I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A film that proves even the MGM musical formula of the 1940s could result in some real duds.Apparently, several principals involved in the making of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" didn't get along while filming, and it shows. But even if they had, I don't know that the film would have been much better for it. Under the best of circumstances, I'm usually pretty resistant to Gene Kelly's charms, but he's nearly unwatchable in this, mugging constantly for the camera like he's playing to the back row of a vaudeville house. Frank Sinatra fares better as his bumbling sidekick, and Esther Williams is inoffensive if pretty bland as the love interest for Kelly. A dingbat plot is strung together with a bunch of songs, which can work if the songs are good enough, but they're not here. In fact, aside from the title tune, which I associate with the seventh inning stretch of Cubs games anyway, not a single song in the film is memorable, and the musical numbers are all the same -- two or three characters standing in a line singing directly into the camera. My attention wandered greatly during this film; in fact, I might have even dozed off.Three strikes and you're out.Grade: D

Take Me Out to the Ball Game is a spirited musical-comedy, resting its quality almost entirely on the weight of its performers, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, as they play two baseball players who experience the shock of their careers when they find out the new owner of their baseball team is a woman (Esther Williams). At first, with her name announced as K.C. (Katherine Catherine) Higgins, the players, including Eddie O'Brien (Kelly) and Dennis Ryan (Sinatra), all assume by default that she's a man, but after a downright awkward mix-up at the train station when it comes time to pick her up, both Eddie and Dennis vent their frustrations about their new owner to one another.It would be a lot easier for them to stick to their simple frustrations if they both didn't find themselves rapidly falling in love with Katherine as soon as she became their new owner. Along with the difficult task of trying to get their team, the Wolves, to win another pennant, the boys must find a way to control themselves around Katherine, as well as work out some sort of cogent lines for respect when it comes to flirting and mingling with her.Punctuating this muddled relationship triangle are the film's most enthusiastic and accomplished features - its musical numbers. One of the first involves both Eddie and Dennis singing an infectious, harmonious ballad about past lovers called "Yes Indeed" with a ravishing song and dance number to accompany it. This is where the film finds its energy put to good use being that scenes that take place on the actual baseball field are slight and the relationship drama is overall petty and largely uninteresting. Having Kelly and Sinatra serve as vaudevillian performers in addition to rather narcissistic baseball players is a nice touch that works to lift the film out of whatever drudgery it would've succumbed to had it just been about the love triangle.With that, Williams holds her ground quite nicely in a film that's populated and controlled by men and their raging hormones and pride. Her character's snarky comments and incorruptible demeanor makes her a dominant force in the film that doesn't make her easily fazed by the multitude of sexually charged comments being spewed her way for much of the film. As a result, she becomes an admirable presence with a great deal of energy and charm to offset the frequently simple-minded behavior of Eddie and Dennis.Take Me Out to the Ball Game was the final film directed by Busby Berkeley, but was originally supposed to be directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. With Kelly's success as a performer, he was originally contracted by MGM to direct this film, but after the studio hired Berkeley to helm the project, Kelly and Donen were shifted to a screen writing credit by their producer Arthur Freed. As part of a compromise, Freed allowed Kelly to direct some of the musical scenes he did with Sinatra, despite leaving the bulk of the directorial duties to Berkeley. The result is a film that's charming through all its discombobulation, yet always watchable thanks to its gifted performers, especially Williams, who shouldn't be overshadowed by the performers with bigger names.Starring: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Esther Williams. Directed by: Busby Berkeley.

Sinatra can't gain weight. He needs to put on the pounds. He is an athlete for a baseball team. He and Kelly are vaudeville hoofers during the winter season. Several references to President Teddy Roosevelt. Some observations of this movie. Munshin never gets the girl. Any girl. He does get some good lines and dance scenes. Be careful I don't regress with trio into reviewing their On the Town. I will do that next, or even later. I loved Kelly in the Hat My Father Wore scene. That was an actual song during the early 1900s. Seeing Kelly dance and sing this song made me cry about my late father when I first saw this scene. I thought Kelly did an excellent tap dance. The whole clambake song and dance scene I thought was the greatest, courtesy of Busby Berkeley. Betty Garrett very aggressive in chasing Frankie, and she had a similar assignment in On the Town. Garrett astrologizing Frankie. Hilarious. Williams great swimmer; great clothes. Bossy role. Florida. Palm trees. Lovely scenes. Old time base ball flat-top caps. Nostalgic base ball player cards tinted in beautiful old-timey colors. Today, we say "baseball".Ending scene. Song and dance. Red, white and blue outfits; snazzy, tailored costumes. Loved the red shoes on the women. Twirling Americana. Final kiss. Upbeat. All is well. A blaze of glory. 10/10.

This 1949 MGM musical came out in April of 1949, a mere eight months before than "On the Town", which was a much better film. Not having seen it, we took the opportunity when it showed on a classic cable channel recently. Although we were not disappointed, this musical was not in the same league of other great productions of the studio, something hard to imagine by the talented people involved in the making of the movie.This was the second of the three films that Frank Sinatra made with Gene Kelly. Mr. Sinatra played the naive Dennis Ryan, a ball player of the Wolves, recently bequeathed to K.C. Higgins, who turned out to be a lady. Gene Kelly appeared as Eddie O'Brian, a more mature player that acts as the guide of the less experienced Dennis. Jules Mushkin is also reunited with his two partners as the affable Nat Goldberg. The other female lead is Betty Garrett, who shows what she was capable of doing in a film. There is also Edward Arnold, one of the best character actors of that era, playing a gambler.There are songs and dance routines, as befitting a movie of this genre, but aside from the title song, none of the others heard on the picture stays with the viewer after it is over. It is surprising that the musical was directed by a master choreographer, Busby Berkeley, who only provides with one big production number that takes place in the clambake."Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a pleasant movie to sit through, but it is not an inspired piece of filmmaking.