Gene Kelly movies." "Anchors Aweigh" became one of the most successful films of 1945 and Kelly was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In "Ziegfeld Follies" (1946)—which was produced in 1944 but not released until 1946—Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire, for whom he had the greatest admiration, in the famous "The Babbitt and the Bromide" challenge dance routine. After Kelly returned to Hollywood in 1946, MGM had nothing planned and used him in a routine, black-and-white movie: "Living in a Big Way". The film was considered so weak that the studio asked Kelly to design and insert a series of
Judy Garland only its cost, but also the increasing expense of the shooting delays while Garland was ill, as well because the general public was not yet willing to accept her in a sophisticated vehicle. Following her work on "The Pirate", she co-starred for the first and only time with Fred Astaire (who replaced Gene Kelly after Kelly had broken his ankle) in "Easter Parade", which became her top-grossing film at MGM and quickly re-established her as one of MGM's primary assets. Thrilled by the huge box-office receipts of "Easter Parade", MGM immediately teamed Garland and Astaire in "The Barkleys of Broadway".