Three sailors on a day of shore leave in New York City look for fun and romance before their twenty-four hours are up. Based on a Broadway musical by the same name. The film marked the directorial debut for both Gene Kelly and the eight year younger choreographer Stanley Donen. They got to know each other in 1940, when they both worked as dancers in the Broadway production of the musical "Pal Joey", and Donen had worked as Kelly 's assistant choreographer in Hollywood since 1944. In 1952 they would co-direct "Singin' in the Rain".