Notes:

Anchors Aweigh marked Frank Sinatra's first film under his new contract with M-G-M, following his departure from RKO, and his motion picture dancing debut. Gene Kelly began his service in the Navy a short time after the film was completed. An Oct 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item notes that Eleanor Powell was originally set for the female lead, and that M-G-M later cast Marilyn Maxwell in the role. The same news item indicates that Jackie "Butch" Jenkins, Nancy Walker and Ben Blue were originally set for roles. According to an Apr 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item, Ann Miller was considered for a dancing role opposite Kelly. Various news items in Hollywood Reporter in 1943 and 1944 indicate that Jack Haley, Keye Luke and Phil Silvers were considered for roles, but they did not appear in the released film. Although their appearance in the final film has not been confirmed, contemporary news items and Hollywood Reporter production charts include the following actors in the cast: Jack Lambert, Ella Logan, Dean Murphy, Jan Gilbreath and Peter Whitehead. A Decorations 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that Sara Berner "completed recording" on the film. Berner, a cartoon voice specialist, may have provided the voice of "Jerry the Mouse." Modern sources note that Sinatra's role was originally intended for actor Eddie Bracken, and that Elizabeth Taylor was considered for a starring role.


The cartoon sequence in which Kelly enters a mythical kingdom is frequently shown in documentaries about film and film musicals. The experimental technique of combining live action with animation had been used since the 1920s but had not been used extensively until the 1945 Disney film The Three Caballeros (see below). The cartoon mouse featured in the Anchors Away sequence is "Jerry the Mouse" of the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. According to a Decorations 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item, M-G-M formed a new cartoon unit of animators, writers and other specialists to handle the extra footage for the live-action and animation sequence. Modern sources note that Fred Quimby was one of the animators of the cartoon sequence, and that M-G-M had initially sought permission to use "Mickey Mouse" for the part of the mouse king. Disney, however, refused to allow "Mickey" to be used in the film. A biography of choreographer/director Stanley Donen indicates that Donen spent one year working on the "Jerry the Mouse" sequence, and that the picture was held from release until the sequence was completed.


Hollywood Reporter production charts and a Jul 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item lists Thomas Richards as the film's editor, but only Adrienne Fazan is credited onscreen. In a 1947 interview, composer Jule Styne stated that the song "The Charm of You," which Sinatra sang to Pamela Britton in the film, was originally intended to be sung to Kathryn Grayson. The five songs composed by Styne and Sammy Cahn were written especially for the film. In addition to the songs listed above in Songs , the film contains an unidentified tango composed by Carmen Dragon, according to the Variety review. A 1944 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that twenty-three musical numbers had been completed for the film. Musical numbers that were considered or recorded and that were not used in the final film include: "It Could Only Happen in Brooklyn," a duet planned for Sinatra and Britton, composed by Styne and Cahn; "I'll Be Waiting Here," a song planned for Britton, composed by Earl Brent; "Caro nome," from the opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, and a selection from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, to be sung by Grayson; "Another Kiss," composed by B. G. DeSylva and Ted Grouya, to be sung by Sinatra and Grayson; "Loveland" by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane; "The Kid That I've Never Seen" by Herman Ruby, Bert Kalmar, Al Jolson and Harry Akst; "My Follies Girl," by Jolson and Akst; and "As I Recall," "When I Get to Town," "Love and I Went Waltzing" and "Don't Be Subtle, Don't Be Coy" by Styne and Cahn.


Some filming took place on location at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles, CA CA, and at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD. Sinatra, Grayson and Kelly recreated their roles for a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of the story, which aired on 29 Decorations 1947. A Hollywood Reporter news item in Jan 1946 indicates that M-G-M planned a sequel to Anchors Aweigh entitled All Ashore , written by Columbia Pictures producer Robert Taplinger. The sequel was to reteam Sinatra, Kelly and Grayson under the direction of George Sidney. Although All Ashore was shelved in Sep 1946, a film bearing the same title, and with a similar story, was released by Columbia in 1952. The 1952 film was directed by Richard Quine and starred Mickey Rooney and Dick Haymes.


