Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

ninabruzdzinski Surprisingly, I loved this movie. I'm not huge on musicals, but this movie was done incredibly well. Clarence and Joe were so lovable and such a great duo together. Donald was adorable and really pulled at my heartstrings. The kindness and silliness of Joe and Clarence as a pair was refreshing and I had a smile on my face the ought the entire movie. The songs were fun and light, and I think that's such a great thing to add to movies filmed during this time period. War was so embedded in the every day lives of people, it must've been a nice relief to enjoy leisure time and see a different side of the war- and how soldiers were real people too, and wanted the war to be over more than anyone. I also especially loved the high angles and panning of all of the pianists playing their piano on the stage towards the end of the film, it was a beautiful touch.

Andrew Boone In between the musical boom in the '30s, and the resurgence of the Hollywood musical in the early '50s with "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain", there was "Anchors Aweigh". A 1945 MGM musical starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Kathryn Grayson, what we have here is not by any means cinema at its finest; rather, it is simply that wonderful brand of lighthearted escapism that Hollywood was famous for in its golden age.The Hollywood musical didn't by any means die off in the '40s, but it reached a low-point in popularity, by comparison to the cornucopia of musicals from every major studio in the '30s. As we know, the German director Ernst Lubitsch, having migrated to America in '23, brought the musical to life. His 1929 film "The Love Parade", starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald, was the first truly modern musical committed to the big screen. Lubitsch made several other similar musicals during the early '30s ("Monte Carlo", "The Smiling Lieutenant", and "One Hour With Your"). These films, made for Paramount, were, like everything Lubitsch, based in charisma, wit, and innuendo. After 1932, however, Lubitsch abandoned the musical, which was in the process of undergoing a vast transformation. The new musical was on the horizon, and it came bursting to life in 1933. RKO brought Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to the screen with "Flying Down to Rio". Warner Bros released three musicals helmed by the great Busby Berkeley: "42nd Street", "The Gold Diggers of 1933", and "Footlight Parade" -- all backstage musicals. MGM, who had a habit of, let's say, "borrowing" from Warner, released their own Berkeley knockoff called "Dancing Lady". Extravagance and spectacle were the name of the game now. Large, ornate sets saw the production of grand, elaborate musical numbers. Only Paramount remained relatively low-key, with musicals like "International House" and "College Humor". They were in the process of establishing names like W.C. Fields, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and, of course, Bing Crosby.This trend continued throughout the '30s. MGM released "San Francisco" and "The Great Ziegfeld", along with three followups to their 1929 musical "The Broadway Melody": "The Broadway Melody of 1936", "The Broadway Melody of 1938", and "The Broadway Melody of 1940". Warner Bros continued releasing Busby Berkeley musicals, like "Dames", "The Gold Diggers of 1935", and "The Gold Diggers of 1937". Paramount had Bing Crosby in full form by 1936 when they released "Rhythm on the Range", and two years later gave Bob Hope his feature debut in "The Big Broadcast of 1938", followed by "Give Me a Sailor", both of which costarred Martha Raye. RKO continued the now ultra-popular run of Astaire and Rogers films — "Roberta", "Follow the Fleet", "Swing Time", "Carefree", and others. And, finally, Fox hopped on the bandwagon with "Pigskin Parade" in 1936 (I'm sure there were Fox musicals before this, but I'm not familiar with any). Then, something happened. The war. World War II saw the necessity for propagandistic war films surging, which cut into the popularity of the musical. Or maybe musicals simply had run their course. In either case, the early '40s saw a significant drop-off in the production and popularity of Hollywood musicals. The one major exception was Fox. They kept the musical alive through the war years, with lavish Technicolor films starring the likes of Betty Grable, Alice Faye, and Don Ameche (i.e. "Down Argentine Way", "That Night in Rio", and "Moon Over Miami").Interestingly, it is these Fox Technicolor musicals from the early '40s that provided the most obvious inspiration for MGM's "Anchors Aweigh". Not only the use of color, but the general style and aesthetic of the film is very similar to Fox's musicals from earlier in the decade. Later, "Anchors Aweigh" would evolve into MGM's famous musicals from the early '50s — "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain" — which also starred Gene Kelly, and triggered the rebirth of the Hollywood musical. Gene Kelly is absolutely the centerpiece of this film. He is wonderful. He's among the most charismatic screen presences I've seen in Hollywood's history, and it never shows more than it does here. Kelly carries this film. Kathryn Grayson is decent in the lead female role, and Sinatra, the film's costar, is solid enough. I've never been that big on Frank Sinatra, but I find his younger self in this film much more amiable than his later roles."Anchors Aweigh" is gorgeously shot. Like virtually all Hollywood commercial films, it lacks any artistic ambition, but the technical skills demonstrated by those who collaborated on the film are immense. The set design is extraordinary. The lighting is impeccable. Visually speaking, it's an amazingly attractive film, and at times it even seems to possess a distinctly painterly quality, which we are now bereft of with the digital realism of modern cinema. There is a side role for Dean Stockwell, a child actor who was popular at the time, and has been acting ever since. This was his second role. Also notable is José Iturbi, the Spanish conductor and piano prodigy who plays himself in the film. His presence reminds us of Oscar Levant in "An American in Paris". Iturbi has multiple piano performances in the film, and they are truly a pleasure to behold. What a talent.Overall, this is a solid film. In the world of Hollywood musicals, I'd say it's a very good film. It's long, but it never gets tedious. It's good fun from start to finish. The musical numbers aren't astonishing, but they're good, on the whole. At the end of the day, though, Gene Kelly is the reason to show up for the film, and the reason to stay until it's over. His screen personality is very fun and a joy to watch, and that's about how I'd sum up the film itself.RATING: 6.67 out of 10 stars

