We've been fans of MGM musicals for many years, but somehow we never got around to watching this. I'm afraid we were left wondering what went wrong, as it is a long way from MGM's best. The first half hour contains a far-too-long (and not very good) dance sequence and a lot of poor dialogue. Then the film sinks into a rather sour flavour and the second-rate song and dance routines do little to lift the mood. The stand-out segment (sadly much too short) is Kelly's 'I like Myself' on roller skates, which is a classic warm & happy MGM number with glorious, flowing music and lush orchestration. There is a happy ending, but not before a rather depressing TV show scene. I think this story would have been far better as a non-musical drama, as the bitter taste and social comment does not lend itself to the classic MGM musical style. It pains me to give MGM such a low score, but it's a 4 from me.

My observations: First of all, you know that my favorite movies are song and dance, with costuming, hair and makeup other favorite areas of critiquing. This movie does not disappoint.Gene Kelly tap dancing on roller skates is one of my favorite dance scenes of all time. I love tap dancing AND roller skating, plus ice figure skating. I do all three.I loved Cyd Charisse's dance with all the boxers, starting with the fight manager who sang and danced with Cyd. Those boxers could dance, and sing, too, and quite well. Who'da thought it? Cyd's dressy clothing was a colorful contrast to their gym clothes and boxing gloves. I liked the combination of her lighter green blouse with darker green skirt. When she later put on the chartreuse jacket, it looked a little much, but at least it was a third shade of green -- and coordinated with the green blouse and skirt combination.It was good to see Dolores Gray. She did an excellent job. I just loved her slinky red outfit. I liked her diva-routine, since I felt it was a satire of real 1950s TV-radio hosts/hostesses. She held the entire audience in thrall, and I loved it when she made our three ex-GIs her guests of the evening. The walking soap-boxes reminded me of 1950s TV commercials about Chesterfield Cigarettes, when the dancers walked on wearing the giant cigarette packages and had their legs hanging out the bottom.Cyd thought Gene was a dummy, but when Gene corrected her Shakespeare she was shocked. I was waiting for him to tell her he was actually a college graduate and former law school wannabe, but he only told her about the boxing connection. She was certainly a boxing expert. He called her Einstein.I liked seeing Michael Kidd, early in the movie, with his Le Cordon Bleu cookbook. I really enjoyed his great dancing and choreography in this movie.I loved Dan Dailey in There's No Business Like Show Business, where he played the father of Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor and Johnny Ray, plus the husband of Ethel Merman. In "Fair Weather", in the 1955 sequence, he plays a disillusioned man who has the stereotypical ulcer(s) of overworked 1950s admen. As an acting student, I really enjoyed where he played drunk and danced his routine at the same time. Not a lot of actors/dancers can pull this off; acting drunk is a refined skill - not to mention successfully creating and executing the dance concurrently. Wearing the lampshade just added to the comical drunk stereotype, and I feel Dan Dailey did all of it so remarkably convincingly.Finally, in the 1945 sequence (going backward), there was way too much reliance on drinking alcohol the whole night. One writer says the three men drank at Tim's and then parted, to meet 10 years later. In actuality, they drank tons of booze, going to bar after bar after bar. Perhaps the actors actually drank iced tea or colored water, or even 1-2 sips for each different bar scene, but it was all very convincing. I thought that all three would fall on their keisters.Men in those days died in their 40s and 50s, and some lived to their 60s or even 70s+. This movie shows the 1940s-1950s strong bad habits like too much alcohol and cigarette smoking, IMO. Some of the actors died early from heart attacks. I would bet in those days that actors, as well as most people, did not get much exercise, and loved to subsist on a diet of chicken fried in lard, pork chops fried in grease, pies made with lard pie crust, tons of coffee sweetened with tons of sugar, not to mention the proverbial cigarette chain smoking and exceedingly high alcohol consumption. The Fatso guy reminds one of how men were allowed to gain a ton of weight, but women always had to "watch their figures".The makeup: Stage makeup is not just face paint or clown white, but actually hair extensions and additions. A writer said Dan Dailey was the only character aged 10 years because of his mustache (or brush, as Michael Kidd said). In my stage makeup course we tried on stage mustaches, beards, wigs, hairpieces, sideburns, all I think with a little spirit gum. Dailey's mustache looked natural.Cyd Charisse's makeup looked natural, and offset her dark hair. Her bright red lipstick was a nice touch. Dolores Gray's makeup looked like she was a total tart, but perhaps for TV cameras this was necessary. At any rate, we as viewers saw 1950s actual TV shows shot in glorious black and white.Hair: Gene's receding hairline made him look older. He was born in 1912, and Dailey and Kidd born 1915, making Gene three years older. Gene was around 43 years old when this movie was made, with Dailey and Kidd being 40. As old as they were, I felt that they still did a great job portraying their younger 1945 selves.

It's Always Fair Weather directed by Stanley Donen was a phenomenal movie, because not only did he portray a tale of best friends, but also showed as how in our lives we make friends and as we grow older. Either the more we become closer to these friends or after we have not seen each other in years, we realize that a lot has changed and that sometimes ends a friendship that you may have claimed to last forever. In this story, it starts with three guys from war become close friends Ted, Doug, and Angie. These guys while at a bar are all drinking and saying how that they will be friends for life, well the bar tender bets them a dollar each and drinks on him, that they wouldn't remain friends in ten years. As they accept this bet, they all meet up ten years down the road almost not recognizing each other, but during this movie they try to hang out and do things with each other. As the movie pans out Ted has become more of the high classy player who doesn't have wife or kids or show any intentions to try and get some, Doug however has become a married man with no kids, but struggles with a hard relationship with his wife wanting to divorce him while he is gone on trip to reunite with his old time pals. Angie also shows that he is a married man and Angie also had kids. Later on through the movie, a TV program tries to get all three of these men to reunite on television, but as they are starting to talk about how they have changed a group of mobsters that are after Tim, start to go after Tim. During this riot Doug and Angie, join the fight alongside Tim proving that even though time passed and a lot has changed the fighting side by side will always bring friends closer to each other. At the end of this movie you see that the three friends have finally reunited and party at the bar proving that they are still best friends even after many years of not talking or seeing each other. This movie is a great, must see, it shows how the real life gets to you and friends, but shows that even after many years you can still be close to the friends you were at your younger age.

Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's It's Always Fair Weather is a musical unlike any other. This film contains not just comedy, but drama as well in this musical. This film was a hilarious, but at certain points in the film they have serious moments to make it that this movie isn't all comedy and no plot. This film is about three GI's who go to a bar to celebrate that they are done with serving in the military and it will be their last day together. At the bar they make a bet with the bar tender that in ten years they will meet at this same bar and still be best of friends. Ten years come and the GIs meet once again, but to find out how there lives have completely changed and that time apart had them to talking about their life after the war, but they all seemed to irritate one another, and problems grow and grow and throughout the movie they end up on a show that showed the people about their bet and all three of them end up fighting against the mob who fixes boxing matches, goes on and they then realized why they were best friends and go on to be best friends again and go celebrate at the bar from the beginning. This movie was directed as well as choreographed very nice, all the dances and songs were perfect for each other. This movie was very enjoyable to me and if you like musicals that include bar fights this may be a good choice for you to watch. Because this films both has a lot of fun for the whole family to watch. Overall this movie was enjoyable to watch, and it honestly couldn't have been much better than it already is.