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It's Always Fair Weather | 
| Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
Actors: Gene Kelly, Phil Arnold, Madge Blake, Eugene Borden, David Burns
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 24.98
Buy New: CDN$ 16.39
You Save: CDN$ 8.59 (34%)
New (9) Used (1) from CDN$ 16.39
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 28323
Format: Ac-3, Dolby, Ntsc, Original Recording Remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: WARD67860D
UPC: 012569678606
EAN: 0012569678606
ASIN: B000EBD9RG
Theatrical Release Date: September 2, 1955
Release Date: April 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships from U.S.A, takes 6-11 days for Delivery! BRAND NEW PRODUCT Factory Sealed.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Essential Video
The third collaboration between Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, IIt's Always Fair Weather/I falls short of the classics IOn the Town/I and ISingin' in the Rain/I, mostly due to a slow plot and middling songs by Andre Previn, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. In a story reminiscent of IOn the Town/I, Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd play three GIs who return from the war vowing to stay buddies forever. When they reunite 10 years later, however, they find they have little in common, other than having given up on their dreams. Best known as the choreographer of such MGM evergreens as ISeven Brides for Seven Brothers/I, the diminutive Kidd proves adept at kicking up his heels in front of the camera. Cyd Charisse plays a scheming television producer (an unusually down-home character) and Delores Gray is the toothy TV show host. (Gray gets to sing and Charisse dances a little, though not with Kelly.) The best moments, of course, are the dance numbers Kelly choreographed, including the three GIs' trash-can-lid dance, Charisse's solo supported by a crew of boxers, and Kelly's number on roller skates, "I Like Myself," which combines some of the free spirit of "Singin' in the Rain" with the stunt footwear made famous by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in 1937's IShall We Dance/I. Unfortunately, the pan-and-scan format spoils the film's wide CinemaScope presentation, often fitting only two of the three characters on the screen. Enjoyable, but not quite a classic. I--David Horiuchi/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
Gene Kelly Is Love On Two Feet! April 5, 2003
Edward M. Erdelac (Valley Village, CA)
Standout production about three inseperable Army buddies with big plans who on their last drunken night together after World War II vow to reunite ten years later...and can't stand each other when they do. pThis really is an overlooked diamond which deserves among all others the DVD treatment for its wonderful use of 2:35:1. There is one scene which particularly suffers from the pan and scan - the musical number in which the three pals sing and dance on a tri-split screen (each thinking the same thing about the others - `Once Upon A Time I Had Two Friends...' is the song). Compositions are great all around, though. Jazzy, upbeat musical numbers and some of the greatest dance steps Gene Kelly ever pulled off (the stellar one on the roller skates `I Like Myself' which is seen briefly by Jean Reno in THE PROFESSIONAL, and a great set in the beginning where the GI's tap dance with trash can lids on their feet are particularly amazing). Cyd Charrise kicks it up with a gym full of pugs in `Baby, You Knock Me Out' and Dolores Grey for my money gives the best performance in the awesome `Thanks A Lot But No Thanks,' alternately dynamiting and gunning down her suitors...it cracks me up every time. pAnd the story is smart and sweet too, touching on the endurance of real friendship, the benefit of hindsight, and the healing effects of true love. Granted, like a good horse it tends to sag a little in the middle, but it comes back kicking in the end. This one is a real classic. I love it too much to give it less than four stars, but it loses one for the pan and scan.
 Pan and Scan Disaster January 22, 2003
K. Nish (Fairfield, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Everytime I see this VHS, I think back to an interview with Kelly where he said this film would never be released on VHS during his life because he would have to chop it in half. Kelly hated the pan and scan that came with a standard 1.33:1 TV screen and if you ever see this film letterboxed, you will understand why. (Luckily I have the Gene Kelly Collection on laserdisc which is letterboxed.)brIt is a gritty film, that at times moves a little slowly, but the tap dancing rollerskates is truly one of the most talented things I have ever seen Kelly do-it is amazing.brSerious Gene Kelly fans should push for a re-issue of the above mentioned collection on DVD. Then you could see it as it should be seen.
