Thursday, October 1, 2020

Babes In Arms

MGM, 1939
Starring Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Charles Winninger, and Margaret Hamilton
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Music and Lyrics by various

We jump back a year to the first of the Garland-Rooney "put on a show" films. This one started out as a hit Broadway show in 1937. It proved to be even more popular on the big screen, bigger than Garland's other major film that year, The Wizard of Oz. Does it continue to delight audiences with it's talented teens and their barnyard show today, or should it be sent to the orphanage? Let's begin with the birth of a future trooper and find out...

The Story: Mickey Moran (Rooney) is literally born into show business. He dances with his parents in their vaudeville act, at least until the arrival of talking pictures, radio, and the Great Depression brings an end to variety shows. Many aging vaudevillians moved their families to a small town in Long Island, New York after their careers ended, including Joe Moran (Winninger). He encourages the other former vaudevillians in the town to go on tour and prove they're still relevant, before their homes and children are taken away.

Meanwhile, his son is equally determined to show that their children can be every bit the performers their parents are. After their parents claim they'll just be "baggage" on the road, he encourages his sister Molly (Betty Jaynes), his best friend Patsy Barton (Garland), and the local kids to help him put on a show in a barn. Patsy's upset when Mickey initially gives former child star "Baby" Rosalie Essex (Preissler) her role, to the point where she leaves...and there's the lady from the work houses (Hamilton) complaining that the kids should be going to school and studying for a trade, not show business.

The Song and Dance: Berkeley's first movie at MGM shows a lot of creativity, especially in dealing with the kids. There's a lot of energy from everyone, especially the ever-moving Rooney. What I really like is, unlike with Strike Up the Band, there's real stakes here. It's not just winning a contest or helping a friend. The kids are trying to keep their families together by doing what they love during the worst economic downturn anyone ever knew. It makes the melodrama later on a bit easier to take than it is in Strike Up the Band

Favorite Number: Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney really get things moving with their lively version of "Good Morning," sung on the piano before an interested song publisher. Betty Jaymes and Douglas McPhail are supposed to be singing a romantic "Where or When" on a moonlit boat ride, but Rooney doesn't think they're putting enough heart into it. He points to Garland to show them how to really pour passion into a song. Speaking of passion, she gets the hit ballad "I Cried for You" on the bus after arguing with Rooney over Rosalie taking her place in the show. The movie ends with a huge patriotic extravaganza, "God's Country," and Rooney and Garland parodying the popular conception of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt at the time, "My Day."

Trivia: The "My Day" Roosevelt spoof was cut after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945. It was thought lost until the 1990's, when it was discovered on 16 millimeter film and restored. "God's Country" was originally introduced in a stage show called Hooray for What! MGM bought it, but never filmed it. 

This was Garland and Rooney's second film together after the drama Thoroughbreds Don't Cry

The original show debuted on Broadway in 1937 and did well for the time, running a little over 9 months, with music by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and choreography by George Balanchine. It was heavily re-written and sanitized in 1959; though the original does turn up from time to time, the 1959 version is the one usually seen in revival and performed by community theaters.

What I Don't Like: Too bad they couldn't have kept more of the original plot or songs. Garland and Rooney proved they were perfectly capable of handling gems like "I Wish I Were In Love Again" and "Johnny One Note" in the later Rodgers and Hart biography Words and Music. "The Lady Is a Tramp" can be heard in the background when Rooney's trying to woo Preissler, but it's not performed on-screen. There's also the big minstrel show number, with Rooney, Garland, and all of the kids in blackface and bad southern accents. It was nostalgia for an earlier era of entertainment then; nowadays, many modern audience members will likely be offended well before rain brings the number to a premature end. 

The Big Finale: This one isn't bad, but I think the Garland-Rooney movies got better as they went along. There's enough good numbers here for this to get a recommend, particularly for fans of the two young stars. 

Home Media: All of the Garland-Rooney musicals are easily found on DVD and streaming, the former from the Warner Archives. 

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