Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly play ball in a big way as 1900s vaudevillians who spend the winter flinging the onstage blarney and the summer flinging the ol’ horsehide for baseball’s world champs, the Wolves. Sinatra is second sacker Dennis Ryan and Kelly is shortstop Eddie O’Brien in this Busby Berkeley-directed romp that combines baseball with that other all-American pastime: romance. Esther Williams plays the new team owner, and Betty Garrett is a Baseball Annie with eyes for blue-eyed Ryan. Kelly and Stanley Donen’s deft musical stagings range from a soft-shoe duet charmer to an exciting “barrel roll” Kelly solo. Their work persuaded producer Arthur Freed to green-light their direction of the same year’s On the Town. (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)