Anchors Aweigh

Director: George Sidney
Year Released: 1945
Rating: 3.0

Sailors Clarence (Frank Sinatra) and cooze-hound Joe (Gene Kelly) are in Los Angeles on leave and looking to catch some tail, but get side-tracked by a little boy (Dean Stockwell!) who wants to join the Navy ... and lives with his Aunt Susan (Kathryn Grayson), who has her own goal of wanting to be a singer for conductor/piano whiz José Iturbi (playing himself). It was made as war-time propaganda - one of those 'feel good' flicks for the folks back home (buy war bonds!) - and is sticky sweet and relentlessly happy, as if it existed in some utopian dream world with only minor inconveniences ... but it is a fun time, with Sinatra and Kelly playing well off each other and some dazzling dance routines, choreographed by perfectionist Gene. Of course, it's well remembered for the sequence of Kelly doin' a dance with Jerry the Mouse, which is one of the iconic moments from the history of the medium (keep an eye on the shadows!). Not easy to buy: Frank having trouble talking to women. Oh come now.