Anchors Aweigh received an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, and was nominated for awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Gene Kelly), Best Cinematography and Best Song ("I Fall in Love Too Easily").

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951
“I Got Rhythm”, “I’ve Got a Crush on You, Sweetie Pie”, “Our Love Is Here to Stay”
PRINCIPAL CAST: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant
DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli
PRODUCER: Arthur Freed
SCREENWRITER: Alan Jay Lerner
CHOREOGRAPHER: Gene Kelly
MUSIC/LYRICS: George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin
[Runtime: 113 min | Country: USA | Language: English / French | Color: Color (Technicolor) | Aspect Ratio: 1.37: 1 | Sound Mix: Mono (Western Electric Sound System)]

An American in Paris (1951) is one of the greatest, most elegant, and most celebrated of MGM's 50's musicals, with Gershwin lyrics and musical score (lyrics by Ira and music by composer George from some of their compositions of the 20s and 30s), lavish sets and costumes, tremendous Technicolor cinematography, and a romantic love story set to music and dance. Gene Kelly served as the film's principal star, singer, athletically-exuberant dancer and energetic choreographer - he even directed the sequence surrounding "Embraceable You." The entire film glorifies the joie de vivre of Paris, but it was shot on MGM's sound stages in California, except for a few opening, establishing shots of the scenic city. Nonetheless, it remains one of the most optimistic American films of the post-war period - with Paris at its center.

The film brought eight Academy Award nominations and won six of them - none of which were for acting: Best Picture (Arthur Freed, producer), Best Story and Screenplay (Alan Jay Lerner), Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Musical Score, and Best Color Costume Design. Its nominations for director (Vincente Minnelli) and Film Editing were unrewarded. Gene Kelly received an Honorary Award from the Academy the same year, presumably for his contributions to this film - it was presented "in appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film." Nineteen year-old Leslie Caron made her film debut as the young Parisian mademoiselle.

An American in Paris - and Gigi (1958), were among Minnelli's most successful films, and two rare nuggets of gold among MGM's Golden Age of Musicals. [The Arthur Freed unit at MGM Studios was well known for its production of other wonderful films: Singin' in the Rain (1952) that re-invented the musical in the 1950s, and Minnelli's own Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Pirate (1948) and The Bandwagon (1953), among others.] It was one of the few musicals ever voted Best Picture in Oscar history, and one of only a few Best Picture winners with no acting nominations.

It is an integrated musical, meaning that the songs and dances blend perfectly with the story. As in many musicals, the plot of this film is not its most important element. One of the film's highlights is its impressive finale - an ambitious, colorful, imaginative, 13 minute avante-garde "dream ballet" costing a half million dollars to produce. The pretentious sequence, featuring an Impressionistic period daydream in the style of various painters, is one of the longest uninterrupted dance sequences of any Hollywood film, and features the music of George Gershwin. [The success of the balletic themes in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's British film The Red Shoes (1948) inspired Minnelli to follow suit - he had experimented with shorter ballet sequences in his earlier films Yolanda and the Thief (1945) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946).]

In this superb Best Picture-winning prestigious musical from MGM (and director Vincente Minnelli) that recycled some Ira and George Gershwin tunes, ex-GI American painter Jerry Mulligan (Honorary Award-winning Gene Kelly) performed the much-remembered song/dance I Got Rhythm (pictured) to neighborhood street children in Paris; also, Jerry delivered an enchanting romantic song/dance Our Love is Here to Stay (pictured) that was tenderly presented to waifish perfume shop clerk Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron) on the quay next to the bank of the Seine River (a studio-built Paris); also included in the film was Henri Baurel's (French music hall star Georges Guetary) elaborate and lush Folies Bergere-like rendition of I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise (pictured) with lavish-costumed chorus girls, and the closing audacious 17-minute symphonic American in Paris (pictured) ballet of Jerry and Lise dancing before lavish, colorful and impressionistic backdrops, fountains and artistic settings based on the works of famous and celebrated French painters (Dufy, Utrillo, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Rousseau) - he pursued her through the continually-changing backdrop of Paris; other numbers included Caron's Embraceable You, and Kelly's song/dance with Guetary in the Latin Quarter titled S'Wonderful.