[Frank Sinatra, home again, marveling. Good practice for On the Town. Click for a larger bridge.]
It Happened in Brooklyn (dir. Richard Whorf, 1947) offers nearly two hours’ worth of music and pleasant lunacy. Danny Miller (Sinatra) is a shy Brooklynite and aspiring singer returning home from the war. Jamie Shellgrove (Peter Lawford), a shy English aristocrat and composer, follows Danny to Brooklyn. Anne Fielding (Kathryn Grayson) sings and teaches music at New Utrecht High School. Nick Lombardi (Jimmy Durante), Danny’s friend, works as the school’s janitor and lives in the school’s basement. Yes, his basement has a piano.
One highlight among many: Sinatra singing Mozart.
Early in the film, when we’re still in England, a nurse from Brooklyn (Gloria Grahame) asks Danny why he’s moping around now that he’s recovered from mumps. That’s not like a guy from Brooklyn. Even after seeing his photograph of the bridge and quizzing him on borough landmarks, she still suspects that he’s not the real thing:
“Why aren’t you down at that party like a Brooklyn guy should be — makin’ friends for yourself and for Brooklyn? A Brooklyn guy is a friendly guy.”One of the most revealing things about this film is that it has nothing to say about war. The subject never comes up, though Danny is in uniform in many early stateside scenes. The film’s tagline, as seen on this poster: “HAPPY songs! HAPPY stars! HAPPY romance!” What war? This film is dedicated to the pleasures of forgetting, at least for an hour and forty-four minutes.
“Well, I will be, once I get home. It’s easier in Brooklyn.”
“I don’t care how many photographs of the bridge you got. I don’t care how many names of the streets you know. When I see you out makin’ a friend, then I believe you’re from Brooklyn.”
[The director? Brother to the linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf.]
comments: 2
There's a mystery to this movie that has gone unsolved and unreported since then.
The disappearance of the multitalented little boy who played Johnny O'Brien in the 'I Believe' number. Bobby Long.
Bobby Long was a child prodigy. He had all of the talents, charm, charisma, and likeability that could've made him another big legendary star.
All of a sudden he disappeared in 1947 and no one in media since then ever bothered to open an investigation into what happened to him!?!
This kid had the matching adorability of Shirley Temple and the charm of Jackie Coogan, and the kind of spirit that Judy Garland had when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
He's baiscally the male alternative of Dorothy. And as an incredible tap dancer he was, I can imagine him tap dancing down the Yellow Brick Road wearing the magic shoes (silver, ruby, or otherwise).
What matters now is solving the mystery of what happened to this amazing little boy and hopefully give his life the happy ending he has So Longed for.
That’s a great number, which I just watched again at YouTube. I see that you’re dedicated to figuring out whatever became of Bobby Long. I wish you well.
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