Just watched this with the girlfriend, who is a big fan of musicals.
Lot of fun, incredible seeing young Sinatra and Gene Kelly together. "New York, New York" is definitely a classic, although not all of the songs are a hit. "Prehistoric Man" is especially horrible, as there's no rhythm to it and hardly any rhyme, and the dance seems sloppy and improvved (badly).
The men are all great, full of good-natured swagger even though they're singing and dancing. Kelly is incredible, making every dance movie seem effortless. The numbers with Vera-Ellen are especially fantastic, including a breathtaking silent piece late in the film that comes across as rather experimental (complete with shadows dancing on the wall), although odd that the other cast members bow out and are replaced by anonymous dancers.
Betty Garrett is so cute, I love her take-charge taxi driving dame. Her introduction leads to one of the best year markers: Sinatra says to her, "Hey, the war is over", and that adds a lot of spice to the precedings. This is definitely the New York of 1949, as the place is clean and awe-inspiring and everyone is nice. There's no crime, but there are a lot of immigrants! The bosomy Ann Miller isn't given much to do, and has the worst dance number, but I like that she's a self-aware anthropologist. What's fascinating about both characters is that they're incredibly HORNY. The men have been away at war and they want to fuck, as explempified by Garrett's Brunhilde insisting she take Sinatra back to her apartment, which she does, and then we get a fade-out...
The endings a little too tidy, but why the hell not? They don't make 'em like this anymore.
