Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

hyped garbage

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

During the forties it seemed that MGM in particular had something of an obsession about offering classical and popular music in one package so that Jose Iturbi was almost as at home on the lot as Arthur Freed. This is yet another example and re-teams Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson who had already blended their respective genres in Anchors Aweigh some three years earlier. Adding Durante to the mix does no harm at all in fact the only jarring note is Peter Lawford who could neither sing, dance or act but didn't let that stop him from masquerading as competent at all three. The plot is as light as Isobel Lennart could get away with and still sound half credible and is merely a hook on which to hang some tasty Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn numbers including the Kern-like ballad Time After Time. Apart from Step Lively, made at RKO, this is arguably Sinatra's best musical from the forties - and YES I KNOW On The Town was released in the same decade. Sue me.

It's a friendly film from MGM - I can't say it is the best of the early MGM Sinatra musicals (ON THE TOWN is a good competitor), but it certainly gave Frank Sinatra his best part of the musicals. He was dominated in ON THE TOWN, ANCHORS AWAY, and TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME by co-star partner Gene Kelly (in fact Kelly has the center of the story lines in several of these). Here Sinatra is at center stage for a change, supported by Durante, Grayson, and Peter Lawford. His character is not as annoying naive here as in ANCHORS AWAY, and has opportunities to stretch. The only thing that is missing is that the screenplay shows he has a potential love partner at the end - but sees fit not to have her available for the finale.IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN is about a returning soldier (Sinatra). Stationed in England, he is going home and he is taken to task by a nurse (Gloria Grahame) for not socializing with his fellow soldiers, or the women at a final dance, or the English people. When she hears he is from Brooklyn (where she's from too) she has a fit because (as she puts it) Brooklyn people are supposed to be friendly. Prodded, Sinatra fitfully does mingle, and actually makes the acquaintance of a British Duke* (Aubrey Mather) and his grandson (Peter Lawford). The Duke's mother was from Brooklyn, and he wishes his grandson would stop being so withdrawn and more like the Brooklyn people that Mather has in his blood. Sinatra has already gotten to know that Lawford is a fine pianist and composer, and says that if Lawford ever comes to Brooklyn he should look Sinatra up and Sinatra will do what he could to open Lawford's personality up.[*Aubrey's title is Duke of Dunstable. If so, it shows that the screenwriter was acquainted with Gilbert and Sullivan: the Duke of Dunstable is one of the "Heavy Dragoons" who turn aesthetic in the opera PATIENCE. Either that, or that Duke of Dunstable (from 1881) is Aubrey's grandfather - and Lady Jane is his grandmother, and the mother-in-law of the lady from Brooklyn. What would Reginald Bunthorne have said?]When Sinatra returns to Brooklyn he meets a music teacher (Kathrine Grayson) at his old high school (New Utrecht High - which is a real high school, by the way). He also is reunited with the janitor at the high school (Durante). Jimmy invites Frank to room with him while he tries to find work. Soon his pep talks and support allow Sinatra to get a better job in a music store, and encourage Sinatra to date Grayson. But then Lawford shows up, and he and Grayson soon find themselves left on their own while Sinatra gets involved in his career, Lawford's potential musical career (as songwriter), and helping Grayson push the potentially great career of a local piano prodigy (William Roy) who desperate needs a scholarship to continue studies. As Grayson and Lawford are together more and more (with only Durante noticing what's happening) the inevitable occurs as they start falling for each other. And we'll leave the conclusion for the viewer to find.It has a nice score, including the standard TIME AFTER TIME. But most movie buffs recall the film's music for two sequences with Frank. In one he just lands in Brooklyn, and he takes a cab to his favorite landmark: the Brooklyn Bridge. And he sings to it. Later, when he has to audition for a promotion at the music store, Durante accompanies him, and they sing the duet "You Got To Sing From The Heart". The latter sequence was shown in the movie THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT - but part was cut, wherein both singers tackle foreign language lyrics (from "Oy Tchochonya" among other tunes). But it ends with Frank going into his imitation of Jimmy's style, down to Jimmy's leg movements. He does a nice imitation - and would do it again in later television shows, wherein Jimmy would show up again unannounced.Grayson does her opera aria - the "Bell Song" from Delibes' LAKME. It is a lovely number - but too static. Lawford also sings (a "boogy-woogy" number) in the music shop, to show he too is loosening up. On the whole it is an entertaining film - not one of the great musicals of all time, but worthy of it's stars and pleasant to watch. I only wish they had just thought better of not bringing Sinatra's future choice of girlfriend back. But you can't have everything.

