About the film
On the Town is a 1949 American Technicolor musical film with music by Leonard Bernstein and Roger Edens and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It is an adaptation of the Broadway stage musical of the same name produced in 1944 (which itself is an adaptation of the Jerome Robbins ballet, titled Fancy Free, also produced in 1944), although many changes in the script and score were made to the original stage version; for instance, most of Bernstein's score was dropped in favor of new songs by Edens, who felt that the majority of Bernstein's music was too complex and too operatic for film audiences. This caused Bernstein to boycott the film.
The film was directed by Gene Kelly (who also choreographed) and Stanley Donen, in their directorial debut, and stars Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, and Ann Miller, featuring Jules Munshin and Vera-Ellen. It was a product of the Arthur Freed unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is notable for its combination of studio and location filming, the result of Gene Kelly's insistence that some scenes be shot in New York City, including Columbus Circle, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Rockefeller Center.
The film was an immediate success and won the Oscar for Best Music – Scoring of a Musical Picture. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography (Color). Screenwriters Comden and Green won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical.
In 2006, the film ranked number 19 on the American Film Institute's list of Best Musicals. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
