Movie Review

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

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My Review

“Anchors Aweigh” is a Hollywood musical about two sailors on a four day shore leave in Hollywood where they meet a young boy and his aunt who is an aspiring singer, and try to help her get an audition at MGM in Culver City. Producer Joe Pasternak and director George Sidney (“Bathing Beauty” 1944) gave this project the full Metro treatment with Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn writing the songs and Jose Iturbi conducting his orchestra. It won one Oscar and was very successful at the box office for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly were the stars of the show, the first of three movies they appeared in together. (The other two were “On the Town” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” both from 1949, not to mention the “That’s Entertainment” film compilations of 1974 and 1976.) The talents and charisma of the pair were essential to the success of this project. Co-stars include Kathryn Grayson as the aspiring singer and Dean Stockwell as her nephew. This was his second film as a child actor, with his career on the big screen and television lasting from 1945 to 2016.

The cast is rounded out by Pamela Britton, Rags Ragland, Billy Gilbert, Leon Ames, Carlos Ramirez, Grady Sutton, and Henry O’Neill as Admiral Hammond. In a live action-animated fantasy sequence, Jerry Mouse (of “Tom & Jerry” fame) and Tom Cat do a dance with Gene Kelly. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s watchable “Anchors Aweigh” was filmed in beautiful Technicolor. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one for Best Musical Score (George Stoll). The non-winners were Best Picture, Best Actor (Kelly), Best Cinematography (Robert Planck and Charles Boyle), and Best Song (“I Fall in Love Too Easily,” music by Styne, lyrics by Cahn).

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