This fascinating, flawed (and commercially doomed) musical from Betty Comden & Adolph Green plays out like a grim second act to their earlier hit ON THE TOWN/'49. But instead of WWII sailors on a one-day leave in NYC, three bosom-buddy army grunts return to the city ten years after the war for a reunion & find they now have nothing in common. Andre Previn proves he’s no Leonard Bernstein in the popular song racket (not that M-G-M kept much of Lenny's original ON THE TOWN score), but with Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen repeating as co-helmers, and helplessly mirroring the sour storyline in their own relationship behind the camera, WEATHER sounds some unusually touching, even painful, dramatic overtones. Dan Dailey shows tremendous presence & power as a miserable PR man while Kelly nails his big specialty 'numbo' (the one on roller-skates). Odd man out is Michael Kidd whose star turn got axed by Kelly (the remains can be seen on the DVD). His acting is a bit stiff, but he sure looks great in the CinemaScope formatted trios. Cyd Charisse gets but a single gig (a second got clipped), but Dolores Gray, as a sexed-up tv hostess, scores in her over-the-top comic turns. Faults & all, the film stays with you in a way ON THE TOWN doesn't.* (And dig that great pull-back effect shot at the end of both the prologue & the finale.)
READ ALL ABOUT IT: DANCING ON THE CEILING: Stanley Donen & His Movies by Stephen Silverman is an unusually frank Hollywood bio with lots of revealing input from Donen.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Baring in mind that the stage show ON THE TOWN opened while WWII was still going on while the film, out in 1949, inevitably plays with far less at stake for all parties.
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