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Anchors Aweigh (film)
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{{Short description|1945 film by George Sidney}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}}{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Anchors Aweigh | image = Anchors_aweigh.jpg | caption = Original promotional poster | director = [[George Sidney]] | producer = [[Joe Pasternak]] | based_on = {{based on|''You Can't Fool a Marine''<br>1943 story in ''[[This Week (magazine)|This Week]]''|[[Natalie Marcin]]}} | screenplay = [[Isobel Lennart]] | starring = {{ubl|[[Frank Sinatra]]|[[Kathryn Grayson]]|[[Gene Kelly]]|[[José Iturbi]]|[[Dean Stockwell]]|[[Pamela Britton]]|[[Rags Ragland|"Rags" Ragland]]|[[Billy Gilbert]]|[[Henry O'Neill]]}} | music = [[Georgie Stoll]] | cinematography = {{ubl|[[Charles P. Boyle]]|[[Robert Planck]]}} | editing = [[Adrienne Fazan]] | studio = {{ubl|[[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]|[[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio|MGM Cartoons]] (animated sequences)}} | distributor = [[Loews Cineplex Entertainment|Loew's Inc.]]<ref>{{AFI film|id=24312}}</ref> | released = {{Film date|1945|7|19|New York City|ref1=<ref>{{cite book |date= 1999 |editor-last= Hanson |editor-first= Patricia King |title= The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1941-1950 |url= https://archive.org/details/americanfilminst00amer/page/71 |location= Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher= University of California Press |page= [https://archive.org/details/americanfilminst00amer/page/71 71] |isbn= 0-520-21521-4 |url-access= registration}}</ref>}} | runtime = 140 minutes | color_process = [[Technicolor]] | country = United States | language = English | budget = $2.6 million<ref name="Mannix">{{Citation | title = The Eddie Mannix Ledger | publisher = Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study | place = Los Angeles}}.</ref> | gross = $7.5 million<ref name="Mannix"/><ref>"All-Time Top Grossers", ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', 8 January 1964, pg 69.</ref> }} '''''Anchors Aweigh''''' is a 1945 American [[musical film|musical]] [[comedy film]] starring [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Kathryn Grayson]], and [[Gene Kelly]], with songs by [[Jule Styne]] and [[Sammy Cahn]]. Directed by [[George Sidney]], the film also features [[José Iturbi]], [[Pamela Britton]], and [[Dean Stockwell]]. The plot concerns two sailors on a four-day shore leave in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], who meet a young boy and his aunt, an aspiring young singer, and try to help her get an audition with the famed pianist and conductor Iturbi at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]. In a sequence, Kelly dances with the animated [[Jerry Mouse]] from ''[[Tom and Jerry]]''.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Higham | first1 =Charles | last2=Greenberg | first2=Joel | year = 1968 | title=Hollywood in the Forties | page=85 | publisher=A. Zwemmer Limited | location=London | isbn=978-0-498-06928-4}}</ref> The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one, for best scoring. It received highly positive reviews and became a financial success. ==Plot== Gunner's Mate Second Class Joe Brady and Seaman First Class Clarence Doolittle are United States Navy sailors who have a four-day leave in San Diego, which they decide to spend in Hollywood. Joe has his heart set on making up for eight months at sea with his girl, Lola. Clarence, a shy choir boy turned sailor, asks Joe to teach him how to get girls. Donald, a little boy who wants to join the navy, is found wandering around the boulevard by a policeman, who takes him to the station. Clarence and Joe end up being picked up by the police to help convince Donald to go home. After the two sailors wait at home and entertain the little boy, his Aunt Susie arrives. Clarence is smitten with the beautiful, friendly young woman from the beginning. Susan goes on to tell them that she has been trying to become a singer, and longs to perform with the famous pianist and conductor José Iturbi. Trying to impress Susan with Clarence, Joe lies that Clarence is a personal friend