IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN

It Happened in Brooklyn
MGM, 1947, B/W, 103 minutes, ****
Released March, 1947

Jobs are scarce. Rooms to rent are scarcer. Times aren't easy for returning GIs in the years after World War II. But falling in love, that's easy.

It Happened in Brooklyn. And it happens with Frank Sinatra (in a performance critically hailed as the best of his then-young screen career) starring as an ex-soldier and with a lot of humor and Jule Styne / Sammy Cahn songs. "The Song's Gotta Come from the Heart," one tune says and, with Sinatra mimicking Jimmy Durante as he socks it over with the affable "Schnozzola," it has enough heart to envelop all of Flatbush. Kathryn Grayson, Peter Lawford and Gloria Grahame help make the movie magic happen. And most magical of all is Sinatra's silken delivery of a ballad forever linked with him afterward: "Time After Time."

It's a charming film with a great cast and some great music. Danny (Frank Sinatra) meets shy Jamie Shellgrove (Peter Lawford) in England after the war, and offers to teach him to be less "stuffy." Shortly after, Danny returns to home-town Brooklyn where he re-unites with his old pal Nick (Jimmy Durante), the janitor at the high school where he graduated. He also meets Anne Fielding (Kathryn Grayson), the new, young music teacher at the high school. No sooner has he settled in than Jamie shows up for his "lessons." Both Jamie and Danny fall for Anne, though she's interested only in Jamie. It seems the teacher can take some lessons from the student!

Highlights include Sinatra's "Time After Time" (reprised by Kathryn Grayson), Sinatra's "It's the Same Old Dream" (reprised by Four Hits and a Miss), "La ci darem la mano" (from the opera, "Don Giovanni") sung by Grayson and Sinatra, Durante and Sinatra doing "The Song's Gotta Come from the Heart" (with a great Durante impression by Sinatra) and Kathryn's magnificent rendition of "The Bell Song" from the opera "Lakme."

Produced by: Jack Cummings
Directed by: Richard Whorf
Screen Play by: Isobel Lennart
Based on an Original Story by John McGowan
Musical Supervision, Direction, and Incidental Score: Johnny Green
Orchestrations: Ted Duncan
Frank Sinatra's Vocal Orchestrations: Axel Stordahl
Piano Solos played by: Andre Previn
Music Director: Jack Donohue
Songs by: Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
Musical Numbers Staged and Directed by: Jack Donohue
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons and Leonid Vasian
Set Decorations: Edwin B. Willis
Associate: Alfred E. Spencer
Make-Up Created by: Jack Dawn
Recording Director: Douglas Shearer
Director of Photography: Robert Planck
Film Editor: Blanche Sewell

Cast: Frank Sinatra [Danny Webson Miller], Kathryn Grayson [Anne Fielding], Peter Lawford [Jamie Shellgrove], Jimmy Durante [Nick Lombardi], Gloria Grahame [Nurse], Marcy McGuire [Rae Jacobi], Aubrey Mather [Digby John], Tamara Shayne [Mrs. Kardos], Billy Roy [Leo Kardos], Bobby Long [Johnny O'Brien], William Haade [Police Sergeant], The Starlighters (vocals)

Musical Program: [0:00] Overture ("I Believe" / "It's the Same Old Dream" played by Orchestra behind titles); [0:07] Whose Baby Are You (excerpt sung by Frank Sinatra at the piano onscreen, with a little distraction by Peter Lawford); [0:12] The Brooklyn Bridge (sung by Frank Sinatra); [0:18] Bach Invention #1 (sung by Kathryn Grayson and students, joined by Frank Sinatra at the end); [0:29] I Believe (performed by Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante and Bobby Long in the gym); [0:37] Time After Time (sung by Frank Sinatra at the piano); [0:50] The Song's Gotta Come from the Heart (includes a segment of Otchichornya) (performed by Jimmy Durante and Frank Sinatra); [0:57] La ci darem la mano from the opera DON GIOVANNI (sung by Kathryn Grayson and Frank Sinatra); [1:05] It's the Same Old Dream (sung by Frank Sinatra at the music store, then sung by a group of the kids dubbed by The Starlighters, then sung again by Frank Sinatra accompanied by The Starlighters); [1:14] Time After Time (sung by Kathryn Grayson); [1:22] Whose Baby Are You (sung and danced by Peter Lawford); [1:25] Où va la jeune indoue? ("The Bell Song" from LAKMÉ) (sung by Kathryn Grayson); [1:36] Leo's Concert: Piano Sonata Op. 27, No. 2 in C# minor (Moonlight) (played by Billy Roy at the piano onscreen, dubbed by Andre Previn)