This was a group presentation I gave this year for my third year American Film class at Queen's University. Here we examine MGM's It's Always Fair Weather starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse and Michael Kidd. Our presentation focused on the Arthur Freed unit, the relationship between Gene Kelly and Stephen Donen, the emergence of TV, masculinity and kitsch culture.

1. It’s Always Fair Weather
By Lisa Aalders, Ben
Bourgon, Caroline Klimek and Jamie
Vaughan
Film301
November 2, 2011

2. It’s Always Fair Weather (1955) Topics:
• 1950s America
• The MGM Musical
Machine
• Emergence of Television
• Stylistic Conventions
• Consumption and
Advertising
• Crisis of Masculinity and
the Working Woman

3. 1950s America

4. Can you think of any other
instances in the film where there
is a clear social class divide or
where there is a clear opinion
given regarding communism or
capitalism?

5. MGM Musicals

6. Arthur Freed
Freed with Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.

7. Stanley and Donen and It’s Always
Fair Weather (1955)

8. Gene Kelly

9. 1951 An American in Paris
1952 Singin’ in the Rain
1953 The Wild One
The Band Wagon
1954 On the Waterfront
1955 It’s Always Fair Weather
Guys and Dolls
East of Eden
Rebel without a Cause

10. According to Michael Wood in “Darkness
in the Dance” in America in the Movies,
“Fred Astaire is a style, but Gene Kelly is
a state of mind, almost an ideology… it is
the American mood which found its
metaphor in Kelly’s brash confidence”.
How does Gene Kelly’s character in
Its Always Fair Weather represent
postwar America?

11. Emergence of Television

12. Rejection of the Television
Aesthetic

13. Through its style and
presentation, how does It’s
Always Fair Weather
differentiate the medium of film
from television? Is it successful in
this effort?

15. What is the effect of the use of
montage to represent the
passage of time and (what was
then) recent history? Does it
allow the depicted plights of
these men an appropriate
emotional weight?

16. Advertising and Consumption

18. Why do you think the filmmakers
chose to almost attack the world
of television advertising in this
film?

19. Crisis of Masculinity and the
Working Woman

20. The Time For Parting
Though the time has come for parting ,
And the future lies unknown,
Although the years may come between us,
We will never feel alone
For friends we are now and friends we’ll stay
Until we meet again one wonderful day
For though the time has come for parting,
We’ll be friends until we die

21. War

22. Jackie Leighton

23. Discussion Questions

24. What did you think of Tim the bartender?
How does he represent postwar America?

25. What did you think about the
ending? Was it a
happy, bittersweet or just
problematic?

26. Which do you prefer Singin’ in the
Rain or It’s Always Fair Weather?

27. Why is Singin’ in the Rain on #1
on AFI’s best musicals when It’s
Always Fair Weather isn’t even
on the list?

28. How does this film anticipate
contemporary TV culture?

29. Would this film’s criticism of
television apply to contemporary
TV programming?
Is television necessarily insincere
because of its reliance on
advertising?