Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)

Film: Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
Stars: Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Jules Munshin, Edward Arnold
Director: Busby Berkeley
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2019 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress of Hollywood's Golden Age.  This month, our focus is on Esther Williams-click here to learn more about Ms. Williams (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

We continue on a few years into Williams' career.  Throughout the late 1940's, Williams was perhaps the most important star on the MGM lot, at least in terms of keeping the lights on.  She had a Top 20 movie every year between Bathing Beauty and her double-feature victories of 1949 (the second of which we'll discuss next week).  MGM, famous for its high quality and cavalcade of stars, desperately needed an actress that could consistently churn out hits, as many of its stars were aging, and so Williams was put into near constant production during the era.  This film is one of the few she made with Arthur Freed, legendary musical producer who would make some of the best movies the studio ever made, and teamed her with Gene Kelly & Fred Astaire, obviously big stars in their own right, but having all of that stardom might have helped at the box office, but behind-the-scenes Williams was in hell.

(Spoilers Ahead) Before we talk about Williams life (and work in the picture), let's get to the story, written by Kelly himself (and frequent collaborator Stanley Donen).  The movie is about Dennis Ryan (Sinatra) and Eddie O'Brien (Kelly) who in 1908 are both baseball players who in the off-season have a successful stint as vaudeville performers.  They goofily enjoy their time on the fictional team the Wolves, but the team's new owner KC Higgins (Williams) turns out to be a female, and one with a knowledge of baseball & who is no-nonsense when it comes to her new players.  Both Dennis & Eddie try to woo her, but she ultimately falls for Eddie, who is kind of a louse but she has chemistry with him (Dennis is consoled by Betty Garrett's thirsty Shirley Delwyn, a fan-in-the-stands whom he falls for), but not before Eddie nearly screws up their shot at the pennant by taking a contract with Joe Lorgan (Arnold), a rich hood who has bet on the game & is trying to sabotage its players.  The film ends with a meta-musical number where the four actors are costumed as their characters, but singing as the actual actors (if you don't care too much about spoilers, it's kind of unusual & worth checking out here).

The film itself is fine.  The meta ending number was so odd that it was probably my favorite part (name-checking the actual actors in the film by name, as well as other leading performers of their day), but the musical numbers in the film are largely forgettable.  Kelly dances, Sinatra croons, Garrett & Munshin steal scenes, and Williams (briefly) swims, so everyone is doing what you'd expect, but the flimsy plot and lack of a major, memorable ballad or number causes it to be ill-compared to something of the era like Meet Me in St. Louis or On the Town, which features all but Williams from those name-checked actors.  That said, it's still lovely & fun-this is an Arthur Freed musical during MGM's heyday starring some of the razzle dazzliest stars in Hollywood-you'd have to be pretty cynical to dislike the picture.

It's interesting to approach the film from the perspective of Esther Williams, though, so I'm excited to have watched this in the context of her month as the star rather than if we did Sinatra or Kelly in a future season.  Williams's character is fun, and she gets some sassy lines & moments; it's hard to be the female lead in a movie where Betty Garrett is also on-deck (Garrett is one of the quintessential Golden Age scene-stealers, ranking up there with Thelma Ritter & Ann Miller), and she isn't quite as flashy as Garrett, but Williams is memorable & aces her scenes taking down Kelly's chauvinistic Eddie.

However, I was curious as to why MGM cast Williams in such a role, particularly when they were making so much money with her work in aquatic musicals.  Turns out, she wasn't even remotely their top choice; June Allyson, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland & Kathryn Grayson (the latter two are name-checked in the "Strictly USA" final number) were all favored for the role before circumstance caused all four to skip out, and Kelly in particular did not want to cast Williams in the part.  Berkeley was technically the director of the picture, but apparently was absent for much of the shoot due to his issues with alcoholism, so Kelly & Donen had a very heavy hand in the making the film, and (according to her memoirs) treated Williams like garbage on the set.  Berkeley even had an idea for a Williams' musical number in the water, potentially helping the film's box office, but Kelly refused and it was cut (as was a duet between Kelly-and-Williams, a rare circumstance for a classic age musical where the main romantic leads don't have a love ballad).  Williams would continue to slam Kelly in interviews sixty years after the film she hated making the movie so much (she apparently liked Sinatra), but it was another money-maker for the star, though thankfully for Williams' sense-of-self, they never again teamed her with Kelly.