Anchors Aweigh

Two sailors get four days' leave and go to Hollywood. Joe is easy with women; Clarence cannot speak to them at all. Taking a lost boy home they meet his aunt Susan, who wants to be a singer. Both fall for her and tell her they will introduce her to a music producer; they know no such person. George Sidney directs. Gene Kelly plays Joe, Frank Sinatra plays Clarence and Kathryn Grayson plays Susan. Its best known passage is Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry the animated mouse. Combining live action and cartoon was technically difficult at the time and the sequence became one of the frequently cited moments in film history. It belongs to MGM's musicals at the end of the war and was shot in Technicolor; the colour, costume and sets show the studio's strength in that period. Gene Kelly also did the choreography and most of the dances are his design; the film strengthened his position inside the studio. Frank Sinatra was very well known as a singer at the time and new to acting; his character is written as shy and hopeless. It runs over two hours and the narrative is loose; the plot exists to join the songs and dances. It received a number of Oscar nominations including best picture and won for its music. Who it is for: viewers who like classical Hollywood musicals and Gene Kelly. Who it is not for: the story is thin, it runs long, and the female character is entirely attached to the men's.