IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN

US, 1947, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Peter Lawford, Jimmy Durante, Gloria Grahame, Aubrey Mather, Bobby Long, Billy Roy.
Directed by Richard Whorf.

It Happened in Brooklyn is a very pleasant musical from the 1940s, not a Technicolor extravaganza like so many MGM musicals of that decade. Rather, it is a low-key black and white musical comedy, set in Brooklyn.

The film has the atmosphere of the GIs returning from Europe at the end of World War Two. Frank Sinatra plays a young man, diffident, remembering his modest Brooklyn background and hoping for great things. However, he is rather shy. Peter Lawford plays the grandson of a British duke whom he meets in England and invites to Brooklyn so that he can open him up. Lawford does arrive – and encounters Kathryn Grayson as a singing teacher at the local school. In the meantime, Sinatra boards in the small rooms in the school with the janitor, his friend Jimmy Durante. Gloria Grahame plays the nurse in England. Bobby Long does a very good song-and-dance routine. Billy Roy also plays the piano. In fact, the musical pieces for piano were played by Andre Previn.

There is quite a range of songs, especially the classic Time After Time (music by Jule Styne). The songs include The Brooklyn Bridge and It’s the Same Old Dream as well as a jive turn from Peter Lawford, Whose Baby Are You. Sinatra and Jimmy Durante combine for The Song’s Gotta Come From The Heart – in which Sinatra imitates Durante’s singing and stage style. Kathryn Grayson sings from Lakme and she and Sinatra do the duet from Don Giovanni.

A pleasant romance, of its period, with very strong MGM stars.

1. The appeal of the film? In its time? Later? Romance, comedy, music?

2. The Brooklyn setting, the MGM sound stages and the backdrops for Brooklyn? The references, an authentic feel? The humorous comment about people wanting to get out of Brooklyn?

3. The black and white photography? The cast? The musical score? The songs – and performance?

4. The introduction to Danny? At the end of the war? Being shy? The nurse urging him on? His seeing Jimmy, playing the piano, a beginning to sing? The encounter with the Duke? The promise to help Jimmy come out of himself? The Duke coming to Brooklyn at the end of the film – mission accomplished?

5. Danny and his return to Brooklyn, his reregistering for the draft? The people on the street? The policeman? Stopping Anne and getting in her car, his meeting her again? The bad initial encounter? His liking for her? The meetings, in Nick’s apartment? His urging her on? Her encouraging him? Nick and his living in the basement, sharing the jobs? The songs together? His being urged to go to the music shop, he and Nick singing, the owner hiring him? His success in the shop, the teenagers and their gathering round him? The different versions of the same song? His meeting with the boy who danced? With the boy who played the piano? His taking the initiative to organise the concert? Becoming involved with the concert rather than with Anne? Nick asking him if he was in love with Anne? His inability to answer the questions? His friendship with Jimmy, putting the lyrics to his music, the success? The concert? Leo and his getting the scholarship? Danny and his giving up Anne? His knowledge of the nurse? His future?

6. Anne, her voice, her being turned down for the opera? In school, singing about Bach? The encounters with Danny, antagonism? The apology? Her meeting Danny at the restaurant, the singing of Don Giovanni? Her imagining that she was singing Lakme on stage? The meeting with Jimmy, liking him, sharing the time with him, in love with him? His inability to express himself? The final reconciliation? The success of the concert?

7. Jimmy, his grandfather, his shyness? Meeting Danny, the piano? The correspondence? Coming to Brooklyn? At the music store – and loosening up with singing Whose Baby Are You? His love for Anne, their time together, his remembering the details? Inarticulate? But the happy ending?

8. Nick, the Jimmy Durante style? Music, comedy, falsetto voice? His eyes and facial expression? His love of words? Love of meeting English aristocracy? Jimmy’s hat? His befriending of Danny, having him live in the house? Urging him on, encouraging him? Testing whether he was in love with Anne or not?

9. The dancing routine with the young boy in the gymnasium? The song I Believe?

10. Leo, his story, performance, his mother? Organising the concert? The support, the people, the foundation giving him the scholarship?

11. Romantic and comic ups and downs in Brooklyn in the 40s?