On The Town.

On The Town is a slight departure from the previous two films we have watched for class. Instead of playing the romantic buffoon opposite a male costar (like in It Happened in Brooklyn or Anchors Aweigh), this time, Frank Sinatra plays it coy with two male costars! Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin are sailors on shore leave (another recurring theme) in New York City for a day, and they want to make the most of their time by seeing the sights and meeting some "Manhattan women".

In the previous two films we have seen, Sinatra's character is shy and uncertain around women. It is only towards the end of the films that Sinatra gains confidence and discovers that the girl for him has been right under his nose the entire time. In On The Town, Sinatra begins the film by playing up to the country bumpkin stereotypes of being simple, inexperienced, and modest. Through his exposure to progressive women in the film, Sinatra breaks from his Peoria past and becomes more confident and suave.

The three female characters in the film represent modern, metropolitan women. They break gender norms and defy stereotypes, but at the end of the day, they end up falling in love with the sailors and sacrifice the independence they have gained. The first female character we meet is Ivy, who is the Miss Turnstiles pin-up girl of the month. Kelly falls for her when he sees her picture in the subway. She is a lovely girl who enjoys all the pastimes of New York's social elite. A dance number introduces Ivy as "a frail and flower-like creature, but oh boy! What an athlete!" After she paints and dances, Ivy pantomines winning a race against a group of young men. Ivy "roughs up" the boys and finishes the number perched jauntily on top of a pile of her vanquished competitors, a perky smile on her exquisite face.

After Kelly falls in love with Ivy, the sailors walk outside to hail a cab. To their surprise, the cabbie is a woman. "Hey! He's a girl! What are you doing driving a cab? The war's over." Brunhilde, or Hildy, replies saucily, "I never give up anything I like." Hildy ends up with Sinatra, but only after she aggressively demands that he "come up to [her] place". She also tells him, "Stick with me kid, I can teach you plenty." Hildy is so forward about her attraction to Sinatra, so bluntly honest, that it takes him by surprise. A kid from Peoria like Sinatra isn't used to girls coming right out and asking to be kissed. Hildy's confidence and self-awareness, combined with her brash approach to romance, provide Sinatra with a new model of womanhood. And it turns out that he likes it (and Hildy) very much.

The third female character in On The Town is Claire, an anthropologist. We meet Claire when she compares Jules Munshin's character to a neanderthal specimen in a museum. Claire, in addition to being a well-educated young woman, is intensely sexual and suggestive. When Sinatra asks, "Hey, how come a girl like you is interested in this stuff?", Claire responds, "I've been running around with all kinds of men. My guardian thought if I took up an objective study of men, I'd get it out of my system!" The song she sings ("Prehistoric Man") is chock full of double entendres, shimmies, and winks. Claire sings, "Bear skin/Bear skin/He just sat around in bear skin/I really love *bare* skin!" In this number, Hildy is desexualized because she runs around apelike, playing drums with the men. This sets up a stark contrast between Hildy and Claire.

The biggest shock of all comes at the end of the film when it is revealed that Ivy, Miss Turnstiles, has been working as a "cooch dancer" at Coney Island. Kelly accepts her for it, and the men put on a show in order to save Ivy.
One way in which On The Town differs from the other films we have analyzed is that this time, Sinatra sticks with the same girl for the whole film. He doesn't have to change his mind or discover that the woman who he has been pursuing is actually destined to be with his costar. In On The Town, the pairings are clear from the very beginning.

It is only through his encounters with these enlightened, fresh female characters that Sinatra's character is able to develop from a reserved, small town boy into the self-assured sailor who gets his girl. This parallels Sinatra's actual persona development to some extent--it was only through his encounters with devoted women and crazed fans that he was able to cloak himself in a mantle of machismo.