of Iturbi, and can arrange an audition for her with him. That night they go out to a café, where Clarence meets a girl from Brooklyn and they hit it off. The next day Joe visits Donald's school and tells the kids the story of how he earned his medal, by bringing happiness to a lonesome young king (portrayed by the animated [[Jerry Mouse]] from [[Tom and Jerry]]) and joy to his kingdom. Meanwhile, Clarence and Joe's attempts to meet Iturbi (including at the MGM studios, the Hollywood Bowl and his home) fall flat. When all hope seems lost, the pair seek to come clean with Susan and tell her there is no audition, but fail at doing so. On their last day of leave Susan runs into Iturbi in the studio commissary, who has no idea who she is. Devastated, she tells him the whole story. Taken with her charm, beauty, and sincerity, he agrees to get her a screen test, which turns out smashing. The movie ends with Iturbi conducting the Navy band while its choir sings "Anchors Aweigh" and Joe and Susan, and Clarence and the "Girl from Brooklyn," kiss. ==Cast== {{Cast listing| * [[Frank Sinatra]] as Clarence "Brooklyn" Doolittle * [[Kathryn Grayson]] as Susan Abbott * [[Gene Kelly]] as Joseph "Joe" Brady * [[José Iturbi]] as himself * [[Dean Stockwell]] as Donald Martin * [[Pamela Britton]] as Girl from Brooklyn * [[Rags Ragland|"Rags" Ragland]] as Police Sergeant * [[Billy Gilbert]] as Café Manager * [[Henry O'Neill]] as Admiral Hammond * [[Carlos Ramírez (singer)|Carlos Ramirez]] as Carlos * [[Grady Sutton]] as Bertram Kraler * [[Leon Ames]] as Admiral's Aide (reads citation) * Sharon McManus as Little Girl Beggar}} ==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. ==Songs== Songs by [[Jule Styne]] and [[Sammy Cahn]] except where noted: * "Main Title" – MGM Studio and Orchestra * "[[Anchors Aweigh]]" (Zimmerman, Miles) – MGM Studio and Orchestra and Jose Iturbi * "We Hate to Leave" – Gene Kelly & Frank Sinatra * "[[Brahms' Lullaby]]" – Frank Sinatra (sung to Donald) * "I Begged Her" – Gene Kelly & Frank Sinatra * "[[If You Knew Susie]]" (DeSylva, Meyer) – Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly * "[[Jalousie 'Tango Tzigane'|Jealousy]]" (Jacob Gade) – Kathryn Grayson * "What Makes the Sunset" – Frank Sinatra * "(All of a Sudden) My Heart Sings" (from the French song "Ma Mie" by Henri Laurent Herpin; English lyric by [[Harold Rome]]) – Kathryn Grayson * "[[The Donkey Serenade]]" – Jose Iturbi * "The King Who Couldn't Sing and Dance" – Gene Kelly * "The Worry Song" ([[Ralph Freed]], [[Sammy Fain]]) – Gene Kelly & Frank Sinatra * "The Charm of You" – Frank Sinatra * "[[Las Chiapanecas]]" (traditional) – Gene Kelly & Sharon McManus * "[[Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2|Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2]]" – Jose Iturbi * "[[I Fall in Love Too Easily]]" – Frank Sinatra * "[[La cumparsita]]" ([[Gerardo Matos Rodríguez]]) – Gene Kelly * "Waltz Serenade" (Tchaikovsky) – Kathryn Grayson * "[[Anchors Aweigh]]" – MGM Studio and Orchestra Chorus ==Reception== ===Box office=== The film was highly popular at the box office, and extremely profitable to MGM. According to company records it earned $4,498,000 in the US and Canada and $2,977,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $2,123,000.<ref name="Mannix"/> ===Critical reviews=== Contemporary reviews were overwhelmingly positive. [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote: "Another humdinger of a musical has been produced by Joe Pasternak for Metro ... for a popular entertainment, 'Anchors Aweigh' is hard to beat."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F0DE3DC103BEE3BBC4851DFB166838E659EDE |title=Movie Review - Anchors Aweigh |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |author-link=Bosley Crowther |date=July 20, 1945 |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=March 10, 2016 }}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' called the film "solid musical fare for all situations. The production numbers are zingy; the songs are extremely listenable; the color treatment outstanding."