Starring Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Nancy Walker, and Rags Ragland
Directed by Norman Taurog and Busby Berkeley
Music by George Gershwin; Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
We leave New York and head out west for Mickey and Judy's last full film together. By 1943, Garland and Rooney were among MGM's top stars. Garland was gunning for more adult roles, and Arthur Freed wanted to remake the classic Gershwin stage musical after MGM acquired the rights in the late 30's. It's a bit different than the other Judy/Mickey movies in several ways, starting with the western college setting replacing the barns, backyards, and Broadway. It's also the second Broadway adaptation they appeared in after Babes In Arms. How close to the original show is this? Let's start in New York, as college playboy Danny Churchill (Rooney) goes out on the town with two luscious ladies, and find out...
The Story: Danny's wealthy newspaper owner father Danny Sr. (Henry O'Neil) is incensed when his son's antics with nightclub chorus girls land on the front pages of his own publications. Hoping to avoid more of such shenanigans and get him to focus on his schoolwork, he sends him to the all-male Cody College in Arizona. Danny manages to meet and fall for the only girl in the area, postmistress Ginger Gray (Garland), on his way there, but she dismisses him as a useless Easterner.
She's right at first. He can't ride a horse, won't get up early, and thinks the other students' cowboy abilities are silly. He starts to change his tune when Ginger finally starts to return his interest. Things are finally starting to look up for Danny when the Governor announces the college may close due to lack of interest. He and Ginger come up with the idea for a big western rodeo and a Queen of the Rodeo pageant...but that means there will be more girls at the college, and Ginger will have more competition for Danny...
The Song and Dance: The Broadway pedigree, terrific Gershwin music, and a unique modern western-meets-High School Musical plot makes all the difference here. Helps that, unlike with Babes In Arms, they kept almost the entire original Broadway score. Location shooting at a real dessert ranch in California adds a great deal of authenticity to the western setting. Garland may have been overworked and over-medicated during filming, but it doesn't show in her delightfully sarcastic performance. Here, we come full circle - Rooney is now officially chasing her and showing her what he can do, but she's not buying. He's having a great time, especially trying to ride a horse during a camping trip. Rags Ragland actually puts in one of his best performances as the kindly cowpuncher who befriends Ginger and Danny.
Favorite Number: June Allyson channels her inner Merman to demand Danny and various sugar daddies "Treat Me Rough" at the nightclub. It gets even funnier when Danny ends up onstage and the chorus girls shove him around. Garland and the cowboys are "Bidin' My Time" in a laid-back routine during the campout. Danny asks Ginger "Can You Use Me?" when they're driving back to the college, literally climbing all over her jalopy while she's trying to drive. The cleaned-up cowboys tell Ginger at her birthday that there's no one like "Embraceable You" as they all want to dance with her at once. Danny joins Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra for a wild piano solo to the only additional song, "Fascinating Rhythm."
The film's two best numbers are at the end. Garland puts in a gorgeous performance of "But Not For Me" after she loses Queen of the Rodeo and thinks Danny's abandoned her and the college. We end with that massive version of "I Got Rhythm" that Berkeley and Garland feuded over during filming. You'd never know how much trouble that number caused. It's a literal blast, with Garland and Rooney dancing with multitudes of cowboys and cowgirls and running under the girls' ribbons as the boys set off their guns.
Trivia: Film debuts of June Allyson and Richard E. Strickland (as Danny's rival at the college).
Berkeley was fired after pushing the dancers too hard and feuding with Garland during the "I Got Rhythm" number. He was replaced by Norman Taurog; Charles Walters did the remaining numbers and appeared as a dancer.
The original Broadway show debuted in 1930, with Ginger Rodgers in Garland's role and Ethel Merman as a performer who also comes out west. The pit orchestra alone included such later notables as Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, and ironically, Tommy Dorsey. It came back to Broadway in 1992 in a heavily revised version, Crazy for You, that was an equally big hit. Neither has been seen on Broadway since, though the original turned up as off-Broadway concerts in 2001 and 2009.
Remake of the 1931 Wheeler and Woosley musical by the same title. Would be remade in 1965 as Where the Boys Meet the Girls.
What I Don't Like: While this is a little bit more mature than Garland and Rooney's previous romps in the big city and suburbs, the story can still come off as a little cliched, especially if you've seen other musical college stories like Good News. Wish Nancy Walker, as Garland's mouthy cousin, had more to do. MGM never did figure out what to do with her. And why did they change Danny from being sent to a dude ranch to a western college? Wanted to go for the Good News vibe, or just thought Rooney looked a little too young to be running ranches?
The Big Finale: Terrific numbers, a great Gershwin score, and some nice performances make this the best of the four Garland-Rooney movies. 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 discs are from the Warner Archives. It's currently on HBO Max with a subscription.
No comments:
Post a Comment