‘Anchors Aweigh’ (1945) Review

1945 - no doubt you all thought of the end of World War 2. World War 2 affected everyone, and even Hollywood dished out numerous war films. Musicals provided quality escapism for people during the war, so MGM seized the war as an opportunity to use all it’s stars for glorious pictures. Among these wartime productions is ‘Anchors Aweigh’, with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson. While certainty not the best of the Frank and Gene movies, it has been in my mind for a while so it only seems right for me to review this magnificent film.

Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra play two sailors (named Joe and Clarence respectively) who are on leave and decide to venture out to Hollywood. Joe already has a girl waiting to meet him, while Clarence has never been out before. Along the way, Joe and Clarence pick up Donald (Dean Stockwell), a young boy who is more than eager to join the navy. The pair of sailors take Donald back to his house, where Clarence instantly becomes smitten for Donald’s aunt, Susan. Susan’s dream is to be an opera singer for José Iturbi’s band. To support Susan’s high ambitions, Joe and Clarence (or Joe, anyway) volunteer to get Susan an audition with José Iturbi himself.

The plot as a whole was good. I will admit, the film was longer than necessary, although the end product is still pleasantly enjoyable. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra both gave outstanding performances in the movie. As usual, Gene Kelly played the masculine on-screen lover who could charm with his signature flashing smile and dance moves. Kelly only had his film debut three years prior to this film’s release, playing the leading man in ‘For Me and My Gal’ opposite Judy Garland, who was one of MGM’s biggest moneymakers. Originally, Kelly had been a Broadway star, so his transition into movies was quick and effortless. He has sung many notable songs, though his dance moves are more credible for his rise in popularity (Kelly even danced with an animated Jerry the Mouse in this film, which is impressive considering the movie was made in 1945, when animated required everything to be hand-drawn). On the other hand, we get Sinatra, who was huge in the music industry, but took his film career more slowly. Sinatra gets top-billing for ‘Anchors Aweigh’, so there’s no denying his popularity during the time of the film’s release. He had been in Hollywood longer than Gene had but his movie career did advance as quickly. Sinatra had made many B-pictures and MGM actually dropped him a few years later, but unlike Kelly, Sinatra had a fair mixture of dramatic roles and musical roles, and his career lasted much longer. ‘Anchors Aweigh’ has Sinatra playing the innocent, naive, virginal man who gets second-place after Kelly’s character in terms of affection (and really everything else). Early movies from Sinatra’s extensive film career saw him playing shy, inexperienced characters and this one is no exception.

Kathryn Grayson had singing experience from the early age of 12 - that is, operatic singing. To be quite frank, I am not a massive fan of soprano voices (maybe Howard Keel is an exception), but Grayson’s voice is my least favourite. Her pitch is too high for my liking so I can’t really enjoy her songs. That being said, “Jealousy” is a song I’ve had stuck in my head for a while now, so maybe she isn’t all that bad. Now onto Grayson’s character, Susan. I don’t hate Susan - she is very sweet - but she isn’t as well-developed as the Joe and Clarence. Susan is extremely naive, which makes her too unrealistic - yes, I know, MGM musicals meant escapism for war audiences, but Susan could’ve expressed her emotions in a more realistic manner rather than crying and then beaming brightly two seconds later. Unfortunately, I thought that Susan’s character development seemed quite lazy. While I understand that Joe and Clarence are the real main antagonists of the picture, I still wish that Susan was given more time to develop. On a side note, Grayson had absolutely breath-taking gowns during the film, and her sunflower dress is one of my favourites.

The other major lady to grace the screen for this film is Pamela Britton. Believe it or not, Britton’s character is just named as “Girl from Brooklyn” in the credits. As one can imagine, she is not as significant as Kathryn Grayson’s Susan - and of course she finds herself with the hapless Clarence. In the other two movies that have Frank and Gene paired together - ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ and ‘On the Town’ - Betty Garrett plays the Sinatra-obsessed lover who chases Sinatra around during the film. In ‘Anchors Aweigh’, we get Pamela Britton, who is a toned-down but equally vivacious Sinatra-obsessor. In some respects, Britton’s character may be seen as wiser compared to Garrett’s characters since her character offers some wisdom to Sinatra’s character. In the Frank and Gene films, Sinatra’s lover is generally the more interesting character since Gene falls for the glamour girl (who unfortunately is usually underwritten) while Sinatra has the energetic lady openly hunting for his affections. As refined as Britton is in this film, her lively spirit is sure to make you smile!

Donald is played by none other than the adorable Dean Stockwell. Donald wants to join the navy (my guess is patriotism) so he runs in contact with Joe and Clarence, deciding to keep the two close to him (particularly Joe). There isn’t much to say other than how good he was. I remember watching a Dean Stockwell interview a few months ago where Stockwell revealed how hard it was as a child actor (he also mentioned how he was up against Gene since Gene was a star dancer and he was the likeable child, which created some tension). It’s amazing how child stars always came up as entertainers in the end despite the hardships they endured.

José Iturbi is one of the big attractions of the film. His character is the all-round good man who does no wrong and essentially saves the day. While not having a huge chunk of screentime, Iturbi leaves his impression.

This is a musical so of course I’m going to comment on the songs and dances! As mentioned earlier on, I have had “Jealousy” in my head for a while now. The other really catchy song is “We Hate to Leave”. José Iturbi also does a splendid job conducting instrumental numbers. The opening scene which has the navy playing the instrumental “Anchors Aweigh” number is memorable and one of my favourite film openings.

Obviously the dance with Jerry the Mouse is going to get praise from me. I grew up watching ‘Tom and Jerry’, and I’m sure many of you did too. One overlooked thing is how old ‘Tom and Jerry’ is - the cartoon dates back to 1940! Initially, Mickey Mouse was desired for the movie but Disney refused to allow MGM to use Mickey for their movie. In the end, MGM stuck to their own cartoon and used Jerry the Mouse. Tom the Cat makes his brief appearance as Jerry’s butler (now that I think about it, Tom always seemed to get the short end of the stick even though he did nothing wrong. We victimised Jerry for almost no reason since he started all the trouble… enough of my digression). The whole process was costly; hand-drawing each individual cell was expensive, but everything had to be redrawn because the artists had forgotten to include Jerry’s shadows in the animation. Luckily, all the problems were overcome and we ended up with the legendary Gene and Jerry dance.

Overall, I would recommend this movie. I think in terms of Frank and Gene films, ‘On the Town’ is preferable (it has more star power, more memorable songs and a condensed screen time) but this film still manages to hit it on most notes. Next time someone asks what wartime movies you’ve seen, make sure you can safely add ‘Anchors Aweigh’ to that list.