On The Town (1949)

Life rarely gives you enough time, so you might as well make the most of what you've got. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's "On the Town," their directing debut, adapted from the Broadway musical, follows three sailors - Gabey (Kelly), Chip (Frank Sinatra) and Ozzie (Jules Munshin) - with just 24 hours of shore leave in New York City. The film opens with the three bursting off their ship and into the city singing "New York, New York," and it was among the first Hollywood musicals to shoot on location in the city. Chip is swept off his feet by brash cab driver Brunhilde Esterhazy (Betty Garrett), Ozzie catches the eye of man-crazy anthropologist Claire Huddesen (Ann Miller), and Gabey falls for Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen), a dancer whose face he spots on a subway poster as "Miss Turnstiles." The search for Ivy takes the sailors to the top of the Empire State Building, a string of nightclubs and finally Coney Island, with the shore patrol and police in hot pursuit. Songs by Leonard Bernstein, Roger Edens, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green keep the pace brisk - and the clock is always ticking. The film won the Oscar for its musical score.