Prompt: Consider how Sinatra compares to/differs from Gene Kelly in this film. What image of Sinatra do we get? Does it surprise you?
So this week was the first weeks of classes, and the Sinatra film that we watched was Anchors Away (1945). I have seen this movie many times, and actually own a copy of it, but it was good to watch it again and think about how the two main male characters differ from one another. I always had kind of been aware of the differences before this class, but once I started watching the movie with the contrasting images being my sole focus, I was very surprised by the blatant differences. Gene Kelly's character seems to be more of the prototype for how a man should act by most of society's standards. Once I noticed and realized this it really surprised me, because Sinatra is usually considered to be a pretty tough guy and very much of a man's man. In this movie however, Kelly's character is the tough one who doesn't like to show emotion, has no reservations about sweet talking a woman to get what he wants, thinks he has everything in life figured out, believes that his perfect relationship is something just for laughs and in no way serious, and doesn't believe in things like wishing wells.
Sinatra plays the character of Clarence Doolittle, and Gene Kelly portrays the character of Joe Brady. Clarence is the younger, more naive, less experienced sailor, and he is also more willing to show his emotions. Clarence is also more serious, not as objectifying towards women, and definitely more introspective. He looks up to Joe Brady a lot because Joe is much more experienced, a ladies man (or a "sea wolf" as he's referred to in the film), and Joe leads Clarence around in a lot of the scenes. When some of the sailors are given a four day leave in California, a group of them go up to Los Angeles. Joe is planning on spending all of his time with a woman named Lola, and watching him talk to her on the phone it is clear how the got the nickname of "sea wolf." Every other time that the sailors have been given leave in port Clarence goes to the library and reads the entire time. This trip he decides he wants to do something out of the ordinary for him, and really wants to try and meet girls. He is incredibly clueless on how to go about making that happen, so he follows Joe around with the hope that Joe will help him. A few times Clarence is compared to a child or seemingly belittled for not living up to the manly, strong expectations of a sailor in the Navy. One example of this is Joe saying that when Donald (the little boy who ran away to join the Navy) talks he sometimes sounds exactly like Clarence. Clarence is compared to the child again (visually and in regards to dialogue) when they both poke their heads through the spokes of the staircase railing and beg Joe not to leave because they both need his help in different ways. Yet another time a few minutes later in the movie Clarence and Donald are sitting next to one another on the couch, and when Donald asks Joe a question Joe says he'll understand when he gets older. Clarence then says that people used to say the same stuff to him and he still doesn't understand a lot of stuff. One last observation of Clarence not living up to the image standards of a man in the Navy is made by the proprietor at a drug store one afternoon. Clarence orders a chocolate milkshake and as he slurps it down at an extremely fast pace the man asks Joe what is the navy coming to as he's looking at Clarence and Joe response is that he asks himself the same thing every day.
When a lot of people think about Frank Sinatra the phrases 'ladies man' or 'womanizer' usually are in there somewhere, so it is interesting to see him in this film because his character is too scared to even use any phone numbers of women that Joe knows in town and offers to Clarence. Even towards the end of the movie once Clarence tells the waitress at the Mexican restaurant (she's nicknamed 'Brooklyn' by Clarence) that he loves her and she says she feels the same way, he doesn't take on the role of the protective, male figure; instead she does as she puts her arm around him and he rests his head on her shoulder.
Sinatra's character really leans on Gene Kelly's character throughout most of the film, and wants to be like him very badly. The notion of Clarence being a follower and willing to try and change who he is as a person is central to the film's plot, but seems to contrast very much with who Sinatra was as a person (from what I've read so far). A good example of this is found in Pete Hamill's book Why Sinatra Matters; growing up as the son of Italian immigrants he was acutely aware that he was often stereotyped because of where his family was from, as well as put in the category of just another immigrant family instead of truly seen as having his own personal identity. These attitudes of many Americans had a huge impact on Sinatra, and as he recounts to Hamill it made him proud of his heritage; "years later, when Harry [James] wanted me to change my name, I said no way, baby. The name is Sinatra. Frank f---ing Sinatra" (Hamill 38). To me this quote says so much about who Sinatra was as a person, and how he truly was an actor in the sense that who he was and his personal life were not reflected in the roles that he took on.
I loved having the chance to watch this film again, and I'm so excited for the rest of the class this semester!
