“Anchors Aweigh” has some terrific parts, but is let down by mediocre ones. I’ll try and explain:
Gene Kelly is good, but Frank Sinatra is bland and uninteresting. This is evident mostly in the choreography –
when Gene dances alone, the steps are vibrant and classy. The two together just shuffle from side to side. But even in their characters, Frank just sticks to his “I’m shy, therefore I’m cute” routine, which gets just a little overused.
The great dancing of Kelly is let down by unimaginative cinematography. It’s something strange. Musicals of the thirties (the “Gold Diggers” series, “42nd Street”) featured grand sets and costumes…with many, many dancers. As musicals became centred on individual dancers instead of groups, it took a long time for the camera to work out what to do. Choreography wasn’t really designed for cameras, especially given that Kelly’s tapping means you have to be able to see his feet. So we get whole body shots, that don’t help the spectacle of dancing.
This camera style works very well for the best part of the film: Jerry the Mouse dancing with Gene Kelly. Why? Because Jerry dances better than Frank Sinatra. They play with depth and height in a way that two humans can’t do. Jerry hangs in the air, they jump over each other, and Jerry balances on Kelly’s foot. Frank can’t do that. It’s the highlight of the entire movie, not just because we can say “wow, that mouse is cute!”
I’ve mentioned the performances of Sinatra and Kelly. Kathryn Grayson doesn’t fit in this movie. Not only her voice – hers is more of an operatic voice, and doesn’t work with the latin band. Admittedly she has a pretty dull role. In “Kiss Me Kate”, she had a much more interesting role, which allowed her to be angry and sarcastic. In this she is just the love interest, and can’t do much with the role.
The smaller roles are well done. For some reason, I liked Dean Stockwell, who was wisely not over-used. He had the potential to be the most irritating character in the movie, but that honour went to Sinatra. Jose Iturbi was also good as himself. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
Something about this movie, it is too long. Musicals have great potential to be overlong (“Fiddler on the Roof” is the chief criminal in this regard) and this one could have done with cutting twenty minutes to half an hour. Whenever anyone says that, they need to be prepared to say what could have been cut, and I think that we didn’t really need Susie’s gentleman caller (although the song “If you knew Susie” is good, I admit). Although I liked him, Dean Stockwell could have been completely written out – Susie could have been a schoolteacher attempting to break into acting (this would still have allowed Kelly to tell his story to schoolkids about how he got his medal), and I’m sure it wouldn’t have stretched the scriptwriters too much to have thought of a different way for Susie to meet the sailors. Either way, it could have taken less time to (not) find Jose, and/or the scenes with Susie/Clarence/Joe could have been shortened.
Is “Anchors Aweigh” worth watching? Yes – but you need to fast forward the uninteresting bits. You do need to see the dancing mouse though.
PS Incidentally, the piece played at the Hollywood Bowl rehearsal was the one used in the Tom and Jerry cartoon “The Cat Concerto”…they also had one cartoon at the Hollywood Bowl. Coincidence?
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