Babes in Arms (1939)

Babes in Arms
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Written by Jack McGowan and Kay Van Riper based on the play by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart
1939/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental
#140 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Michael C. ‘Mickey’ Moran: No, no, no, judge! You don’t understand; she don’t understand, either. Oh, she don’t mean no harm to us, but… we’re not her kind of people – or yours, either. We belong in show business. We gotta start young so we can get some steel in our backbone. Well, gee, we’re developing. You couldn’t teach us a trade: we’ve GOT one. And you couldn’t do without it… Oh, we’re only kids now, but someday we’re gonna be the guys that make ya laugh and cry and think that there’s a little stardust left on life’s dirty old pan. Oh, she don’t understand: she’d put butterflies to work makin’ rubber tires![/box]

I love both movie musicals and Judy Garland but I couldn’t get very enthusiastic about this movie.

Mickey Moran (Mickey Rooney) and Patsy Barton (Judy Garland) have grown up on the road with their vaudevillian parents  Vaudeville has died and Mickey’s father (Charles Winninger) organizes a troupe to play in small towns.  A busy body (Margaret Hamilton) wants to send all the teenage children to a work camp.  Seeking to rescue his father, Mickey gets all his pals together to put on a show.  With Guy Kibbee as a judge.

This is fine but aside from the standard “Where or When” (unfortunately not sung by Garland) and the “Good Morning” duet with Rooney and Garland the music is not memorable.  It contains every cliché of the “let’s put on a show” genre, though to be fair a lot of these clichés either originated or were perfected here. Mickey Rooney’s impersonations get kind of old.

Amazingly, the Academy nominated Mickey Rooney for Best Actor for this role among a prestigious field.  Roger Edens and George Stoll were nominated for a Best Music, Scoring Oscar.

Trailer