How sad is this?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

When we thinking in musical movies we expect to see gorgeous legs girls dancing in large stages,but this time too family movie even Sinatra was strangely dumb and behaved,just Kelly has some malicious thoughts along the movie trying make a appointment with a hot girl who so long spoke about and all audience expect to meet her,for a family movie once more Dean Stockwell made history...by the way a few boy who made successfully career after grow up like him...backing on movie is easy to watch but a lack of the other beauty legs and faces made a puritanical movie...just for adjusted families only!! Resume: First watch: 1995 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7

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.

A jolly musical featuring a great double act in the pairing of Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, who don't share quite as many song-and-dance numbers as you'd expect. ANCHORS AWEIGH charts the boisterous misadventures of a pair of sailors (Kelly and Sinatra) on three-day shore leave and the trouble that seems to follow them around.The sole problem with this movie is that it's overlong and, as is so often the case, it gets bogged down in an unnecessary romance around the halfway mark. It needed a little more music, a little more oomph, to make it truly great. Still, there's plenty to enjoy here, not least a wonderful performance from an agile and exuberant Gene Kelly, who outdoes Sinatra at every turn.The highlights of the movie are a couple of fantasy sequences. In one of them, a Spanish-themed interlude, we see Kelly serenading love interest Kathryn Grayson. However, it's the other moment, in which he enters an animated world and dances with Jerry from the TOM AND JERRY cartoons, which is the real highlight and a moment of pure brilliance. I always thought this kind of live action and animation mixing didn't occur until the days of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? but it looks like I was wrong; this dance is the icing on a slightly stodgy, but very tasty, cake.

At a bloated 143 minutes, there's no way this ambitious musical from MGM can hold together. Gorgeous color photography only shows up the cheap sets and rear projection used for this sound stage-bound film.Frank Sinatra (playing the dope again) and Gene Kelly (he can't act) play two sailors on leave who get saddled with a runaway kid (Dean Stockwell) and his Aunt Susie (Kathryn Grayson in a cloying performance). They get suckered into trying to get her an audition with Jose Iturbi at MGM. Along the way Kelly falls for Grayson and Sinatra gets stuck with a stiff from Brooklyn (Pamela Britton is a lousy performance).Maybe an OK story for the time, but the film is way too long and wanders all over the place, including several dance solos for Kelly and the famous cartoon sequence. Sinatra sings a few songs, Grayson squeals a few more, and Iturbi play piano. Co-stars in small roles include Billy Gilbert, Henry O'Neill, Henry Armetta, Edgar Kennedy, Rags Ragland, Renie Riano, Sharon McManus, and the always annoying Grady Sutton.The boys are such jerks, it's hard to warm up to them, and Grayson is all sugar and light to the point of nausea, and then she sings and sings and sings. Iturbi probably comes off best, and his Hollywood Bowl sequence is indeed excellent. Most annoying of all is Pamela Britton with her hideous attempt at a Brooklyn accent. MGM couldn't find an actress who could do the accent? Moider! At one point, Grayson is sitting in a theater next to 2 old ladies. In the next cut the second old lady (who looks like Mae Marsh) is a completely different woman.This one ridiculously won Oscar nominations for best film and for Gene Kelly as best actors. Moider!