classicfilm | Take Me Out To The Ball Game (1949)

(Can I get a "musicals" tag?)

This is a silly, fun movie! Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly play a couple of ballplayers who have a vaudeville act in the off season - of course! Sinatra's character (Denny) thinks only about baseball, but Kelly's character (O'Brien) is a confirmed skirt chaser who chafes at the team's curfew.

When Esther Williams (Katherine) inherits their ball club and shows up to take over management, no one takes her seriously at first - until she shows she can play ball with the boys, and then ball-crazy Denny falls for her. Meanwhile she and O'Brien have a bad start when he treats her like just another skirt and confesses his disregard of team rules before he realizes she's the new manager - the power of signing a letter with initials instead of a full name, heh. He hatches a plan to get Denny to take her out on a date so that he can sneak out, but Denny doesn't have a clue how to act around girls, which for Sinatra is hilarious. He's also portrayed as a lightweight who can be knocked out by the flimsiest punch, to frequent comic effect.

The song and dance routines are nothing particularly memorable, but everyone is having so much fun it's easy not to care. Once the baseball season finally starts, Denny picks up a crazed fan named Shirley (Betty Garrett) who tries to carry him off, literally! Then she invites the whole team to a CLAM BAKE! Of course!

At the clam bake, much kissing happens, and it becomes clear that sparks are flying between O'Brien and Katherine in spite of themselves. She gives Ol Blue Eyes the brush off, and he rebounds into Shirley's arms. And then Gene Kelly does a spontaneous ten-minute Irish dance! Of course! This serves to impress his mad dancing skills on the big businessman (Lorgan) who sponsored the clam bake.

The next day, Lorgan shows up to hire O'Brien for his song & dance show, but it's clear he's just trying to undermine O'Brien so that the team will lose and he can win a big gambling bet. O'Brien won't leave the team but agrees to sneak away for rehearsals. When the coaches can't figure out why he's slumping, they talk Katherine, who's been keeping her distance, into acting sweet to him so that he'll "relax" and perform better. Yay romance under false pretenses! Can't hardly have a musical without that, right? But after their tender moment, Lorgan shows up, spills the beans, and Katherine kicks O'Brien off the team. O'Brien walks out on Lorgan, and now he has nothing.

Next we get a reflective montage where a restless O'Brien realizes he really loves baseball after all - and Katherine too. He stages a successful grass roots movement to get back in the championship game. Shirley overhears Lorgan tell his cronies they have to take out O'Brien, mafia-style, and she runs to warn Denny first. Denny responds by knocking O'Brien in the head with a baseball, so that Lorgan won't beat him up! Of course!

Lorgan doesn't trust O'Brien to stay unconscious, so he sends his cronies to pretend to be doctors and keep everyone else locked out. But now Shirley finds Katherine, and they get Lorgan and his men arrested. Katherine weeps over O'Brien's unconscious body until he wakes up. He soon remembers that Denny knocked him out, and runs back on the field in a fighting rage! But Denny is on first base! "Get a hit, you can catch him!" Of course!

The ensuing chase around the bases is hilarious, and oh yeah, they just won the game too. Of course! Then it's time for the final song, which is the most ridiculous happy ending capitulation EVER. They don't even stay in character! But who even cares, it's all in good fun.