New York, New York (1977) review

During festivities celebrating the Victory over Japan, sax player Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro) is going around hitting on various women before spotting USO singer Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) sitting by herself and so he latches onto her, she ditches him but he's completely zeroed in, they go to a nightclub for an audition and start off as a boy-girl act, later they tour and eventually marry (after he threatens to kill himself), have a child ... and it (expectedly) crumbles apart.  Right from the beginning it is irritating how predatory and obnoxious the De Niro character is - even a half-hour in he's still pawing at her - and Minnelli is out there wide-eyed looking like she has to fend off a rabid dog, and the tiresome plot really is all over the place, losing track as to where it's supposed to be headed (the original cut was substantially longer than this 163 minute version I saw).  But if you actually think about it, it's just a variation of A Star Is Born's narrative: they both come up from nothing, have a tense relationship, he's insanely jealous but not so much as to do harm to himself (Jimmy isn't the type to walk into the ocean) ... and then they both become successes, only not together.  The title theme by John Kander and Fred Ebb is a classic, and while Liza sings her heart out, my inner Italian prefers the Chairman of the Board's rendition.