If you get Anchors Aweigh, On the Town, and Take me out to the Ball Game confused, you're not alone. After all, two are about sailors on leave, two feature Betty Garrett and Jules Munshin, and all three musicals star Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra! Anchors Aweigh features songs from Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, but the most famous musical number from this film is the dance duet of Gene Kelly and Jerry the mouse. You've probably seen this dance included in famous film montages, but when you watch the entire movie, try and put yourself in 1945's place. What a thrill—and what special effects!—to see Gene Kelly dance with half of Tom and Jerry! It was pretty spectacular, and it remains one of his most famous dances.The plot follows two sailor buddies on leave; they want to see the sights and the girls, but when they both start to fall for the same girl, there's a problem. Adorable Kathryn Grayson is the center of the love triangle, but while she gets to sing a couple of songs, it's Gene Kelly who stands out in this campy, happy-go-lucky, pro-soldier, post-war, silly musical.If you don't think you can sit through all of it—because you're not a die-hard Gene Kelly fan, or you'd rather watch a Frank Sinatra movie where he actually acts—at least watch the cartoon dance number. It's adorable.

In between the musical boom in the '30s, and the resurgence of the Hollywood musical in the early '50s with "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain", there was "Anchors Aweigh". A 1945 MGM musical starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Kathryn Grayson, what we have here is not by any means cinema at its finest; rather, it is simply that wonderful brand of lighthearted escapism that Hollywood was famous for in its golden age.The Hollywood musical didn't by any means die off in the '40s, but it reached a low-point in popularity, by comparison to the cornucopia of musicals from every major studio in the '30s. As we know, the German director Ernst Lubitsch, having migrated to America in '23, brought the musical to life. His 1929 film "The Love Parade", starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald, was the first truly modern musical committed to the big screen. Lubitsch made several other similar musicals during the early '30s ("Monte Carlo", "The Smiling Lieutenant", and "One Hour With Your"). These films, made for Paramount, were, like everything Lubitsch, based in charisma, wit, and innuendo. After 1932, however, Lubitsch abandoned the musical, which was in the process of undergoing a vast transformation. The new musical was on the horizon, and it came bursting to life in 1933. RKO brought Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to the screen with "Flying Down to Rio". Warner Bros released three musicals helmed by the great Busby Berkeley: "42nd Street", "The Gold Diggers of 1933", and "Footlight Parade" -- all backstage musicals. MGM, who had a habit of, let's say, "borrowing" from Warner, released their own Berkeley knockoff called "Dancing Lady". Extravagance and spectacle were the name of the game now. Large, ornate sets saw the production of grand, elaborate musical numbers. Only Paramount remained relatively low-key, with musicals like "International House" and "College Humor". They were in the process of establishing names like W.C. Fields, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and, of course, Bing Crosby.This trend continued throughout the '30s. MGM released "San Francisco" and "The Great Ziegfeld", along with three followups to their 1929 musical "The Broadway Melody": "The Broadway Melody of 1936", "The Broadway Melody of 1938", and "The Broadway Melody of 1940". Warner Bros continued releasing Busby Berkeley musicals, like "Dames", "The Gold Diggers of 1935", and "The Gold Diggers of 1937". Paramount had Bing Crosby in full form by 1936 when they released "Rhythm on the Range", and two years later gave Bob Hope his feature debut in "The Big Broadcast of 1938", followed by "Give Me a Sailor", both of which costarred Martha Raye. RKO continued the now ultra-popular run of Astaire and Rogers films — "Roberta", "Follow the Fleet", "Swing Time", "Carefree", and others. And, finally, Fox hopped on the bandwagon with "Pigskin Parade" in 1936 (I'm sure there were Fox musicals before this, but I'm not familiar with any). Then, something happened. The war. World War II saw the necessity for propagandistic war films surging, which cut into the popularity of the musical. Or maybe musicals simply had run their course. In either case, the early '40s saw a significant drop-off in the production and popularity of Hollywood musicals. The one major exception was Fox. They kept the musical alive through the war years, with lavish Technicolor films starring the likes of Betty Grable, Alice Faye, and Don Ameche (i.e. "Down Argentine Way", "That Night in Rio", and "Moon Over Miami").Interestingly, it is these Fox Technicolor musicals from the early '40s that provided the most obvious inspiration for MGM's "Anchors Aweigh". Not only the use of color, but the general style and aesthetic of the film is very similar to Fox's musicals from earlier in the decade. Later, "Anchors Aweigh" would evolve into MGM's famous musicals from the early '50s — "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain" — which also starred Gene Kelly, and triggered the rebirth of the Hollywood musical. Gene Kelly is absolutely the centerpiece of this film. He is wonderful. He's among the most charismatic screen presences I've seen in Hollywood's history, and it never shows more than it does here. Kelly carries this film. Kathryn Grayson is decent in the lead female role, and Sinatra, the film's costar, is solid enough. I've never been that big on Frank Sinatra, but I find his younger self in this film much more amiable than his later roles."Anchors Aweigh" is gorgeously shot. Like virtually all Hollywood commercial films, it lacks any artistic ambition, but the technical skills demonstrated by those who collaborated on the film are immense. The set design is extraordinary. The lighting is impeccable. Visually speaking, it's an amazingly attractive film, and at times it even seems to possess a distinctly painterly quality, which we are now bereft of with the digital realism of modern cinema. There is a side role for Dean Stockwell, a child actor who was popular at the time, and has been acting ever since. This was his second role. Also notable is José Iturbi, the Spanish conductor and piano prodigy who plays himself in the film. His presence reminds us of Oscar Levant in "An American in Paris". Iturbi has multiple piano performances in the film, and they are truly a pleasure to behold. What a talent.Overall, this is a solid film. In the world of Hollywood musicals, I'd say it's a very good film. It's long, but it never gets tedious. It's good fun from start to finish. The musical numbers aren't astonishing, but they're good, on the whole. At the end of the day, though, Gene Kelly is the reason to show up for the film, and the reason to stay until it's over. His screen personality is very fun and a joy to watch, and that's about how I'd sum up the film itself.RATING: 6.67 out of 10 stars

