Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)

My Review

Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly play major league baseball players whose team has a new owner they figure is an old man, but turns out to be Esther Williams in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Despite the big names and big MGM budget, this musical romantic comedy is actually quite a mediocre film due to a badly written script and a change of directors part-way through the production. Busby Berkeley was the original director who withdrew due to exhaustion, and replaced with Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, who also basically rewrote the screenplay.

The cast includes Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold, Jules Munshin, Richard Lane, Tom Dugin, and Ed Cassidy as President Teddy Roosevelt. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was a hit at the box office for producer Arthur Freed and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was filmed at the venerable MGM Studios in Culver City.