Speaking of Anchors Aweigh

I mentioned earlier today that Frank Sinatra made The House I Live In the same year that he became famous for Anchors Aweigh. In fact, Anchors Aweigh was released about three months earlier, at lesat according to IMDb. But why I'm really blogging an update is that Anchors Aweigh is on the schedule for 6:00 AM tomorrow, or just after The House I Live In, which would probably explain why TCM has scheduled that particular short at all, never mind when it did. I didn't notice because I use TCM's online daily schedule only to look for shorts if there's anything interesting worth mentioning on the blog; I download the monthly schedule for the regular lineup of features. Looking online fot the shorts is necessary since they're only schedule a week or so in advance, for the most part. And when I looked at the online schedule for today, The House I Live In was at the end of it, since TCM runs its daily schedule roughly from 6:00 AM one morning to 6:00 AM the next morning.

As for Anchors Aweigh, I'm not the biggest fan mostly because I'm not terribly into Gene Kelly musicals, since for the most part they're so unreal. I mean, Kelly does outstanding work when he dances with Jerry the mouse in Anchors Aweigh, but it's a scene that I don't think really fits in with the rest of the story. Kelly and Sinatra would appear together again in On the Town, and the two movies are available as part of a box set. I much prefer On the Town, since at least the bare-bones plot that serves as a hook for the singing and dancing is one that makes sense: the three sailors on leave do nothing more than spend the day trying to see New York, and meeting the women along the way. The extra bit in Anchors Aweigh of trying to make Kathryn Grayson a star adds nothing if you ask me.

But those of you who are fans of musicals will probably enjoy both films.