Anchors Aweigh is a Technicolour MGM musical focusing on Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra as two sailors on shore leave in Hollywood.Kelly did the choreography on two dream sequences show dances which are the highlight of the film. The cameo from Tom and Jerry and the dance with with Jerry The Mouse is what makes this film well known. The other is the Paso Doble/Tango as Kelly playing a bandit which was impressive.The storyline of Sinatra being the young, naive sailor who falls for Aunt Susie and later the waitress from Brooklyn and Kelly as the more experienced one who has a girl waiting for him before being diverted to look after a young Dean Stockwell, a kid who plans to run off to the navy is a more humdrum affair.Sinatra never convinces as an innocent and looks too old (He was almost 30 years old.) Stockwell, who almost seventy years after this movie was made is still acting is a charm as the kid. There is good chemistry between Kelly and Sinatra and Kelly and Kelly and Grayson.The film is overlong and some of the songs just come across as a filler. A good try but not a classic MGM musical.

I will not thumb my nose's at the usually stock Hollywood musicals, not with a combo of Sinatra's mellow show-tunes, Kelly's choreographic moves and Grayson's soprano renditions. Although screenwriter Isobel Lennart does not care a damn of the plausibility in the storytelling, but if you can swallow that, ANCHORS AWEIGH might find its comfy niche in overwhelming its contemporary viewers with its blatantly gaily romance and a cornucopia of vaudevillian assortments.An Oscar BEST PICTURE nominee (5 nominations and 1 win for George Stoll's music score), directed by versatile and prolific Hollywood journeyman George Sidney, my second film from his filmography after SCARAMOUCHE (1952, 6/10), ANCHORS AWEIGH runs approximate 140 minutes, collects an ever-high-octane Gene Kelly (it comes as a big surprise that he had earned only one Oscar nomination through his entire career, which is from this film), third-billed from the opening-credit, who however, splendidly embraces his efflorescence by spearheading as a multifaceted showman in transmitting his vigor and life-force into this otherwise average hedonism burlesque, the highlight surely is Kelly's duo dance with Disney's Jerry Mouse, a technique pioneers the animation-cum-live-action trend, and it is seamlessly dovetailed with utter originality, to which one can barely imagine how audiences could react during its premier over 70 years ago. And what's more relevant to present viewers, now we can realize from where the archetype of Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST (2011, 8/10) comes and Kelly is much more competent. Sinatra in his incipient thirties, willowy as ever, his character may be flat and dopey, once he sings, one just wonders how miraculous is his slender figure could hone up to a marvelous instrument and produce that voice! Almost the same can be applied for Grayson only if she could veil her obvious contempt every time being addressed as "Auntie Susan". Apart from the triad, among the supporting group is a genial Spanish conductor José Iturbi plays himself, his symphony of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 with a dozen of pianists is a plain grandstanding but also a virtuoso achievement beside the point. And if I haven't perused the credits, I can never suspect that the young boy is Dean Stockwell, his big screen debut, also for Pamela Britton, unfortunately she doesn't even has a name in the film and billed as the girl from Brooklyn.