Anchors Aweigh (The Nitrate Picture Show)

Anchors Aweigh starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly.

George Sidney, US 1945
Print source: British Film Institute, London
Running time: 143 minutes
The Nitrate Picture Show, George Eastman Museum, Dryden Theatre, 6 May 2017

About the print
Generally in good condition, the print has a few visible light to medium scratches (both emulsion and base) and slight nicks at the edges. Heavy edge wave throughout the print; perforations, however, are undamaged.
Shrinkage: 0.35–0.55%

About the film
“Anchors Aweigh mixes music, uniforms and Hollywood cut-ups in such a show as only Hollywood could concoct. Gene Kelly is in there dancing superbly in more than one sequence. Frank Sinatra tags along with his largo vocalizing; Jose Iturbi knocks out some fancy boogie-woogie on the piano and Kathryn Grayson alternates between singing mock operatic arias and being cute. Since Isobel Lenart has written some amusing lines for the continuity and Joe Pasternak has produced the show with Technicolor extravagance, the film is satisfactory summer fare.”
– Howard Barnes, New York Herald Tribune, July 20, 1945

“Anchors Aweigh goes all the way as a musical. Or is that too punnish a start in appraising a picture that the public needs no apprising of as a moviedom event, to carry the play on words a bit farther? People turned out in lines and droves to see this Joe Pasternak opus yesterday at the Los Angeles, Grauman’s Egyptian and Fox Ritz theaters. What they got for their money was a load of entertainment in the form of songs, dancing and comedy, a thinly plotted story, much glamorous Technicolor, and first-class personnel to convey everything good and interesting about the show.”
– Edwin Schallert, Los Angeles Times, August 1, 1945

AA: Introduced by Jared Case. Revisited a MGM musical from the golden age, Anchors Aweigh, which I knew previously only from home formats and compilations such as That's Entertainment I–III (its production numbers scattered in all three).

My impression of Anchors Aweigh had been of a brilliant but shallow entertainment, and while the film was certainly produced for purposes of light escapism, the director George Sidney manages to introduce deeper currents. Sidney was one of the best directors of Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson (together also in Thousands Cheer, Kelly also in The Three Musketeers, Grayson also in Kiss Me Kate), and during the production of Anchors Aweigh Sidney launched a long term partnership with William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, to become a central preoccupation of his since 1957. Sidney was interested in strong women (Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun), and discriminated women (Ava Gardner in Show Boat). He had a special talent in action adventure (Scaramouche) and a privileged access into the dream mode (The Eddy Duchin Story, Jeanne Eagels).

A weakness of George Sidney's was making overlong films, but at 143 minutes Anchors Aweigh does not feel boring. Instead it created a success formula to be repeated in Take Me Out to the Ball Game and On the Town, both co-starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

Let's register the bright and brash surface of Anchors Aweigh and be prepared for surprises. The first surprise might be Frank Sinatra playing a boy from Brooklyn who has never dated a girl and needs elementary guidance from the Gene Kelly character. ("Even in Brooklyn things can go wrong"). There is even a scene where Kelly plays a girl to teach Sinatra how to pick "her" up. The situation is inevitably misunderstood by a passing policeman.

Failing to grasp Kelly's advice Sinatra stays in his own shy character and sings a moving interpretation of Brahms's lullaby to an orphan boy who is in Aunt Susie's custody and whom the sailors have rescued from the streets of Hollywood. "I don't have a mother or a father anymore", confesses the little boy Donald (Dean Stockwell) who wants to become a marine.

"Act like a wolf, not a mouse" is Kelly's lesson to Sinatra. Oddly, while Kelly seems to be constantly on the phone with his insatiable girlfriend Lola Laverne, he never meets her during the four days of the Hollywood holiday.

Instead, there is immediate attraction between Sinatra and Aunt Susie = Kathryn Grayson. Funnily, while we would expect the sailors to waste no time during their holiday, they hasten to leave Susie's house, although Susie probably would like them to stay.

The story gets more complicated. At a Mexican café Sinatra meets a waitress from Brooklyn (Pamela Britton in her debut role) with whom there is an instant rapport. And Kelly, the master of make-believe and fairytale (and a pathological liar?), gets deeply stuck in his fabrications, yet cannot resist the attraction of Susie, although the two seem incompatible at first.

While Kelly is at his best in the sequence where his fairytale talent emerges most blatantly – the fantasy ballet with the animated Hanna & Barbera character Jerry Mouse as the sad king – this anthology piece of Anchors Aweigh is not representative of it as a whole.

Like all great musicals Anchors Aweigh is "associated with joy, energy, and abundance, but is equally adept in conveying sadness, disappointment and desperation", quoting words I used in my remarks on La La Land with which Anchors Aweigh shares some characteristics such as having Los Angeles as its location and dealing with issues of loss, failure, and frustration. Donald has lost his parents. Susan is a talented singer but only at the last moment does she finally get a chance to give a successful audition. Kelly and Sinatra mostly fail in their attempts to get a date. But of course there is a happy end.

There is a Spanish-Mexican-Latin dimension in the film thanks to the central presence of the conductor José Iturbi and some passionate tango numbers including "La cumparsita" and "Jalousie" (actually of Danish origin). Thus this screening felt like an aftermath to our FIAF Congress in Los Angeles with a Spanish-Latin American emphasis; classic tangos were played there to launch each congress day.

