One of my all time favorites.

Memorable, crazy movie

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

After watching this one, the main reasons to watch this are the musical moments. Those moments are topped by -Lena Horne is great doing 2 numbers.Judy Garland with and without Mickey Rooney is great in 2 numbers.Perry Como is excellent too, though today's generation is wondering who Perry is pretty much?As far as the story, yes it is creative fiction making Mickey Rooney act depressed when the real reason for being depressed is that the real person he is based on is gay, but that fact can not be revealed in 1948. Actually Rooney is the only person in the cast to get an acting role pretty much. Everyone else is kind of just there.The party reveals this as you see a bunch of people hanging out until 4AM and then going home. They appear to be a bunch of aimless vagabonds who are just at the big party to be seen.This is a great power cast, and Norman Taurog is a solid director who did some interesting work with a lot of films. Here though, it is a sequence to sequence driven film with music carrying the day and night.This film proves entertainment can be produced with just music but a classic film needs a better script. Since Gay is taboo in 1948, that could not happen. Maybe in a guts check move, a major studio could try to do the true story in one of these from back then? No, I do not think a studio will try to do that unless they can find a way to make money. In today's films, making money is the story.This big budget MGM film is all about making money by using a super star cast and great music to celebrate peace, but does not have the freedom to tell the true tale.

Lary Hart wasn't around when this pseudobiopic was made, but Richard Rogers reportedly disliked everything about it, except Janet Leigh as his girlfriend-wife. That's not a good recommendation, but no doubt Rogers was much harder to please than the average viewer. I certainly find quite a few musical numbers I liked, but the choice of which numbers to include and exclude, and who should sing certain numbers certainly could have been improved.Why was wooden, sleepy-eyed, Perry Como featured more than anybody else? Presumably, MGM got him cheap as a loan from Fox, because his wooden acting in his several Fox musicals was not well received. Everyone else got a maximum of 2 musical numbers, but Como got 3, plus 2 more that were deleted! His "Blue Room" number, with Cyd Charisse as dancer and lover, was OK, but only because of Cyd's presence. His long "Mountain Greenery" number, with extensive chorus help, could have been deleted as ordinary. His near ending encore of the standard "With a Song in my Heart" was OK, but mostly because it was abbreviated.On the other hand, Como's best song "My Heart Stood Still" was deleted!(Hear it as an audio outtake on the 2007 DVD release). It would have made a great finale song for the film!Betty Garrett just wasn't right to sing "There's a Small Hotel". She gave it no life. I'm sure Rooney would have done much better job. MGM also had Sinatra under contract. Of course, he later sang this in "Pal Joey". On the other hand, "Way Out West" was perfect for Garrett, as evidenced in the audio outtake on my DVD. But 90% of her rendition was cut from the final film! Why was she cast as Hart's on and off girl friend , being much taller than Rooney? Jane Powell was available at MGM and was shorter than Rooney, besides being a great singer and passable dancer. I guess the point was to make Hart more self conscious of his short stature, by pairing him with a fairly tall woman.The elaborate June Allison-starring "Thou Swell" was OK, if a bit long. Like Gsrrett, she didn't have the greatest singing voice for straight romantic ballads, being best with comical, satirical and novelty songs, with light dancing back and forth across the stage, where she looked good.The Gene Kelly & Vera-Ellen "Slaughter on 10th Ave." was an interesting arty ballet number, though I didn't like the ending. But why was their number "Falling in Love with Love" deleted? Certainly, this standard should have been included. It could have replaced the rather ordinary number "Where's That Rainbow", featuring an expendable Ann Southern. Also, it would have been nice to see a classic Kelly-Cid dance number, especially since they costarred in several musicals.Perhaps they could have danced to the conspicuously absent "Bewitched", "Falling in Love with Love", or "I Feel at Home with You" Cyd's duet rendition of "On Your Toes" could have been deleted as ordinary. However, the follow up "This Can't Be Love" extravaganza, with many pink ballet dancers, and featuring Cyd plus a blond companion, was visually spectacular.Judy Garland's two numbers, with or without Rooney, were among the best productions. Mel Torme's rendition of "Blue Moon", trying to cheer up Hart, was also excellent.We could have used another Torme ballad: one of the missing standards mentioned above. Lena Horne's two numbers were OK, although she's not my favorite singer. Rooney's "Manhattan" was also good. Rooney did the best job he could trying to portray Hart's pluses and minuses, but the audience mostly had to read between the lines to get the probable real reason for his self-destructive behavior and early death.

For years, I read again and again that this movie would disappoint me, that it was a waste of talent, that it was badly fictionalized, et cetera. What a load of hooey! The dialog is crisp and rings true, the musical numbers are full to the brim with pep and style, and the performances are nothing short of masterful! If you like music, Broadway, and old-fashioned musical brilliance, then this is the movie for you. I hate to sound like an advertisement, but you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing along, you'll dance in your seat! This is movie is not to be mistaken for a masterpiece, despite all of this. It is a very standard musical for the period and for the MGM style -- but that's the best!

I first saw this movie on TV in 1963. I was only 13 years old. What caused me to sit down and watch was the mention of Mel Torme in the opening credits. I had only just become favorably aware of this man's music but had never seen as much as a photo of him.This was my first experience of 'The Musical' genre of film and I was enchanted from beginning to end. Well apart from the Mel Torme bit. I think we got more of Larry Hart looking miserable, and his mother looking out of the window (no doubt wondering when this party was going to end. It's 4am and she probably needed her beauty sleep) than we did of Mel.I was stunned by the brilliant 'Slaughter On 10th Avenue' sequence. There was stuff like this available and yet kids my age were listening to the Beatles? What on earth was wrong with the world? And Lena Horne's out-standing performance of The Lady Is A Tramp just blew me away.Plot? OK it was sanitized but I didn't know that at the time. Homosexuality was never mentioned back then. I just figured that anyone who would write a song like 'My Funny Valentine' would never score with the ladies."Your looks are laughable - unphotographable" Come on. You can't be serious? I finally found this on DVD a few days ago and couldn't believe my luck. I had wanted to see it again ever since reading in Mel Torme's autobiography that he and Richard Rodgers had had a falling out over how to handle the vocals on 'Blue Moon'. Mel had wanted to go with the meaning of the lyrics, example 'you heard me saying a prayer... (pause) for someone I really could care for.Rodgers had insisted that he stick with the rhyme, example you heard me saying a prayer for (pause) someone I really could care for.Sorry, Dick, but I'm with Mel on that one.