Three sailors on shore leave in the Big Apple race against the clock to find the alluring Miss Turnstiles. Gene Kelly taught Frank Sinatra how to dance in 1945 for the movie Anchors Aweigh, which explains why, four years later, On the Townmarks – in the words of music historian Will Friedwald – "one of Sinatra's most memorable movie roles". One of the most highly regarded New York movies ever, On the Town is also one of the Top 20 musicals on the American Film Institute's list. The late, great film critic René Jordan wrote: " 'New York, New York, it's a wonderful town ... the Bronx is up and the Battery's down'. Well, the Battery is just about the only thing that's down in this adrenaline charged romp with screenplay by Comden and Green, music by Leonard Bernstein and Gene Kelly / Stanley Donen choreography. The overall effect is almost three-dimensional, from Vera-Ellen in her 'Miss Turnstiles' ballet to Ann Miller in search of a Neanderthal lover to Betty Garrett as a man-eating cab driver. Gorgeous fun all-around, with a hats-off salute to the unforgettable but unjustly forgotten Alice Pearce, as the blind date that even a bat would turn down."
On the Town screens in celebration of Sinatra's centennial and History Miami Museum's exhibit, Sinatra: An American Icon.
