It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Richard Whorf

Writers:

Isobel Lennart (writer)
J.P. McGowan (story)

Release Date:

12 March 1948 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

IT ALL TAKES PLACE IN THAT FASCINATING WONDERLAND OF THE FAR EAST...BROOKLYN! (original print media ad - all caps)

Plot:

Danny has been in the army for 4 years, yet all he thinks about is Brooklyn and how great it is. When he returns after the war...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Brooklyn New York | Brooklyn Bridge | Musical Number | Place Name In Title

Cast

Frank Sinatra	...	Danny Webson Miller
Kathryn Grayson	...	Anne Fielding
Peter Lawford	...	Jamie Shellgrove
Jimmy Durante	...	Nick Lombardi
Gloria Grahame	...	Nurse
Marcy McGuire	...	Rae Jakobi
Aubrey Mather	...	Digby John
Tamara Shayne	...	Mrs. Kardos
Bobby Long	...	Johnny O'Brien
William Haade	...	Police Sergeant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Roy	...	Leo Kardos (as Billy Roy)
Leonard Bremen	...	Corporal (uncredited)
Harry Burns	...	(uncredited)
Freddie Chapman	...	(uncredited)
Bruce Cowling	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Antonio D'Amore	...	(uncredited)
Boyd Davis	...	(uncredited)
Phil Dunham	...	(uncredited)
Bertha Feducha	...	(uncredited)
Vincent Graeff	...	(uncredited)
Jane Green	...	(uncredited)
Mahlon Hamilton	...	(uncredited)
Lumsden Hare	...	Canon Green (uncredited)
Dell Henderson	...	(uncredited)
Al Hill	...	Bus Driver (uncredited)
Ralph Hodges	...	(uncredited)
Raymond Largay	...	Mr. Dobson (uncredited)
William F. Leicester	...	(uncredited)
Mitchell Lewis	...	Printer (uncredited)
Frank Marlowe	...	(uncredited)
Al Masiello	...	(uncredited)
Angi O. Poulos	...	(uncredited)
Carmela Restivo	...	(uncredited)
Mickey Roth	...	(uncredited)
Bob Stebbins	...	(uncredited)
William Tannen	...	Captain (uncredited)
Richard Terry	...	(uncredited)
George Travell	...	(uncredited)
Leon Tyler	...	(uncredited)
William Wagner	...	(uncredited)
Joe S. Weber	...	Pedestrian (uncredited)
Constance Weiler	...	(uncredited)
Dick Wessel	...	Cop (uncredited)
Wilson Wood	...	Fodderwing (uncredited)

Directed by
Richard Whorf

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Isobel Lennart		writer
J.P. McGowan		story (as John McGowan)

Produced by
Jack Cummings	....	producer

Original Music by
Johnny Green

Cinematography by
Robert H. Planck		(as Robert Planck)

Film Editing by
Blanche Sewell

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons
Leonid Vasian

Set Decoration by
Alfred E. Spencer
Edwin B. Willis

Makeup Department
Jack Dawn	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Earl McEvoy	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director

Music Department
Ted Duncan	....	orchestrator
Johnny Green	....	musical director
André Previn	....	background music (uncredited)

Other crew
Jack Donohue	....	choreographer

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1947) (USA) (theatrical)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (VHS)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:Approved (PCA #12119) | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Piano music was played by unseen 17-year-old André Previn, who had joined MGM's music department not long before this movie was made.

Quotes:

Nick Lombardi: Jamie, we're having a little argument. What color are Annie's eyes?
Jamie Shellgrove: Dark Brown. But in the light they've got little golden flecks.
Danny Webson Miller: How tall is she compared to you?
Jamie Shellgrove: When she's wearing high heels, she comes to here, and low heels, to here.
Danny Webson Miller: Uh, what color nail polish does she use?
Jamie Shellgrove: None. Her hands are like a little girl's. And that perfume she uses, that's like a little girl's too... so clean and soapy. But you know the cutest thing about her? You can always tells when she's going to smile. Just a second before she wrinkles up her nose. Always.

Movie Connections:

References No Leave, No Love (1946)

Soundtrack:

I Believe

Makes One Nostalgic

As it happens this writer made his earthly debut in 1947 in Brooklyn, so I have a soft spot for this film.

Considering that this was all done in Hollywood, the film does have a nostalgic glow to it as it recaptures Brooklyn of 1947. Interspersed throughout the film are references to Brooklyn places and streets that a native would immediately know. There is a scene towards the beginning of the film when Frank Sinatra first meets Kathryn Grayson and she gives the newly discharged soldier a lift to the armory and in the background they pass shots of rows and rows of brownstone houses. Looks just like Park Slope on the way to the armory located there.

Sinatra has his personal songwriting team of Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn come up with a good selection of tunes for him. Time After Time was the biggest hit out of this film and that song is also repeated in good style by Kathryn Grayson. He does I Believe with Jimmy Durante and young Bobby Long who sings and dances up a storm in number done at a school gymnasium. It's a philosophical song in the style that Sinatra's rival Bing Crosby normally would have sung. He also sings a song Brooklyn Bridge, dedicated to same, on the footpath across. The footpath is deserted which is impossible. And there's another ballad entitled It's the Same Old Dream.

Jimmy Durante is the kindly school custodian who takes Sinatra in. I found this part of the picture sad. Durante has an apartment right on the public school premises and Sinatra moves in with him because he has no family at all. I guess he loved Brooklyn a lot because normally someone with no family and recently discharged from the service would have had the world to choose from in where to settle. Durante and Sinatra have a great old time with The Song Gotta Come From the Heart.

They did love sopranos over at the Lion studio. In addition to Grayson at one time they had Jeanette MacDonald, Ann Blyth, and Jane Powell all at the same time. Grayson had a porcelain delicacy to her and her voice that was magnetic, never more so here. She sings the Bell Song from Lakme and makes it memorable. Sinatra shows some guts here also as he and Grayson tackle La Ci Darem la Mano from Don Giovanni. Grayson and Mozart took it easy on Frank. Grayson did three films with Sinatra and in only one did she wind up with him.

Peter Lawford plays the shy gentlemanly scion of an aristocratic family who Sinatra befriends while in England. This was years before the Rat Pack was started and before Lawford married into the Kennedy clan. The role was no stretch for Lawford since that's what he was in real life. I wonder if Peter Lawford would still be here and have a career if the Kennedys and Sinatra had never entered his life.

And there were only minimal references to the Dodgers for a film about Brooklyn in a year they won the pennant.