It's Always Fair Weather is a 1955 musical film that, once again, teams up both Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen as directors, with the former starring onscreen along with Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey, Dolores Gray, and Michael Kidd.
It tells a story of three friends, Ted Riley (Kelly), Doug Hallerton (Dailey) and Angie Valentine (Kidd), all of whom were soldiers together World War II. Now it's 1945, the war's ended, and the three friends have all arrive back home. They decide to make a pact among themselves: They won't see each other until a decade later, while they go their separate ways to fulfill their hopes and dreams. Then they'll meet back up to see how well they're all doing.
Now it's 1955: While they have stayed true to this promise, when they return and meet up again they find out they have essentially nothing in common anymore. Not only that, but all their dreams haven’t been fulfilled.
It's Always Fair Weather provides examples of:
- All Part of the Show: After Ted, Doug and Angie get into a fight with Culloran and his mooks during the TV show, and the police show up to arrest Culloran, Madeline pretends it was all part of the show, along with staging Ted, Doug and Angie's reunion on TV.
- Bittersweet Ending: While the three are now friends again, they now go their separate ways for good.
- Darker and Edgier: The film is often noted to be much more cynical and downbeat compared to the usual light fare seen in other MGM musicals.
- "Dear John" Letter: Ted gets one of these when he comes back to New York City after the war.
- Distracted by the Sexy: When Jackie Leighton shows up to visit Riley at the boxing gym, everyone immediately stops what they're doing to look at her.
- Engineered Public Confession: Used against Charles Z. Culloran about the fight fixing that he's built his crime empire on.
- Hidden Depths: Jackie, a high-class advertising executive, turns out to know quite a bit about boxing, which impresses the others at the gym.
- Indy Ploy: When Madeline refuses to do a show segment to replace someone who cancelled at the last minute, Jackie comes up with the idea of showing Ted, Doug and Angie's reunion. Later, when Culloran leads his gang to threaten Ted, Jackie comes up with the idea of turning the camera on Culloran to arrange his Engineered Public Confession.
- Improvised Weapon: Two examples:
- When Jackie helps Ted incapacitate Kid Mariacchi (see Tap on the Head below), she uses a beer bottle that's in the training room.
- Ted, Doug and Angie use chairs and tables when fighting off Culloran and the other gangsters near the end.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: To put Riley off (as well as comment on his failed reunion with Hallerton and Valentine), Leighton tells him, "Most friendship is fading, most loving mere folly." She claims it's from The Tempest, but he points out it's actually from As You Like It, which impresses her.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: When Ted tries to put the moves on Jackie while they're in a cab together, she plants one of these on him. She explains she found it to be the quickest way to stop men from putting the moves on her.
- Tablecloth Yank: When Ted, Doug, and Angie meet up at the bar after the war, Doug pulls the tablecloth from one table, and the dishes on it remain standing. Ten years later, when he's at a fancy dinner right before the show (which he doesn't know he's going to be on), Doug has gotten very drunk, and attempts to pull the tablecloth off a fancy table in a banquet room. This time, he pulls all the dishes onto the floor, causing a mess.
- Tap on the Head: When Ted decides to knock out his fighter, Kid Mariacchi, so he doesn't have to throw a fight with Culloran, Jackie helps by hitting Kid on the back of the head with a beer bottle.
- Time-Passes Montage: As the years pass between 1945 and 1955, we see world events, an Exploding Calendar, and Ted, Doug, and Angie's lives over that time - Ted gets involved in dice games and then later the sports world, Doug using his drawings in the advertising world, getting married, and getting a lot of things for their place, and Angie being a cook, opening his place, and having a large family.
- To the Tune of...: "I Shouldn't Have Come" is sung to the tune of the Blue Danube waltz, which is playing in the restaurant, as the three friends wonder why they can't stand each other anymore.
- Trash-Can Band: During their drunken binge in 1945, the three buddies attach trash can lids to their left shoes and do a wonderful sort of tap dance number
pre-Stomp. - True Companions: Even though Doug and Angie no longer get along with Ted, when they see him being threatened by Culloran and the others, they immediately step in to help him fight.
- Visible Boom Mic: An in-universe version of this to get the confession out of Culloran.
- We Used to Be Friends: When Ted, Doug, and Angie meet up again after a decade apart, they realize that each one of them now has nothing in common with the other. Not only that, they all now hate and can’t stand each other.
