I certainly felt the length the first two times I saw it! However, it's also a film that grows on you-the more you see it, the shorter it feels and the more you appreciate the technical mastery involved in its making. The typical argument is that the latter film is over-long: at almost two and a half hours, this is certainly a valid criticism to make. The numbers are more outrageous and less integral to the plot, and yet somehow it works better than all the dances and singing in ANCHORS AWEIGH.
Somehow ON THE TOWN, as a film and a piece of entertainment, is just lighter, gayer, purely and simply *happier*. Having now seen both films a third time, I still stand by that judgement. Yet, both times I came away feeling that ON THE TOWN is the better film overall.
Both times I felt that ANCHORS AWEIGH was the better film in terms of plotting and structure-all the dances and songs fit the moment in the plot, and they develop the characters and story rather than hamper them. The first and second times I saw ANCHORS AWEIGH, I also saw it at the same time as I did ON THE TOWN, the Kelly/Sinatra collaboration from 1949. How is Brooklyn going to take this betrayal? And does Joe end up with Susie, who loves him too? Along the way, however, Joe finds himself falling for the gal he thinks belongs to his best friend. Unexperienced in the ways of females and courting, Brooklyn quickly enlists Joe to help him win Aunt Susie over. Eager to get to the girls, particularly Joe's Lola, neither Joe nor Brooklyn figure on the interruption of little Navy-mad Donald (Dean Stockwell) and his Aunt Susie (Kathryn Grayson). ANCHORS AWEIGH sees two eager young sailors, Joe Brady (Gene Kelly) and Clarence Doolittle/Brooklyn (Frank Sinatra), get a special four-day shore leave.