A friend of mine, not that long ago, posted a YouTube video to Facebook showing different old movie dance scenes set to “Uptown Funk”. It was actually pretty well-done, with the video maker getting the right beats down to the right movements of the selected clips, some of which were over half a century old. But one thing that did strike me: a lot of those old dance sequences were performed either on boats or by sailors. Why was that?
There’s no good answer to that, and even though musicals aren’t usually my thing, I am always trying to find more things I like, so why not knock off one I know has sailors to say nothing of a certain cartoon mouse? Besides, HBO Max listed Anchors Aweigh as something that was leaving the service soon.
Sailors Joe (Gene Kelly) and Clarence (Frank Sinatra) are being awarded for bravery after a recent battle at sea on their aircraft carrier. Joe, who also saved Clarence’s life, is something of a “wolf” with a specific girl he wants to see. Clarence has no luck with the ladies and manages to get Joe to agree to teach him about how much he can get just by being confident. However, on the first of their four nights out, the two are brought in by the police to talk a little boy (a young Dean Stockwell) out of running away from home to join the navy. The boy is being raised by his single aunt, Susie (Katheryn Grayson), and Clarence instantly falls for her. Joe, on the other hand, has no interest in anyone’s aunt. But Joe’s own plans are upended when his own love interest (never seen on screen) moves on without him, so his lessons to Clarence, which includes a plan to somehow get Susie an audition with Spanish pianist/conductor Jose Iturbi, and over time, there’s a lot of singing, dancing, and both men end up with a romantic partner if not the one they originally thought they’d end up with.
And yes, Gene Kelly dances with Jerry the mouse in what was probably the finest animation Hanna-Barbera ever produced in their long career.
Now, as I said, I’m not one for musicals. This one was fine enough. The songs were nice, Gene Kelly was a great dancer and Frank Sinatra could sing with the best of them. I don’t expect much in the way of a weighty plot to these things, and that Clarence doesn’t seem to mind in the slightest that Susie ends up with Joe, mostly because he’s already met and fallen in love with another woman (Pamela Britton) despite the fact that the movie never even gives her a name. And having grown up with old Looney Tunes, it sure is odd seeing Frank Sinatra playing someone who can’t get a girl.
I liked this one. It’s not my favorite musical, and I may not ever revisit it, but it was a light, breezy way to spend an overcast Saturday afternoon. Will more movies like this change my mind about musicals? Maybe, but there is a part of me that might like them more if the plots attached were of a more mature manner. That said, considering the best known scene in this one has Gene Kelly dancing with a cartoon mouse, and then later shows Kelly’s Joe imagining himself as a dancing Zorro. These probably shouldn’t be taken all that seriously, so I might as well have some fun.
Grade: B+
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