drwam There are some great bits in the film but this is not a good film. They have taken some of the best talent on the MGM lot at its zenith and produced a long, meandering, hugely inconsistent film with no pacing and no plot. The worst offense is....no charm. It is all a huge waste of fabulous production values and many talented contributors. I think a significant part of the lack of charm is the way MGM handled Mr. Sinatra. Frank was not the kind of white bread handsome hunk who gets the girl in an MGM picture. So they have him end up with a more comic or ethnic type better suited to "his kind." They did it in this picture and in several others. Considering Mr. Sinatra's well documented appeal to women, the joke, in the long run, was on Mr. Mayer and his minions.

lasttimeisaw I will not thumb my nose's at the usually stock Hollywood musicals, not with a combo of Sinatra's mellow show-tunes, Kelly's choreographic moves and Grayson's soprano renditions. Although screenwriter Isobel Lennart does not care a damn of the plausibility in the storytelling, but if you can swallow that, ANCHORS AWEIGH might find its comfy niche in overwhelming its contemporary viewers with its blatantly gaily romance and a cornucopia of vaudevillian assortments.An Oscar BEST PICTURE nominee (5 nominations and 1 win for George Stoll's music score), directed by versatile and prolific Hollywood journeyman George Sidney, my second film from his filmography after SCARAMOUCHE (1952, 6/10), ANCHORS AWEIGH runs approximate 140 minutes, collects an ever-high-octane Gene Kelly (it comes as a big surprise that he had earned only one Oscar nomination through his entire career, which is from this film), third-billed from the opening-credit, who however, splendidly embraces his efflorescence by spearheading as a multifaceted showman in transmitting his vigor and life-force into this otherwise average hedonism burlesque, the highlight surely is Kelly's duo dance with Disney's Jerry Mouse, a technique pioneers the animation-cum-live-action trend, and it is seamlessly dovetailed with utter originality, to which one can barely imagine how audiences could react during its premier over 70 years ago. And what's more relevant to present viewers, now we can realize from where the archetype of Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST (2011, 8/10) comes and Kelly is much more competent. Sinatra in his incipient thirties, willowy as ever, his character may be flat and dopey, once he sings, one just wonders how miraculous is his slender figure could hone up to a marvelous instrument and produce that voice! Almost the same can be applied for Grayson only if she could veil her obvious contempt every time being addressed as "Auntie Susan". Apart from the triad, among the supporting group is a genial Spanish conductor José Iturbi plays himself, his symphony of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 with a dozen of pianists is a plain grandstanding but also a virtuoso achievement beside the point. And if I haven't perused the credits, I can never suspect that the young boy is Dean Stockwell, his big screen debut, also for Pamela Britton, unfortunately she doesn't even has a name in the film and billed as the girl from Brooklyn.