It Happened in Brooklyn

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It Happened in Brooklyn is a 1947 MGM musical romantic comedy film directed by Richard Whorf and starring Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford and Kathryn Grayson. Filmed in black-and-white, and featuring a young, but uncredited, Andre Previn on the piano, this was Sinatra's third film for M.G.M..

[edit] Plot

A post-World War II feel-good movie, the various plot-threads in It Happened in Brooklyn revolve around characters making good on their non-proletarian dreams: in Sinatra's case to become a popular singer/musician rather than a shipping clerk, in Lawford's case to break out of his extreme shyness to gain a wife and a career as a songwriter, and in Grayson's case to break out of her schoolteaching job to star in the opera (this last is not shown coming to pass, but she presumably lives happily ever after as she is brought to England as the fiancee of the Lawford character, who is heir to a dukedom). The film's tagline was "Happy songs! Happy stars! Happy romance!".

[edit] Critical Reception

It Happened in Brooklyn was generally well received, Variety noting that: Much of the lure will result from Frank Sinatra's presence in the cast. Guy's acquired the Bing Crosby knack of nonchalance, throwing away his gag lines with fine aplomb. He kids himself in a couple of hilarious sequences and does a takeoff on Jimmy Durante, with Durante aiding him, that's sockeroo."