Out Of Town

Adolph Green was born today in 1914.  He was half of Comden and Green, two delightful performers, lyricists and screenwriters.

They broke through with their Broadway hit On The Town in 1944.  They wrote the book and lyrics (music by Leonard Bernstein) and starred in it as well.  They stopped performing, for the most part, to become a huge in both Broadway and in Hollywood.

I was just thinking about them when I recently watched the movie version of On The Town, released in 1949.  They wrote the screenplay and lyrics.  Too bad they weren't in it, but then, they weren't movie stars.

Some consider it a classic, just a notch below Singin' In The Rain (another script Comden and Green wrote). And it is pretty good, featuring performances from Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Anne Miller and Vera-Ellen, among others.  It's justly famous for being one of the first big Hollywood musicals to feature location shooting--in New York, in this case.

But I can't quite call it top tier, and it's obvious why.  For some reason, the Arthur Freed unit at MGM felt the Leonard Bernstein songs were too highbrow, and cut most of them.  It was not uncommon to cuts songs from shows at the time, but it was a huge mistake.

Movie musicals were shorter, so some numbers would have to go.  And they did keep the score's most famous song, "New York, New York," as well as some dance music.  But MGM wanted new hits to promote, and replaced some great songs with at best passable numbers with music from Roger Edens.

Does anyone remember songs like "Prehistoric Man," "You're Awful" or even the title number "On The Town"?  To make way for these numbers, what was cut?  Some great comic numbers, such as "Come Up To My Place," "Carried Away" and "I Can Cook Too." Even worse, some beautiful ballads had to go:  "Lonely Town," "Lucky To Be Me" and "Some Other Time." Properly filmed, these could have been classic movie moments.

Maybe it's time someone made a new movie of On The Town.