A cynical "On The Town." January 11, 2003
Chris Aldridge (Washington, DC USA)
It is a Gene Kelly vehichle and there are three wartime buddies, but that's pretty much where the "On The Town" similarities end. It is a surprisingly sharp, cynical story in which the protagonist's dreams do *not* initially come true- due to life circumstances. Betty Comden and the late Adolph Green- responsible for so many great film scores as well as the scripts of "Auntie Mame," "Bells Are Ringing," and "What A Way To Go-" contribute very witty songs here, including the Danubian tri-liloquy sung by the guys and Dolores Gray's "Thanks A Lot, But No Thanks" and "Music Is Better than Words (delivered with a rich, smooth contralto)." I wish Kelly and Charisse had danced together (the omission makes the film appear a bit empty), but my favorite numbers are still his garbage-can dance through the streets and her sexy sweater-and-skirt dance with the boxers, "Baby, You Knock Me Out." And I would've liked the roller-skating finale better if it didn't have a big, looming, piece of the "Singin' In The Rain" set in the background.
 Unbelievably Miserable Experience November 3, 2002
This film was originally conceived as a sequel to "On the Town," but for various reasons, it became this film instead, about three other GI's returning to peacetime America, and then getting together again ten years after the war.br There are so many behind-the-scenes reasons about why this film became as miserable as it is that they are too large to detail. (Read Fordin's book on the MGM Freed Unit for the full scoop.)br Nonetheless, if anyone has ever been to a ten year class reunion or stumbles into an old friend years after originally knowing them, you'll know what it's like when people who were once your dearest friends are now strangers.br The whole thought of people giving up on their dreams, unhappy marriages, or looking down on other, and so on loads down this film. If you're thinking MGM film musicals are all joy and happiness, then you're bound to be let down by this film. The only typical MGM number in this movie is the skating scene with Gene Kelly. br The themes of this film don't make for easy viewing. You keep wanting it to turn into a more familiar MGM film, which it never really does. There is a happy ending, but these characters are in a difficult place in their lives, making it difficult for you to embrace them.br That having been said, this film is worthy of study for anyone who is a student of the genre. This film, bad Eastman print and all, is a good study specimen of Hollywood trying to figure out how to keep itself alive while faced with the challenge of television (a convenient enemy in this film), changing tastes, and how America in the 1950s, had, for some, forgotten the ideals of wartime victory ten years before.br Comden and Green could never turn out a lousy script, and they certainly didn't do it in this case. But be forewarned, this is not a happy-go-lucky film. This is an unusually miserable film, because it deals with miserable experiences. And... because we probably see some of us in each of these characters who have abandoned their ideals.
 "A Neglected Charmer" August 2, 2002
Stanley H. Nemeth (Garden Grove, CA United States)
This musical, oddly neglected, is in fact a worthy companion to "Singing in the Rain" and "The Bandwagon." Gene Kelly is his usual brilliant self, and the underrated Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd almost rival him in elegant hoofing. Not only their opening dance sequence employing garbage can tops, but also that terrific scene in a fancy restaurant where these three World War II war buddies are later reunited and privately sing of their disappointment in each other rival in wit anything in the aforementioned musicals. Moreover, the photography in both these scenes surely ranks among the most imaginative ever put on screen in the service of that elongated band-aid, Cinemascope. Cyd Charisse, always beautiful, is here at last given something to do. Her singing and dancing scene with the boxers in Stillman's Gym shows her at her cinematic best. Dolores Gray as a TV host is wonderfully over the top, and TV itself as a new medium comes in for a wonderfully insightful drubbing remarkably early in its career as the boob tube. Finally ,then, only one question arises - When will this film be released in widescreen on DVD?
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