George Sidney handles the comedy of embarrassment well, most poignantly in the scene where Kathryn Grayson finally meets José Iturbi who has heard nothing of the audition which the sailors have promised her. Sidney proves to be a master of tact and tenderness in directing a powerful emotional current through difficult straits.

The meta-film aspect in Kathryn Grayson's audition scene at MGM Studios is beautiful. We get privileged access to the heart of the dream factory.

As for the singing we have Frank Sinatra at his smoothest and Gene Kelly at his brightest. Yet the true singer is Kathryn Grayson, a stunning coloratura and an excellent opera singer.

The last surprise is Kathryn Grayson giving the wolf growl in the finale.

There is a warm glow in this vintage Technicolor print. Tender colours and burning reds appear on the palette.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: ANCHORS AWEIGH: SOUNDTRACK LISTING FROM THE IMDB:

Anchors Aweigh
(1906) (uncredited)
Music by Charles A. Zimmerman
Played off-screen during the opening credits
Played by a Navy Band conducted by José Iturbi

We Hate to Leave
(1944) (uncredited)
Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Played off-screen during the opening credits
Sung and Danced by Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra
Orchestrated by Axel Stordahl

Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No. 4
(1868) (uncredited)
aka "Brahms' Lullaby"
Music by Johannes Brahms
Sung by Frank Sinatra and hummed by him

I Begged Her
(1944) (uncredited)
Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Music by Jule Styne
Orchestrated by Axel Stordahl
Copyright 1944 by Leo. Feist Inc.
Sung and Danced by Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra

If You Knew Susie
(1925) (uncredited)
Music by Joseph Meyer
Lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva
Sung by Frank Sinatraand Gene Kelly

Jealousy (Jalousie)
(1925) (uncredited)
Music by Jacob Gade
Lyrics by Vera Bloom
Sung by Kathryn Grayson

What Makes the Sunset?
(1944) (uncredited)
Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Sung by Frank Sinatra
Orchestrated by Axel Stordahl

(All Of A Sudden) My Heart Sings
(1944) (uncredited)
Music by Laurent Herpin
Lyrics by Harold Rome
Copyright 1941, 1943, 1944 by Leeds Music Corporation
Sung by Kathryn Grayson

The Donkey Serenade
(1923) (uncredited)
Music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart
Played on the piano by José Iturbi

The King Who Couldn't Dance (The Worry Song)
(1945) (uncredited)
Music by Sammy Fain
Lyrics by Arthur Freed
Sung by Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse (voiced by Sara Berner)
Danced by Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse

The Charm of You
(1944) (uncredited)
Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Sung by Frank Sinatra
Orchestrated by Axel Stordahl

The Mexican Hat Dance
(1933) (uncredited)
Written by Felipe A. Partichela
Performed by Gene Kelly and Sharon McManus

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
(1847) (uncredited)
Music by Franz Liszt
Played on pianos by José Iturbi and a group of piano students

I Fall In Love Too Easily
(1944) (uncredited)
Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Music by Jule Styne
Copyright 1944 by Leo. Feist Inc.
Played off-screen during the opening credits
Sung by Frank Sinatra
Orchestrated by Axel Stordahl

La Cumparsita
(1937) (uncredited)
Music by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez
Danced by Gene Kelly

Waltz from Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48
(1880) (uncredited)
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Adapted by Earl K. Brent
Lyrics by Earl K. Brent
Performed by Kathryn Grayson and the studio orchestra conducted by José Iturbi

Jesusita en Chihuahua
(1916) (uncredited)
Music by Quirino Mendoza
Arranged by Riestra

El Relajo
(uncredited)
Written by Jesús Castillón and L. Leyes

Chiapanecas (While There's Music There's Romance) (The Celebrated Mexican 'Clap Hands' Song)
(1938) (uncredited)
English Lyric by Albert Gamse (1941)
Chiapanecas (While There's Music There's Romance) (The Celebrated Mexican 'Clap Hands' Song)
(1938) (uncredited)
English Lyric by Albert Gamse (1941)
Spanish Lyric by Emilio De Torre
Music by V. De Campo
Arranged by Ricardo Romero
Copyright 1938 and 1941 by Edward B. Marks Music Corporation
Performed by Gene Kelly and Sharon McManus

Largo al factotum della città
(1816) (uncredited)
from "Il barbiere di Siviglia"
Composed by Gioachino Rossini

Anchors Aweigh (Reprise)
(1906) (uncredited)
Music by Charles A. Zimmerman
Lyrics by Alfred Hart Miles and R. Lovell
Performed by Dean Stockwell

Anchors Aweigh (Reprise #2)
(1906) (uncredited)
Music by Charles A. Zimmerman
Lyrics by Alfred Hart Miles and R. Lovell
Performed by Dean Stockwell and Gene Kelly

Cielito Lindo (Aye, Yi, Yi, Yi)
(1882) (uncredited)
Written by Quirino Mendoza
Sung by Mexican band during first visit to cafe

Tonight We Love
(1941) (uncredited)
Music from "Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23" (1874-5)
By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Music adapted by Freddy Martin and Ray Austin
Lyrics by Bobby Worth
Played on piano by José Iturbi and sung a bit by Frank Sinatra