station, where Ivy is posing for a photo shoot. Gabey poses with her for a photograph, but before he can make an impression on her, she disappears. Gabey, Chip and Ozzie follow Ivy and pile into a taxicab driven by the flirtatious Brunhilde Esterhazy, who tries to seduce Chip. With the facts on the poster about Ivy's life as their only clues to her whereabouts, Gabey and his pals search for her in places she is likely to be found. Accompanied by Brunhilde, who is determined to snare Chip, the sailors look for Ivy at the Museum of Natural History, where Ozzie meets Claire Huddeson, an anthropologist who quickly succumbs to his charms. While celebrating their new love with a kiss and a dance, Ozzie and Claire accidentally destroy a dinosaur skeleton at the museum. They flee, but the police are on their trail. The search for Ivy continues at various museums around the city. Finally the group decides to split up and search for her separately, agreeing to meet at 8:30 that evening at the Empire State Building. Alone at last with Chip, Brunhilde takes him to her apartment, only to be greeted by her annoying, ailing roommate, Lucy Shmeeler. Meanwhile, Gabey finds Ivy in a dance studio, and she consents to go on a date with him that evening. As she owes her dance instructor, the unpleasant, dipsomaniac Madame Dilyovska, a great deal of money, Ivy promises to return from her date at 11:30, in time to make her performance as a cooch dancer at Coney Island. At 8:30, Chip, Brunhilde, Ozzie, Claire and Gabey meet at the top of the Empire State Building, where they hide Ozzie from the policemen who are looking for him. When Ivy arrives, the three couples begin their wild night on the town. The merriment soon comes to an end, however, when, at 11:30, Ivy vanishes without explanation, leaving behind only a brief farewell note. Although his pals try to cheer him up by quickly substituting Lucy for Ivy, Gabey gets drunk and sadly recalls his time with Ivy. Later, acting on a tip from Madame Dilyovska, Gabey and his pals find Ivy at Coney Island, where she admits that shame made her keep her job a secret from him. Gabey and Ivy soon resume their romance, but they only have a few hours remaining before the end of Gabey's shore leave. After Ivy, Claire and Brunhilde persuade the police to drop the charges against the men, the three women bid their sailors farewell at the shipyard.

Storyline

Three sailors--Gabey, Chip and Ozzie--let loose on a 24-hour pass in New York, and the Big Apple will never be the same. Gabey falls head over heels for "Miss Turnstile of the Month" (he thinks she's a high-society deb; she's really a 'cooch dancer' at Coney Island); innocent Chip gets hijacked (literally) by a lady cab driver; and Ozzie becomes the object of interest of a gorgeous anthropologist who thinks he's the perfect example of a "prehistoric man". Wonderful music and terrific shots of New York at its best. — A.L.Beneteau Three sailors get a 24-hour pass when their ship docks in New York. Gabey falls in love with a young woman he sees in a subway station and is shown on a poster as Miss Turnstile of the Month and spends most of his day trying to find her. Chip has his day all planned out and is intent on doing a lot of sightseeing, and a friendly lady cab driver is more than happy to help him out. Ozzie comes across an attractive anthropologist who thinks he is the perfect example of primitive man. All in all, the sailors have the best 24 hours of the lives. — garykmcd Gabey, Chip, and Ozzie are among one wave of US Navy sailors from their ship on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, where none of them have ever been. With a 45-year-old guidebook in hand, Chip wants to see the sights, but gets sidetracked when he gets in the sights of smitten cabbie Hildy Esterhazy, who won't let him go as long as he's in the city. Ozzie, who is basically following his mates, might instead want to follow anthropologist Claire Huddesen, who is into prehistoric-looking men like Ozzie. Unlike his two friends, Gabey purposefully wants to spend his time with a beautiful, sophisticated New York gal. He believes he's found that girl, at least her photograph, when he sees a poster for the subway system's newly-crowned Miss Turnstiles for June: Ivy Smith; he mistakenly believes she the belle of New York high society. Based on the bio on the poster, Gabey goes on a search for her. His two pals help him, but manage equally to spend quality alone time with their respective new female friends. The questions become if Gabey will be able to find Ivy, if so if she will give him the time of day, and if he would feel the same about her if he knew that she's just a working girl from small-town USA trying to make it in the big city. Through it all, the six get into one misadventure after another--largely based on Hildy's long-overdue cab and Ozzie causing a mishap at a museum--as they take in all New York City has to offer. — Huggo New York, New York--it's a helluva town; the Bronx is up and the Battery's down; the people ride in a hole in the ground... Well, you get the idea. Those lyrics (by Betty Comden and Adolph Green ), set to Leonard Bernstein 's music, have made "On the Town" a permanent part of the psychological landscape of New York City. The story (inspired by Jerome Robbins 's ballet "Fancy Free") is pretty slight: Gene Kelly , Frank Sinatra , and Jules Munshin play sailors with 24 hours' leave to take their bite out of the Big Apple. When they meet, then lose, this month's Miss Turnstiles ( Vera-Ellen ), they scour the town in search of her, bumping into a lady anthropologist ( Ann Miller ) along the way. Shot mostly in the studio, but with location exteriors all over town, from Coney Island to the Statue of Liberty to Central Park, this 1949 gem was the first of three great musicals co-directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen , followed by Singin' in the Rain (1952) and the underrated It's Always Fair Weather (1955) . — Anonymous 1 more See all

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