Very enjoyable musical romp. Wonderful songs and adaptations.The stars bring us much to smile about. JIMMY DURANTE steals every scene he's in - even when SINATRA is with him. A great tribute to the magnetic personality of the great and good-hearted "snoz".Young BOBBY LONG charms us with spectacular dancing and fresh voice in "I BELIEVE". Too bad we never saw him again. Show business is sure a tough business.In the world of colorful musicals, the quiet charm of this one never leaves you feeling cheated just because it's in B&W.

There are many examples of classic film that have mistakenly been filmed in a garish process of technicolour, often when artificial sets are fiendishly evident. In the case of IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN, it would have been far more beneficial otherwise, even if the studio-bound Brooklyn sets were lacking in realistic qualities…simply to merely awaken the audience and poignantly show what could have been a greatly livened and exciting musical in MGM's top ranks. The faded shades of black and white had me continually straining to find any signs of life, especially when the whole thing would have photographed and run more smoothly in colour. Despite the treat of a star-studded cast featuring Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Kathryn Grayson and Peter Lawford, only the stellar performances of Durante and Sinatra are worth the running time. Lawford as the grandson of an English duke is too stuffy to fit in within the movie and is too pompously intolerable to put up with for the common audience member, although one can eventually like him a little more by the film's end. Kathryn Grayson's nightingale operatic soprano voice is pleasant, if not fiendishly good, and her performance charming, but despite early flashes of temperament, her effort proves to be wasted in a film that seems to retread every other film of hers except for KISS ME KATE. Gloria Grahame also makes a small appearance as a nurse at the beginning of the film who would have been a better substitute for both Lawford and Grayson had it not been for her singing inability. Her few performances under contract to the studio are demonstrative of talent and beauty at the studio that did not fit into the general mould of performers which is reflected because they did not know what to do with her by relegating her minor parts. However, the story line of BROOKLYN is somewhat interesting and can almost justifiably be credited for this factor, in comparison to the continuous output of films from the studio which lead the viewer through the tiresome back lot tour. Sinatra, Grayson and Durante take at least forty five minutes to succeed in doing to Lawford what only took Judy Garland twenty seconds to do to Jose Iturbi in THOUSANDS CHEER. The screenplay seems to specialise in prolonging epic delays in its events and lacks the rousing comedy of a Comden and Green script, but in general is not too bad an effort, even if some of the most important scenes are either rushed or haltingly abrupt. There is a general message of kindheartedness which in turn makes the film cheerful and pleasant even though `everyone is miserable in Brooklyn', and the fact that the director is almost screaming at his audience to love the film and the people in it. As always with the majority of many films of the genre, the musical program intentionally exceeds the plot's importance, which can be expected. In MGM's case, this method often produced a hit song. Despite some lovely music and lyrics by Cahn and Styne, I strain to remember any song. This may have been because opera was strongly integrated in a film of style clashes and thus I couldn't remember any of the songs since opera is generally a painful experience, or because they lacked the entertaining passion of many other MGM's songs. In addition to this, Andre Previn's piano solos are thrown in. Gene Kelly is missing but since none of the lead actors are good enough dancers, a pre-teen kid is pushed into the mix to pick up where Kelly's athleticism left off. Because of these haphazard factors, IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN can be best compared to a jigsaw of innovative elements virtually impossible to put together. None of the factors are able to complement each other, but the film is demonstrative of a well-handed routine musical that could have stood out with others had Busby Berkley or the Freed unit been at the helm. It is an enjoyable entertainment piece that showed great promise, but I'll be damned if I know why. Rating: 7.5/10