It’s Always Fair Weather isn’t the best of the Comden/Green, Kelly/Donnen musicals - and to be honest I always get it mixed up with American In Paris (because it’s got all those slightly over-indulgent Kelly dance digressions) and On The Town (because, duh!).

But it is unique in that its one of the few films that’s remembered only for one scene. This one:

Ask anyone else what the hell else happens and, if you’re lucky, they’ll say something about trashcan lids and then recite the plot of “On The Town” to you.

Which is not surprising really because, Jesus, look at him go. You can see how they’d forget the rest with this to watch.

I only looked this up because watching Gene Kelly dance is my default comfort-setting (where other people have donuts, I have dancers, darling.)

Anyway, I bring it up only because it strikes me that while I’ve seen this scene a million times, I’ve never actually watched it. And now that I have, it seems all the more striking.

What leaps out most for me is not the dancing. )I’m kind of like the agent in The Aristocrats joke, puffing on a big cigar, saying “Yeah, so yez can tap dance on roller skates. Whadelse-a-ya-got?”). It’s the stuff he does *between* the dancing.

Scroll to 40 seconds in when he’s doing s-shapes down the pavement before doubling back and gliding to a stop against the post-box (?). That’s not dancing. That’s just…what’s the word? Grace? Witchcraft? Awesome?

I also just love that bit of business starting at 1:53 - which I think must be pure Donnen and leads into that looooooong take from 2:18 to 2:45 that I could probably happily watch every day for the rest of my life, never get tired of *and* never be able to do.

But the biggest thing I noticed having dug this clip out is that, unless I miss my guess, that shrug-look-to-camera-and-whistle thing right at the beginning is a straight rip from Singin’ In The Rain and I can’t decide whether we’re seeing Donnen/Kelly/Comden/Green saying “Here Comes The Big Number, Folks!” or we’re just witnessing the constraints of Kelly’s acting talents. (And hey, don’t write me emails. He was a ham - just a very, very likable one. Who could dance like an angel.)

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that. Thanks for listening.