Take Me Out to the Ball Game

More like a Donen/Kelly musical than a Busby Berkeley (not a chorine in sight), which is hardly surprising since they staged and filmed the numbers, while Berkeley left after doing the dialogue scenes. With Kelly, Sinatra and Munshin teaming up for the brilliant vaudeville-baseball routine of a number like 'O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg', it often looks like a run-in for On the Town. Less 'integrated', perhaps, but enormously enjoyable. The plot is an airy something with a non-swimming Esther Williams becoming the new owner of a turn-of-the-century baseball team, and charming the boys out of their chauvinist scowls. But what matters is the stylish ebullience, and the excellent score by Roger Edens, Adolph Green and Betty Comden.