Editing Anchors Aweigh (film) (section)

==Production==
[[File:Anchors Aweigh promo.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Promotional image used in advertising]]

The film was written by [[Natalie Marcin]] (story) and [[Isobel Lennart]] (screenplay), and directed by [[George Sidney]]. It was the first of three buddy pictures teaming the cocky dancing Kelly with the (against type) shy, singing Sinatra, followed by ''[[Take Me Out to the Ball Game (film)|Take Me Out to the Ball Game]]'' and ''[[On the Town (film)|On the Town]]'', both in 1949. The production tried to mix some of the more successful story elements and set-pieces from earlier MGM musical hits, such as ''[[Meet Me in St. Louis]]'' (1944).

The movie is remembered for the musical number in which Gene Kelly dances seamlessly with the animated [[Jerry Mouse]] (voiced by [[Sara Berner]]). [[Tom Cat]] appears briefly as a butler in the sequence supervised by [[William Hanna]] and [[Joseph Barbera]]. The animation was entirely undertaken by [[Kenneth Muse]], [[Ray Patterson (animator)|Ray Patterson]] and [[Ed Barge]]. Originally, the producers wanted to use [[Mickey Mouse]] for this segment.  Some sources claim [[Walt Disney]] initially agreed to loan out Mickey, but [[Roy O. Disney|Roy Disney]] rejected the deal. According to [[Bob Thomas (reporter)|Bob Thomas]]'s book on Roy Disney, the studio was in debt after [[World War II]] and they were focusing on trying to release their own films out on time. According to Roy, they had no business making cartoons for other people.<ref>Bob Thomas. "Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire." Eventually Disneys lent out their effects wizard [[Joshua Meador]] to spruce up MGM's 1956 ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''.</ref> Kelly next went to [[Fred Quimby]], the head of MGM's cartoon studio. Quimby was also not interested, but Kelly persisted, reportedly showing up at Hanna and Barbera's office to press the case. The dance sequence required meticulous storyboarding; after the live dancing was filmed, the animators used [[rotoscoping]] to painstakingly match the animated character's movement to Kelly's, even down to their shadows cast on the polished dance floor.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sennett |first1=Ted |title=The Art of Hanna-Barbera: Fifty Years of Creativity |date=1989 |publisher=Studio |isbn=978-0670829781 |url=https://archive.org/details/artofhannabarber00teds/page/42/mode/2up |access-date=2 June 2020 |pages=42–43}}</ref>

The film offers rare color glimpses of the wartime MGM studio, including the Thalberg Building, the front gate, the [[backlot]], the commissary, and one of the scoring stages, which included an on-screen performance by real members of the MGM studio orchestra. During the soundstage scenes the operation of MGM's latest camera mounted on a heavy [[crane shot|boom]] is extensively demonstrated, including a side-bolted cutout [[viewfinder]] for the cinematographer to line up the shots and the [[camera operator|operators]] deftly swiveling the pan controls or [[focus puller|pulling the focus]].

There is also a memorable exterior scene at the [[Hollywood Bowl]], where Sinatra sings "I Fall in Love Too Easily", after Iturbi and a group of young pianists have performed an arrangement of [[Franz Liszt]]'s ''[[Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2]]''. In the audition scene with Iturbi, Grayson sings a special arrangement by [[Earl Brent]] for [[coloratura soprano]] and orchestra of the waltz from [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]'s ''[[Serenade for Strings (Tchaikovsky)|Serenade for Strings]]''. At the film's end Iturbi conducts the [[United States Navy Band]] for a patriotic rendition of "[[Anchors Aweigh]]". Some of the scenes in this film were later featured in the ''[[That's Entertainment!]]'' (1974) tributes to MGM.