SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

jacobs-greenwood This is not a great movie, but if you like its cast of singing stars – Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson (without Technicolor), Peter Lawford and Jimmy Durante – you'll enjoy it anyway (and as a bonus there's Gloria Grahame!). It was directed by Richard Whorf and scripted by Isobel Lennart (one of the four Sinatra films that she wrote) from a story by John McGowan.Sinatra plays a Brooklyn born soldier that returns home to find that he hadn't changed as much as he'd thought he had. He believed himself to be more confident. But he's influenced by Durante, his old high school's janitor, who takes him under his wing and encourages a would-be romantic relationship with the music teacher come opera singer Grayson.Sinatra's character discovers that he's happy helping others with their dreams. Lawford plays a shy fellow that Sinatra had met in England (during which Grahame plays a nurse, also from Brooklyn) just before his discharge from the Army. He's sent to Brooklyn to satisfy his Duke (Aubrey Mather) grandfather, who'd hoped that Sinatra could give him confidence.Lawford and Grayson make a better match. Everyone is hitting on all cylinders when they help a young pianist (uncredited Billy Roy, whose compositions are performed off stage by 17 year old André Previn, also uncredited) that wants to earn a scholarship.

GManfred "It Happened In Brooklyn" is so good-natured and cloying you can't help but like it. It's about a soldier (Sinatra) just discharged from the army after WW II to find a girl friend and a life. He disembarkation point is England, and after making friends with Peter Lawford, off he goes, returning to Brooklyn. From here the plot is so contrived it is hard to recount due to the lack of believability, and the story can barely drag its carcass from one song to the next, so shameless are the screenwriters.But the songs. They are exquisite, written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, and the main reason for my rating. Sinatra is in fine voice, and Jimmy Durante has been irreplaceable on America's stellar list of entertainers. "Time After Time', "It's the Same Old Dream" are two of Frank's better numbers, but the piece de resistance is Sinatra and Durante doing, " It's Gotta Come From The Heart". Priceless. There are a couple of opera numbers for Kathryn Grayson, so there is something for everyone in this picture.It is a flag-waver and a preposterous tall tale, but it all works. All you have to do is wait for the musical numbers. And they are worth waiting for.

whpratt1 Enjoyed this picture from the beginning to the very end with great old time musical numbers sung by Frank Sinatra, (Danny Webson Miller) who returns from the Army after four years of service to his hometown of Brooklyn, New York and meets up with some of his old friends. One of the friends is Jimmy Durante, (Nick Lombardi) who really stole the entire film in almost every scene. Kathryn Grayson, (Anne Fielding) had such a fantastic opera voice and sang some very famous Classical musical numbers. It was enjoyable seeing Peter Lawford, (Jamie Shellgrove) give a great song and dance number and also a blooming romance between him and Anne Fielding. Even Gloria Grahame, (Nurse) gave a great supporting role as a nurse taking care of Danny while he was in the service and how he sort of remembers her at the very end of the picture. Great film, don't miss this great Classic from 1947. Enjoy.

Calysta There are many examples of classic film that have mistakenly been filmed in a garish process of technicolour, often when artificial sets are fiendishly evident. In the case of IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN, it would have been far more beneficial otherwise, even if the studio-bound Brooklyn sets were lacking in realistic qualities…simply to merely awaken the audience and poignantly show what could have been a greatly livened and exciting musical in MGM's top ranks. The faded shades of black and white had me continually straining to find any signs of life, especially when the whole thing would have photographed and run more smoothly in colour. Despite the treat of a star-studded cast featuring Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Kathryn Grayson and Peter Lawford, only the stellar performances of Durante and Sinatra are worth the running time. Lawford as the grandson of an English duke is too stuffy to fit in within the movie and is too pompously intolerable to put up with for the common audience member, although one can eventually like him a little more by the film's end. Kathryn Grayson's nightingale operatic soprano voice is pleasant, if not fiendishly good, and her performance charming, but despite early flashes of temperament, her effort proves to be wasted in a film that seems to retread every other film of hers except for KISS ME KATE. Gloria Grahame also makes a small appearance as a nurse at the beginning of the film who would have been a better substitute for both Lawford and Grayson had it not been for her singing inability. Her few performances under contract to the studio are demonstrative of talent and beauty at the studio that did not fit into the general mould of performers which is reflected because they did not know what to do with her by relegating her minor parts. However, the story line of BROOKLYN is somewhat interesting and can almost justifiably be credited for this factor, in comparison to the continuous output of films from the studio which lead the viewer through the tiresome back lot tour. Sinatra, Grayson and Durante take at least forty five minutes to succeed in doing to Lawford what only took Judy Garland twenty seconds to do to Jose Iturbi in THOUSANDS CHEER. The screenplay seems to specialise in prolonging epic delays in its events and lacks the rousing comedy of a Comden and Green script, but in general is not too bad an effort, even if some of the most important scenes are either rushed or haltingly abrupt. There is a general message of kindheartedness which in turn makes the film cheerful and pleasant even though `everyone is miserable in Brooklyn', and the fact that the director is almost screaming at his audience to love the film and the people in it. As always with the majority of many films of the genre, the musical program intentionally exceeds the plot's importance, which can be expected. In MGM's case, this method often produced a hit song. Despite some lovely music and lyrics by Cahn and Styne, I strain to remember any song. This may have been because opera was strongly integrated in a film of style clashes and thus I couldn't remember any of the songs since opera is generally a painful experience, or because they lacked the entertaining passion of many other MGM's songs. In addition to this, Andre Previn's piano solos are thrown in. Gene Kelly is missing but since none of the lead actors are good enough dancers, a pre-teen kid is pushed into the mix to pick up where Kelly's athleticism left off. Because of these haphazard factors, IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN can be best compared to a jigsaw of innovative elements virtually impossible to put together. None of the factors are able to complement each other, but the film is demonstrative of a well-handed routine musical that could have stood out with others had Busby Berkley or the Freed unit been at the helm. It is an enjoyable entertainment piece that showed great promise, but I'll be damned if I know why. Rating: 7.5/10