Take Me Out to the Ball Game (film)


Take Me Out to the Ball Game is a 1949 Technicolor musical film produced in the Arthur Freed unit of MGM. It stars Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, and Gene Kelly, features Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold and Jules Munshin, and was directed by Busby Berkeley. The title and nominal theme is taken from the unofficial anthem of American baseball, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". The film was released in the United Kingdom as Everybody's Cheering.

Plot

In 1908, a fictional baseball team, the Chicago Wolves, start the season on the road against the Washington Senators, and later the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Athletics, and Cleveland Indians, all American League teams. Two of its players, Eddie O'Brien and Dennis Ryan, are also part-time vaudevillians. The ball club's status quo is turned on its head when the team winds up under new ownership, and the distress this causes the team is only increased when the new owner is revealed to be a woman, K.C. Higgins. Eventually, Dennis falls for her, and then Eddie as well, while Dennis is the object of the affections of an ardent fan, Shirley Delwyn. All of them must contend with a number of gangsters led by Joe Lorgan looking to win a big bet by impairing Eddie's play and getting him kicked off the team.

Cast

The film was announced in May 1948. It was based on a story by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with a script by Harry Tugend. The female lead of club-owner K.C. Higgins was originally meant to be played by Ginger Rogers. However, she dropped out a month before filming and was replaced by Esther Williams. Williams also claimed that there were others up for the role of club-owner K.C. Higgins before she was selected: Judy Garland was originally slated to star, but was replaced because of substance abuse problems. Similarly, Sinatra's role of Dennis Ryan was said to have originally been intended for professional baseball manager Leo Durocher.
Williams, a star in swimming-themed musicals, did not enjoy her experience filming with star, story-writer and choreographer Gene Kelly. In her autobiography, she describes her time on the film as "pure misery", claiming that Kelly and Stanley Donen treated her with contempt and went out of their way to make jokes at her expense. Williams asserts that Kelly was uncomfortable with the height difference between them, Williams being 5'10", while Kelly was 5'7". Williams did, however, form a strong bond with Frank Sinatra. Director Busby Berkeley originally planned a swimming number for Williams, but the idea was rejected by Gene Kelly. Instead, she has a brief swimming sequence where she casually sings the title song.
Although Busby Berkeley was hired as director by Producer Arthur Freed, he dropped out due to "exhaustion" and much of the film was directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. Supposedly, the real reason Berkeley left the production was due to chronic alcoholism and depression, though his touch can be seen in Esther Williams's pool sequence.

Songs

Take Me Out to the Ball Game was a box office success, earning $2,987,000 in the US and Canada and $978,000 overseas, resulting in a profit of $675,000.
It received modestly positive reviews, although some reviewers felt the cast was better than the material, and the film lacked a "consistent style and pace".

Awards and honors

Harry Tugend and George Wells were nominated for the 1950 Writers Guild of America Award in the category of "Best Written American Musical". They lost to Betty Comden and Adolph Green, for On the Town, another MGM musical comedy, also produced by Arthur Freed, and also starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett and Jules Munshin, which was released four months after Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: