Very best movie i ever watch

Excellent film with a gripping story!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Anchors Aweigh (1945)In some ways this movie is so innovative and fresh, it's hard to fault. The mixed animation and Technicolor in one scene, the sheer variety of dances, the two great songs (amidst some ordinary ones), and some great dancing all make this a great movie.In parts. There is a lot of filler—a lot, and at times it almost kills the movie. But then, suddenly, it takes a formal twist (more than a twist of plot) and is suddenly terrific. The plot? Formula, and not really the point. What matters is the song and dance (of course) and the leading actors: Gene Kelly (wonderful) and Frank Sinatra (a great singer and at this young age a mediocre actor). But it's great to see both, on any level, and to see both together. And to see the real cartoon characters Tom and Jerry act with the mere actors.The Technicolor is great, and there are scenes of MGM back in those glory days that are almost worth it alone (brief as they are). Look for "I Fall in Love Too Easily" as a highlight. But let's be honest, the plot is a mishmash of mini- events, the leading actress Kathryn Grayson (with a harsh soprano voice) is an old-fashioned taste more famous for other movies, and the insertion of pseudo- classical music strikes us in the 21st Century as interesting and unconvincing.I suppose this might amount to what makes the movie a great period movie. But be prepared to like it in spurts. But some of those spurts are really wonderful.

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

While Broadway was singing "New York, New York" with Leonard Berntein's hit musical "On the Town", MGM paid tribute to itself with this story of two sailors finding romance in tinsel town rather than the Big Apple. Of course, the same two stars, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, would do tribute to Manhattan just four years later with equal success, even if in retrospective, that movie musical is a shell of its Broadway self. In the case of "Anchor's Aweigh", shy Sinatra is looking for a girlfriend, assisted by outgoing Kelly, and they both find love with classic aria singer Kathryn Grayson and the more gregarious Pamela Britton. Grayson is hoping for a screen test with orchestra leader Jose Iturbi to work both at Carnagie Hall and to appear in an MGM musical, so this gives the boys of the story an entrance to the Culver City lot where dreams are made.The story is slightly overlong, but simple, and it is presented in the most beautiful and lavish light, typical MGM gloss with high-end production values and an animation sequence that is today considered one of the classic moments of world cinema, let alone the American movie musical. That segment has Gene Kelly in a kingdom ruled by Jerry the Mouse, an unhappy monach who has forbidden singing and dancing because he believes he can't do it himself. Gene bounces Jerry off his ample muscles and they do some moves which are straight out of the much later break dancing. As seen in lush Technicolor, this segment is out of this world and a shear delight.The beautiful Kathryn Grayson sings a lovely rendition of "Jealosy", and while her acting would improve in time, it is her singing here that you will remember. Sinatra introduced the standard "I Fall in Love Too Easily", and gets to do a duet ("I Begged Her") with Gene on a naval base, showing his dancing chops in this, his first MGM musical. A highlight of the film which hasn't gotten its due is a rendition of "The Mexican Hat Dance" where Gene performs with an adorable little girl, Sharon McManus (obviously not Mexican) in what appears to be set on Olivera Street in downtown L.A. The Freed unit, the leader in MGM musicals, ironically, didn't produce this one; Joseph Pasternak, who produced a series of Deanna Durbin musicals at Universal and later most of Grayson and Jane Powell's operatic films, was responsible, with George Sidney as director. To say they don't make em' like this anymore is a true understatement.

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.