Anchors Aweigh (Keep Case Packaging)
by George Sidney
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DVD details
Actor: Dean Stockwell, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, José Iturbi, Kathryn GraysonDirector: George Sidney
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Isobel Lennart
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); English (Published); French (Subtitles For Dubbed)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 143 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Special Features * Archival Interview with Animation Legends William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
- * Excerpt from the Documentary Series MGM: WHEN THE LION ROARS
- * Three Theatrical Trailers
- * Color * Full Screen
- * Languages and Subtitles in English and French
DVD Reviews of Anchors Aweigh (Keep Case Packaging)
DVD Review: Enjoyable Kelly/Sinatra musical and the last full film directed by Busby Berkeley
Summary: 4 Stars
The film opens on the deck of a destroyer where Clarence Doolittle (Frank Sinatra) and Joseph Brady (Gene Kelly) receive commendations for staying at their posts during a brutal battle. Many of the men on the ship get leave while off the shore of Los Angeles allowing Clarence and Joe to hit the shore and have fun. Joe, Clarence and their friends decide they are going to hit Hollywood. Joe a well known womanizer finds the shy Clarence dogging his steps so he can learn how to be a lady's man. Joe reluctantly agrees to help Clarence "get a dame" in a particularly funny sequence where Joe plays the dame and Joe tries to pick "her" up. The two get taken downtown to help the police talk a little boy into returning home and not "joining" the Navy. They get wrangled into taking the boy home where the pair meet the little boy's young aunt Susan (Kathryn Grayson) who is his guardian. Ultimately Joe finds himself falling for Susan while trying to help Clarence woo her.
The first pairing of Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra "Anchors Aweigh" is most famous for Gene Kelly's dance with Jerry--you know the little mouse from the Tom and Jerry Cartoons. While that's certainly notable, what's more important here is that "Anchors Aweigh" is a terrific musical with two of the top stars of the era at the top of their game. While Sinatra really isn't asked to stretch as an actor here, he does perform a number of terrific songs penned especially for the film. Unlike "On the Town", "Anchors Aweigh" was a studio original. Gene Kelly is in charge of choreographing the marvelous dance numbers here. While "Anchors Aweigh" isn't on a par with "Singing in the Rain" or "An American in Paris", it's still an enjoyable bit of entertainment.
The film looks gorgeous with sharp set designs. Although there are scratches and dirt that crop up from time to time, the film looks extremely good. It's unfortunate that Warner hasn't cleaned this up a bit for re-release. Unlike the later "On the Town", "Anchors Aweigh" was shot totally on the backlot at MGM. Interestingly, the opening sequence set on the deck of the destroyed that the two men are stationed on looks incredibly fake. The matte painting used looks as much like a cartoon as Jerry the Mouse does which is surprising given the fine eye for detail that producer Arthur Freed and Busby Berkeley had. The visual effects are credited to Warren Newcombe who also worked on "Forbidden Planet". While that film's matte paintings and use of animation are, again, not totally realistic, they look better than the visuals in "Anchors Aweigh". While they were probably as good as could be done at the time, they still stand out like a sore thumb.
A beautiful transfer, the film is marred only by a bit of dirt and scratches. It's a pity that Warner didn't upgrade the film for this re-release"Anchors Aweigh" looks sharp and has the rich robust colors typical of a three strip Technicolor film from the era. Skin tones look great and the blacks are rock solid. Detail is remarkably crisp and the audio sounds extremely good presented in its original mono format.
We get a snippet pulled from the documentary "When the Lion Roars" about the making of the "Worry Song" featuring Jerry the mouse on how directors Joseph Hanna and William Barbera created the sequence. Originally the plan was that Mickey Mouse and Gene Kelly would perform together. MGM made an appointment for Kelly to meet with Disney. Disney told Kelly that "Mickey Mouse will never do an MGM movie". This is ironic given that later Disney animators WOULD work on an MGM film--"Forbidden Planet"--although it was a far cry from putting Mickey Mouse into an MGM film. It's clear that Disney was OK with another creature appearing in an MGM film as long as it wasn't Mickey Mouse. MGM had largely dismantled their animation division by 1956 (when "Forbidden Planet" was made) and didn't have the resources to do the animated sequence any longer. Disney animator Joshua Meador was loaned out that for film to MGM. Meador already had some experience with visual effects animation in live action films working on "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Song of the South" in addition to his work on such Disney classics as "Cinderella", "Alice in Wonderland" and "Fantasia".
Hanna and Barbera discussed the technical aspects of creating the sequence. While this wasn't the first pairing of live action and animation but with Kelly's brilliant dancing and the carefully executed animation the sequence was a sensation. Ironically the sequence had to be animated TWICE (this isn't mentioned in the brief excerpt which runs all of 5 minutes with narration by Patrick Stewart) because during the screen of the finished product it was noticed that Gene was reflected on the floor and Jerry wasn't. To make the sequence more realistic the animators had to go back and redo the sequence with Jerry realistically reflected on the surface of the floor as well.
It would have been nice to see Warner create a new featurette on the visual effects and on Busby Berkeley's legacy as a director but we don't get anything new just the special features from the 2000 issue of this film.
We also get theatrical trailers for this film, "On the Town" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" which also featured Kelly, Sinatra and their "On the Town" co-star Jules Munshin. Made during a time when Sinatra's films only did well when he was paired with Kelly, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was also Busby Berkeley's last full length film.
"Anchor's Aweigh" remains an enjoyable musical with some stunning set pieces notably Gene Kelly's dance with Jerry the Mouse. This re-release (it was previously released in a snapcase on DVD in 2000 at the same time as "Take Me Out to the Ballgame") looks marvelous although It doesn't appear to me that the transfer is new.
Description of Anchors Aweigh (Keep Case Packaging)
ANCHORS AWEIGH - DVD MovieGene Kelly and Frank Sinatra teamed up for their first of three musical comedies in this frothy confection of sailors on leave in Hollywood, with gawky, shy young Sinatra tagging along with his worldly buddy Kelly, who promises to show him the ropes. Overlong at more than two hours, this meandering production is light on story, and more than a little sentimental, but full of first-rate entertainment. Sinatra croons "I Fall in Love Too Easily" and "What Makes the Sunset," chirpy costar Kathryn Grayson sings "All of a Sudden My Heart Sings," classical pianist José Iturbi provides a little highbrow interlude, and Gene Kelly dances with cartoon mouse Jerry (of Tom and Jerry fame) when not chasing dames. Somewhere in the midst of this, little Dean Stockwell makes his film debut as a runaway orphan who melts the heart of self-centered Kelly. This big-budget Technicolor extravaganza, directed by MGM stalwart and musical specialist George Sidney (Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate), was one of the studio's biggest hits in 1945. --Sean Axmaker
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