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Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1949 film)

Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Take Me Out To The Ballgame (MGM film).jpg
Promotional poster
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Produced by Arthur Freed
Screenplay by Harry Tugend
George Wells
Story by Gene Kelly
Stanley Donen
Starring Frank Sinatra
Esther Williams
Gene Kelly
Music by Adolph Deutsch
Cinematography George J. Folsey
Edited by Blanche Sewell
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
March 9, 1949 (NYC premiere)
April 13, 1949 (US)
Running time
93 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,025,000
Box office $4,344,000

Take Me Out to the Ball Game is a 1949 Technicolor musical film produced in the Arthur Freed unit of MGM. It stars Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, and Gene Kelly, features Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold and Jules Munshin, and was directed by Busby Berkeley. The title and nominal theme is taken from the unofficial anthem of American baseball, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". The movie was released in the United Kingdom as Everybody's Cheering.

In 1908, a fictional American League baseball team, the Wolves, Two of its players, Eddie O'Brien (Gene Kelly) and Dennis Ryan (Frank Sinatra), are also part-time vaudevillians. The ball club's status quo is turned on its head when the team winds up under new ownership, and the distress this causes the team is only increased when the new owner is revealed to be a woman, K.C. (Katherine Catherine) Higgins (Esther Williams). Eventually, Dennis falls for her, and then Eddie as well, while Dennis is the object of the affections of an ardent fan, Shirley Delwyn (Betty Garrett). All of them must contend with a number of gangsters led by Joe Lorgan (Edward Arnold) looking to win a big bet by impairing Eddie's play and getting him kicked off the team.

Esther Williams, a star in swimming-themed musicals, did not enjoy her experience filming with star, story-writer and choreographer Gene Kelly. In her autobiography, she describes her time on the film as "pure misery", claiming that Kelly and Stanley Donen treated her with contempt and went out of their way to make jokes at her expense. Williams asserts that Kelly was uncomfortable with the height difference between them, Williams being 5'10", while Kelly was 5'7".


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