Starring Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter, and Virginia Weidler
Directed by George Sidney
Music and Lyrics by various
We're finally finishing up the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland teen backstage movies this week. By this point, the two were bona-fide starts the world over. Garland just had her first adult role the year before and was trying to get away from playing kids, but she didn't mind appearing alongside her best friend Rooney. How does the slightly more mature story of teens trying to make it in Manhattan look today? Let's begin with radio's Town Crier, Alexander Woollcott (himself), as he discusses the influx of hopeful children and teens to New York for stage careers and find out...
The Story: Tommy Williams (Rooney) is one of those hopefuls. He performs in a spaghetti house with his friends Ray Lambert (Ray McDonald) and Morton Hammond (Richard Quine). He doesn't believe it when a lady who gives them a big tip (Bainter) says she's a theatrical agent, but when they do show at her office, she says she has work for them. He's so thrilled, he tells half the kids in New York, including Penny Morris (Garland).
Penny wants the kids at the orphanage where she works and her friend Barbara Jo Conway (Weidler) lives to have a trip to the country this summer to help their many aliments. Tommy sees it as a great way to promote his act. He convinces the kids to put on a show and a block party to help them. It turns out to help more than just their kids when British kids come around as well and are broadcasted to their parents. They make enough to rent a theater...but first Tommy gets a big job opportunity in Philadelphia, and then, the theater turns out to be run-down. Neither will stop the kids from achieving their dreams or learning that hard work often requires a great deal of sacrifice.
The Song and Dance: It's interesting to see how the two and their relationship have evolved since Strike Up the Band. Here, Judy is an independent young woman living on her own, making her own money, and too busy to pine for anyone. For once, it's Rooney who's chasing her. When she's angry at him, it's not because of some girl, it's because he really is being selfish. He's still going a mile a minute, but his ideas are a lot bigger than small-town barns or getting a school orchestra to a big band competition.
They're backed by a decent supporting cast. McDonald has a few great tap solos, notably during the "Hoe Down" number, and Weidler is far more appealing here than she was whining over her boyfriend in Best Foot Forward three years later. Bainter has a few funny lines as the woman agent who finally gets the kids their big break.
Favorite Number: Busby Berkeley was the choreographer here, and he really goes to town with the energetic barnyard stomp "Hoe Down" in the auditorium. Garland and Rooney are in overalls and calico, kicking up their heels along with kids in goofy dancing horse costumes. "Chin Up, Cheerio, Carry On" is Garland's song for the visiting British kids and their families on the air, a reminder that the badly battered England had already been at war for two years at that point. The kids sing about that "Bombshell from Brazil" at the aborted show for the orphans...which turns out to be Rooney dressed in drag as Carmen Miranda and singing one of her signature tunes, "Mama Yo Quiero."
Garland and Rooney are at their best in one big, expansive number and one small, intimate one. They really get into their medley of songs and scenes representing theater greats who once appeared on the stage of that aging theater. Garland' does especially well by the old Blanche Ring number "Rings On Her Fingers," and Rooney really gets into his Cyrano De Bergerac.
The other big one here is "How About You?" This charming ballad was nominated for an Oscar in 1942. No wonder, with Mickey and Judy happily singing about how much they have in common on the piano, then doing a seemingly spontaneous little dance around the music room. It's sweet, simple, adorable, and proof that you don't always need Berkeley largess to be the best number in a movie.
Trivia: Vincent Minnelli conceived and supervised the "ghost theater" montage.
Another satire of late 19th century theatrical tropes, the melodrama spoof "The Convict's Return," was filmed but cut and has since been lost (though the songs survive).
Film debuts of Margaret O'Brian (as one of the kids at the audition) and Donna Reed (as Miss Jones' comely secretary).
There was to have been a third "Babes" film, "Babes In Hollywood," but it was scrapped in favor of the somewhat more mature Girl Crazy after Garland admitted she was tired of teen roles.
What I Don't Like: First of all, let's discuss that minstrel show finale. As with the almost identical number in Babes In Arms, it was seen as nostalgia for earlier theatrical tropes in 1940. Nowadays the bad blackface and stereotypical jokes will likely offend more people than they amuse. There's also the cliched story about the kids and their need for country air. It's not as melodramatic as the friend in need in Strike Up the Band, but it's still pretty obvious...and what Mickey and his buddies give up for it is worse.
The Big Finale: Minstrel show aside, this is delightful fun with Rooney and Garland at the top of their game and some creative musical numbers. Highly recommended for fans of them or the MGM musicals of the 1940's.
Home Media: Easy to find in all major formats. The solo DVD is from the Warner Archives.
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