IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN (MGM 1947) Warner Home Video


It’s often said ‘true artistry never ages’ – a maxim confirmed upon viewing Richard Whorf’s delightful minor programmer, It Happened In Brooklyn (1947); by MGM’s peerless standards, disposable, though nevertheless heart-warming some 71 years after its original release. The screenplay by Isobel Lennart contains some minor inconsistencies in plot and character development that, mercifully, never wreck havoc on the more lithe and uncomplicated machinations of this story’s protagonists. The musical program interpolates a few pop standards – including ‘Time After Time’ penned by Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne (this became a Sinatra standard for decades yet to follow) with some operatic arias, the best being La Ci Darem La Mano from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, sung to perfection by Metro’s winsome soprano, Kathryn Grayson and accompanied, rather effectively by Sinatra (who could hardly consider opera his métier). Already one of the most popular vocalists of the 20th century by the time this film came out, Frank Sinatra was well on his way to entering the second phase of his singing career – a decade with many gold records, yet increasingly fewer film parts that would have him sing.
In It Happened In Brooklyn, Sinatra is Daniel Webster Miller, a G.I. set to go home after the war. Danny is introverted and shy. His nurse (Gloria Grahame) even doubts that he is from Brooklyn – where all the people are outgoing and friendly, so we’re told. However, upon arriving in New York, Danny immediately has a cabbie take him to the Brooklyn Bridge (for once not a matte painting, but the actual location, where Sinatra warbles a ballad, teeming with homespun sentiment for this particular structure. In Brooklyn, Danny meets disheartened aspiring opera singer, Anne Fielding (Kathryn Grayson). At first, Anne finds Danny’s infectious optimism slightly annoying. She even accuses him of following her to her day job as music teacher at a local high school. There, Danny is reacquainted with the school’s janitor, Nick Lombardi (the lovable Jimmy Durante) who immediately takes Danny into his home and heart, and, helps to arrange for an audition at Dawson’s Music Shop. Danny and Anne share a few barbs at the start of their romance before developing a mutual affection that is abated with the arrival of Jamie Shellgrove (Peter Lawford). It seems just prior to departing England, Danny assured Jamie’s uncle he could straighten out Jamie’s awkwardness with the ladies. No help required as Anne and Jamie soon spark a kindred passion that quietly smolders even as Danny, Anne and Jamie become involved in a subplot to bring the musical talents of one of Anne’s pupils, Leo Kardos (William Roy) to the attention of the Brooklyn Music Forum.
It Happened In Brooklyn is a charmingly antiseptic musical, imbued with a few bouncy tunes and a lot of heart to back it go down as it should – like the proverbial ‘spoonful of sugar’! The script by Lennart moves along effortlessly, though it illustrates the writer’s general weaknesses for story construction. As example; after firmly establishing Gloria Grahame’s nurse as an idyllic counterbalance to cure Danny’s shyness, the script jettisons her character entirely, leaving Danny alone, though optimistic at the end of our big city fable. The songs by Cahn and Styne are modestly charming; the buoyant, ‘I Believe’ and rambunctious ‘Song’s Gotta Come From The Heart’ a spirited pas deux for Sinatra and Durante, are delightful distractions that evaporate like cotton candy once heard. Grayson is at her winsome best when she reprises ‘Time After Time’. And any move with James Durante ought to at least be considered for canonization as a national treasure. It Happened In Brooklyn may not represent the high point of Frank Sinatra musical career at MGM, but it celebrates the studio’s ability to be secure enough in a talent, to allow for minor improvisations such as this – never to tax the mind, even as it soothes the heat.
Warner Home Video delivers a very clean DVD transfer. The B&W image has a consistently refined gray scale with deep solid blacks and generally clean whites. Contrast is gorgeous. Age-related artifacts are present, but tempered for an overall smooth and satisfying visual presentation. Film grain has been inconsistently rendered. Some scenes are smooth. Others seem to suffer from its amplification to artificially high levels. The audio is 1.0 Dolby Digital mono, retaining a wonderfully vibrant sonic characteristic – albeit with acoustic limitations for a soundtrack of its vintage. Bottom line: not an A-list movie, but a top-flight entertainment of the little 'gem class' nonetheless. Watch today, treasure forever!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
3.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
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