Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

gkeith_1 Sailors in Hollywood, not NYC as in On the Town. They meet singer Kathryn Grayson and her small nephew Dean Stockwell. Grayson talks about Jose Iturbi. Gene dances with King Jerry Mouse. Gene's Pomeranian Navy (it was/is a real navy; I looked it up) uniform pants are tight and white, and his striped blue and white tee shirt are quite form fitting, also. Grayson acts all prissy, and the sailor(s) just want to make the moves on her. Gene acts all crude and obnoxious. Stockwell, as a small child, just wants to join the US Navy. This film was made during the ending of World War Two, and there was much patriotism going on. The Brooklyn accents were grating but fun to listen to. Frank is always entertaining.

JohnHowardReid NOTES: Stoll won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. The song "I Fall In Love Too Easily" was also nominated, but the voters preferred "It Might As Well Be Spring", a Rodgers & Hammerstein number from State Fair. The film was also nominated for 3 other Academy Awards including Best Picture (won by Lost Weekend), Best Actor - Gene Kelly (won by Ray Milland for Lost Weekend), and Best Color Cinematography (won by Leon Shamroy for Leave Her To Heaven).MGM's number two crowd-pleaser of the year (second to Valley of Decision) with an initial domestic rental gross of $4½ million. COMMENT: Here's the musical with everything: plenty of songs for Sinatra, some marvelous dances for Kelly, a bit of musical showcasing for Grayson, and a lot of ego-boosting conducting and piano-playing for the eagerly overconfident Mr Iturbi. The songs are delightful, the costumes appealing, the color ravishing - and there's a great support cast including Grady Sutton, Sharon McManus and Jerry Mouse. Kelly and Sinatra are both in fine form but - what is more important - they make an excellent team in what is now seen as a preliminary try-out for Take Me Out To the Ball Game. Unfortunately, what Anchors Aweigh lacks is a Jules Munshin-type comic foil. As it is, the story is too thin to support all the music. And what a pity that - although the film was lensed on the MGM lot - there are no surprise guest appearances.No matter. Kelly's dancing spots are so superbly inventive, they can stand by themselves. After a brisk work-out with Frank Sinatra (no mean high-flyer himself), Kelly partners sad-faced Sharon McManus, then grumpy Jerry Mouse (a zestful blending of live and cartoon action - four minutes of the most memorable moments in movie history) and finally dons Spanish cape for a dazzling solo in which he performs every swing of his own stunt-work. Sidney's direction is reasonably brisk. He tries hard to keep the thin plot moving along, despite the sheer weight of mundane (if reasonably believable) dialogue. In the musical numbers, the direction has polish and even occasionally invention (the under-the-piano shot of a transparent keyboard and the seemingly endless tracking shot of pianos in the Hungarian Rhapsody; the cleverly bizarre angles in Miss Grayson's studio audition). It also has a few deft dramatic moments, e.g. its inspired use of shadows in the sequence with Sinatra following Kelly through the streets.Kathryn Grayson's costumes are nothing short of electri¬fying. Her voice is recorded with more fidelity than usual and comes across particularly well in her "Jealousy" and "Waltz Serenade" numbers.Anchors Aweigh has all the earmarks and lavish production values we expect of an MGM musical. Full marks to the remarkably lush photography by Robert Planck (working in collaboration with Charles Boyle from the Technicolor Company) who can actually be seen standing by his camera in the sound-stage "audition" scenes. This strikingly colorful cinematography was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award. All in all, despite its thin and now dated plot, Anchors Aweigh remains one of MGM's most appealing musicals.

mmallon4 Anchors Aweigh is the first film of the Frank Sinatra-Gene Kelly trilogy, tapping into classic Hollywood musicals odd fascination with sailors. It wouldn't be the last time Kelly or Sinatra would play a sailor and what an underrated comedic duo they are. Gene Kelly is loveably egocentric, constantly lying about his exploits with dames and rubbing the fact that he got leave in his comrades' faces so much that he sings a musical number about it; the interactions he shares with Sinatra are priceless. Reportedly Kelly was known in real life for being a control freak and getting his own way, so I wonder how much of his personality is reflective in his performance. Frank Sinatra is largely the opposite of Kelly, girl shy and completely gawky, a stark contrast to what he later became; he sure toughened up over time. Anchors Aweigh can around the beginning of new era of film musicals, at a time when the genre became almost exclusively one filmed in colour and when the distinctive style of the MGM musical took off, separating them from the likes of the Astaire & Rodgers musicals of the past. Unlike Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly was off the people, usually playing commoners on screen. Fred Astaire did play a sailor in Follow the Fleet but no doubt Gene Kelly suits it better.Perhaps the film's best highlight is Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry of Tom & Jerry fame. It might not be as technically advanced or as smoothly animated as later live action/animation hybrids but it's one of the most awe inspiring. They animators even make note to include Jerry's reflection in the floor. The studio originally wanted Disney to allow them use of Mickey Mouse for the number, which seems very hard to believe. The inclusion of some very Disney looking animated creatures, including two which look suspiciously like Bambi and Thumper, suggests the studio was serious about including Mickey.The other unique aspect of Anchors Aweigh is the documentary like look at MGM studios in 1945 during one portion in the film. A peak at the dream factory itself, with people in costume, props everywhere and what look like studio workers in suits going about their business. It's unabashed self promotion but hey, it's one entertaining commercial. This use of on location filming including the scenes as the Hollywood Bowl show shades of what was come several years later in On the Town. I do wish they though could have shown some more of 1945 Hollywood but the sets present in Anchors Aweigh are something to marvel at. Even with the odd background which is clearly two painted backdrops placed side by side with a dividing line clearly visible, the sets create a cartoon like Technicolor world that you wish real life could look like; just look at that set of the Spanish part of town; such artificial beauty. The only downside to Anchors Aweigh which prevents it from being a greater film is the run time and much of this is largely due to the amount of which is spent in the house of Kathryn Grayson's character; I really started to get sick of the sight of it, especially since the movie takes place in Hollywood and there are places so much more interesting they could be. The characters keep returning to the house several times throughout the movie, which wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't for the large chunk of time that was spent there when they first arrived at it; by far the most frustrating aspect of the film. Thankfully the good outweighs the bad and the good isn't just good, it's amazingly good. There's really no dud musical number present, they're all so very, very beautiful.

Videoguy7579 I like those old MGM musicals - Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and the gang - but this was not one of them. At a bloated 2 hours and 23 minutes, it goes on long after it should have ended. It seemed like every three minutes, there was some excuse for a musical number. People would just up and sing. Jose Iturbi is a fantastic pianist, but there are so many times that the plot takes a back seat for him to play the piano. Interminable dance routines. All of this gets distracting. Kathryn Grayson is extremely tolerant of these strange sailors who barge in and out of her house, lie to her, and interfere in her private affairs.The only parts that are worth tuning in for is the wonderful cartoon sequence with Tom & Jerry, as well as Iturbi's performance at the Hollywood Bowl accompanied by a group of teenage virtuosos.