It's Always Fair Weather

It's Always Fair Weather (1955) is an MGM musical you can watch online on iFILM, co-directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, with Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd as three army buddies meeting a decade after the war.

They were inseparable in 1945. By 1955, they have almost nothing to say to each other. Ted is running shady boxing deals, Doug is stuck in advertising, Angie runs a diner on wheels. A television host played by Dolores Gray sees a human-interest story and books them for live TV. That sets up both the comedy and, eventually, the fight.

What makes this stranger than a typical Hollywood musical is how openly bitter it is about friendship fading. Donen and Kelly were not getting along during production, and some of that tension is visible on screen — three men who once loved each other struggling to perform warmth they no longer feel. Cyd Charisse's dance number with Kelly is worth the whole film. Stream It's Always Fair Weather (1955) on iFILM.