The Frank Sinatra And Gene Kelly Collection DVD Review

Frank Sinatra may have made the girls swoon with his singing early on, but he had to work for good roles on the big screen. The first couple of times Sinatra was on film it was uncredited and his only purpose was to sing, and indeed even in his first credited role he merely plays himself. When Sinatra did manage to get bigger roles, he was stilled always cast in films where he sang, even if it was a costume film like The Kissing Bandit (1948). Mostly due to how small the famed singer actually was in his early years, Sinatra is hardly seen as confident or capable when he isn’t singing, and in many other roles he is simply a shy kid from Brooklyn looking for love. The sad part is that he is the Baxter in many of these films and doesn’t end up with the leading girl he falls for. Perfect as a side-kick singer Sinatra would also become the perfect sidekick for Gene Kelly as well.

Sinatra would sing and Kelly would dance, but in the end it was always Kelly who was the leading man. Poor Sinatra is usually just a kid with a good voice who falls in love too easily. In Anchors Away Sinatra and Kelly are two sailors on leave in Hollywood. Sinatra begs for Kelly’s help finding a girl during their four days on leave, and against Kelly’s advice he immediately falls for Katheryn Grayson, the aunt of a little boy who runs away from home to join the Navy. Kelly is a ladies man who just desperately wants to meet up with an attractive woman waiting for him, but he eventually ends up falling for Grayson also. It never leads to a fight with Sinatra, who gracefully bows out. Anchors Away is a lengthy and enjoyable film of huge production. There is even an animated sequence with Gene Kelly.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame may not put Kelly and Sinatra back in the Navy, but they are in uniforms again as famous baseball players on the Wolves team. They also work the vaudevillian circuits when they aren’t playing ball, and once again Sinatra is the responsible dope to Kelly’s suave ladies man. Esther Williams co-stars as the new owner of the Wolves, as well as a love interest for Sinatra which inevitably becomes Kelly’s love interest. Baseball fun with plenty of musical numbers make this another hit directed by Busby Berkley.

The last film in the set is On the Town, co-directed by Kelly himself. The boys are sailors once again, this time on leave in New York along with Jules Munshin. Kelly spots a woman he wants to spend the evening with and the three sailors spend the rest of their one day in New York trying to track her down. Sinatra ends up with the cab driver, even though he is more interested in sightseeing than women, and Munshin finds a woman at the museum. The three and their dates manage to get into plenty of trouble before they have to return to the ship in the morning.