Anchors Aweigh

Anchors Aweigh is a 1945 American Technicolor musical comedy film directed by George Sidney and starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly, with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. In the film, two sailors go on a four-day shore leave in Hollywood, meet a young boy and his aunt, an aspiring young singer, and the sailors try to help her get an audition at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In addition to a live-action Kelly dancing with Jerry Mouse, the cartoon mouse of the mh:besttvshows:Tom and Jerry series, the film also features José Iturbi, Pamela Britton, Dean Stockwell, and Sharon McManus. Tom Cat has a brief cameo appearance as a servant of Jerry Mouse, the lonesome king.

Plot
(Gunner's Mate Second Class) Joe Brady and (Seaman First Class) Clarence Doolittle are USN sailors who have a four-day leave in Hollywood. Joe has his heart set on spending time with his girl (the never seen) Lola. Clarence, the 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 cop, who takes him to the police station. Clarence and Joe end up being picked up by the cops to help convince Donald to go home. After the two sailors wait at home and entertain Donald, Donald's Aunt Susie arrives. Clarence is smitten with her from the beginning. Susan goes on to tell them that she has been trying to find work in music, and longs to perform with José Iturbi. Trying to make Susan impressed with Clarence, Joe tells her that Clarence is a personal friend of Iturbi, and that he has arranged an audition for Susan with him. That night, they go out to a cafe (on an MGM recreation of Olvera Street) 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 got his medal, and how he brought happiness to a lonesome king (played by Jerry the Mouse in an animated sequence), and joy to the forest animals of the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Clarence has been trying to get into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios to find Iturbi with no luck. After many failed attempts to speak to Iturbi (including a rehearsal at the Hollywood Bowl), all hope is lost for Joe and Clarence, who want to come clean with Susan and tell her there was no audition. On Clarence and Joe's last day of leave, Susan runs into Iturbi In the studio commissary who has no idea of the audition. Susan begins to call Joe, whom by now she has fallen in love with, to yell at him. Iturbi stops her and agrees to get her a screen test, which turns out to be very successful. The movie ends as Iturbi conducts the choir in singing "Anchors Aweigh", and Joe, Susan, Clarence, and the girl from Brooklyn kiss.

Why It Likes To Dance

 * 1) This film has an interesting storyline fit for a movie made in 1945.
 * 2) Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra did a great performance as Joseph Brady and Clarence Doolittle.
 * 3) *Kathryn Grayson also did a good performance as Susan Abbott.
 * 4) The film also has many great musical numbers.
 * 5) All of the characters, including Donald Martin who first wanted to join the navy, are memorable characters.
 * 6) The part where Joe told the kids a make-believe story of him cheering up a lonesome king who outlawed all music and dancing from his kingdom because he believed he had no talent was an amazing attempt to make a live-action/animated hybrid movie.
 * 7) *Jerry Mouse from Tom and Jerry also makes a guest appearance as the lonesome king because Kelly and MGM orginally wanted Walt Disney to let them have Mickey Mouse be the lonesome king but Walt Disney was reluctantly unwilling to license the character due to copyright grounds. Jerry also speaks in this film (he was voiced by Sara Berner) as well, despite he will speak with Tom in a loathsome animated movie made 47 years later.
 * 8) *Tom also made a cameo appearance as Jerry's servant, and like in the original cartoons, he never spoke (though he sometimes did).
 * 9) The dance moves and dance scenes are spot-on. One example is when Brady dances with a young Hispanic girl and when he has an imagination sequence where he dances with Susan in a Romeo & Juliet-esque scene.
 * MGM, the studio who made this film, made a guest appearance in it's own film it produced.

The Only Bad Quality

 * 1) It was kind of a bad idea for Donald Martin to leave his home by himself to join the navy. At least a police officer caught him.

Trivia

 * 1) According to Wikipedia, MGM Cartoons worked on the animation sequence for the film.
 * 2) As mentioned above, the reason why they chose Jerry Mouse to be the lonesome king is because they wanted Walt Disney to let them use Mickey Mouse to be the king, but Disney refused to license the character, so they probably got permission from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera to use Jerry. If Walt Disney did agree to have them use Mickey, it would probably lead to Disney co-producing the film because their character was being used, and people would imagine what would it be like to have Mickey be the lonesome king (thus, one of his friends, Donald or Goofy, being the servent).

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