<ref>{{cite journal |date= July 18, 1945 |title= Film Reviews |journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |location=New York |publisher=Variety, Inc. |page=34 }}</ref> ''[[Harrison's Reports]]'' wrote: "Very good mass entertainment. Photographed in Technicolor, the production is extremely lavish, has good comedy, a romance, tuneful songs, and effective dancing. The story is thin, but it has some human interest, and there are so many humorous situations that one is kept laughing most of the way."<ref>{{cite journal |date= July 21, 1945 |title='Anchors Aweigh' with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson |journal=[[Harrison's Reports]] |page=115 }}</ref> ''[[Film Daily]]'' wrote: "Everything that could possibly be crammed into a musical is in evidence in this production ... It is hard to think of an MGM musical excelling it. There is no reason why the film should not gain recognition as one of the year's best of its type."<ref>{{cite journal |date= July 19, 1945 |title=Reviews |journal=[[Film Daily]] |location=New York |publisher=Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc. |page=7 }}</ref> [[Rotten Tomatoes]] gives a score of 56% based on 16 reviews.<ref name="Tomatoes">{{cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/anchors_aweigh/ |title=Anchors Aweigh |work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]}}</ref> ===Awards and nominations=== {| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" |- ! Award ! Category ! Nominee(s) ! Result ! Ref. |- | rowspan="5"| [[18th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]] | [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Motion Picture]] | [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] | {{nom}} | align="center" rowspan="5"| <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1946 |title=The 18th Academy Awards (1946) Nominees and Winners |access-date=August 16, 2011 |publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706093754/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/18th-winners.html |archive-date=July 6, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> |- | [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] | [[Gene Kelly]] | {{nom}} |- | [[Academy Award for Best Cinematography|Best Cinematography – Color]] | [[Robert Planck]] and [[Charles P. Boyle]] | {{nom}} |- | [[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Scoring of a Musical Picture]] | [[Georgie Stoll]] | {{won}} |- | [[Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Song]] | "[[I Fall in Love Too Easily]]" <br> Music by [[Jule Styne]]; <br> Lyrics by [[Sammy Cahn]] | {{nom}} |} ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== * {{cite book|title=George Sidney:a Bio-Bibliography|last=Monder|first=Eric|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-28457-1 |oclc=30110273 |ref=none}} ==External links== * {{IMDb title|0037514}} * [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/anchors-aweigh-am1207 ''Anchors Aweigh'' at AllMovie] * {{TCMDb title|10}} * {{AFI film|24312}} * {{Rotten Tomatoes|anchors_aweigh}} {{George Sidney}} {{Tom and Jerry}} {{Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer theatrical animated features}} {{Portal bar|Film}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:1945 American animated films]] [[Category:1940s English-language films]] [[Category:1940s romantic musical films]] [[Category:1945 films]] [[Category:1945 musical comedy films]] [[Category:American films with live action and animation]] [[Category:American musical comedy films]] [[Category:American romantic musical films]] [[Category:Films about classical music and musicians]] [[Category:Films about the United States Navy]] [[Category:Films directed by George Sidney]] [[Category:Films produced by Joe Pasternak]] [[Category:Films scored by Georgie Stoll]] [[Category:Films set in Los Angeles]] [[Category:Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award]] [[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio films]] [[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films]] [[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated films]] [[Category:Tom and Jerry films]] [[Category:English-language action comedy films]] [[Category:English-language romantic musical films]] [[Category:English-language musical comedy films]]
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