A mildly cynical title for this musical spoof of television, advertising, and even the Hollywood musical. The story of three war buddies in civilian life was meant to be a kind of follow-up to On the Town; but It's Always Fair Weather is a more likely sequel to Singin' in the Rain with its offbeat combination of parody and the real thing--great song and dance numbers. Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd (the choreographer, in his acting debut) are the three GIs who vow eternal friendship at the close of WWII, and then suffer through a reunion ten years later. Life is sour, each grumbles into his own cocktail, and even good buddies go bad. For each in his own way has turned into a two-bit huckster, with the exception of Dailey, who is a four-bit huckster in a grey flannel nightmare. His advertising and t.v. connections lead the trio out of their existential dumps and into the bright company of dancer Cyd Charisse and t.v. star Dolores Gray. The Arthur Freed production features Kelly's dance on roller skates, “I Like Myself”; the echt-fifties “ash-can” dance; Dailey's droll parody of advertising new-speak, “Situation-Wise”; Charisse's “Stillman's Gym” number, and Gray's dynamic routine, “Thanks a Lot but No Thanks.” Kelly and Donen's experimental and influential use of Cinemascope and split-screen, as well as the caustic script by Comden and Gree