A Date with Judy *** (1948, Wallace Beery, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Powell, Carmen Miranda, Xavier Cugat, Robert Stack) – Classic Movie Review 11,585

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1948 Technicolor film A Date with Judy stars top-billed Wallace Beery, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Powell, Carmen Miranda, Xavier Cugat, Robert Stack, Selena Royle, Scotty Beckett, Leon Ames, Clinton Sundberg, George Cleveland and Lloyd Corrigan.

Though it is an MGM musical, it is not a date with Judy Garland, unfortunately! Here Carol Pringle (Taylor) and Judy Foster (Powell) battle for the attentions of clean-cut Stephen Andrews (Stack), while the Latin American singer Carmen Miranda (as Rosita Conchellas) and roly-poly star Wallace Beery (as rough and ready father figure Melvin Foster) dance a rhumba, and much jollity is had by all in this cheery musical-for-all that rolls along at a snappy pace.

Jane Powell with Elizabeth Taylor in A Date with Judy (1948).

The songs (‘Cuanto La Gusta’, ‘It’s a Most Unusual Day’, ‘Temptation’. ‘Judaline’, ‘Strictly on the Corny Side’, ‘A Date with Judy’) are good but not outstanding and the film follows the same lines, though with the performances a little better, adding a little extra. ‘Judaline’ and the best of the songs ‘It’s a Most Unusual Day’ debut in the film.

The film sets out to showcase former child star Elizabeth Taylor, now 16 and given the full glamour treatment with specially designed gowns. But it is also a showcase for the soprano singing voice of the young Jane Powell and for the musical performances of Carmen Miranda and bandleader Xavier Cugat, who appears as himself. Miranda relishes humorous malapropisms such as ‘His bite is worse than his bark’ and ‘Now I’m cooking with grass’. The film sets out to employ the MGM stock company, and, one of them, Leon Ames plays a dignified father figure as Lucien T Pringle, re-creating his welcome stereotype from the Judy Garland film Meet Me in St Louis (1944).

The cast are Wallace Beery as Melvin R Foster, Jane Powell as Judy Foster, Elizabeth Taylor as Carol Pringle, Carmen Miranda as Rosita Cochellas, Xavier Cugat as Himself, Robert Stack as Stephen Andrews, Scotty Beckett as Ogden ‘Oogie’ Pringle, Selena Royle as Dora Foster, Leon Ames as Lucien T Pringle, Clinton Sundberg as Jameson, George Cleveland as Gramps, Lloyd Corrigan as Pop Sam Scully, Stuart Whitman as Young Man in the ballroom, Jerry Hunter as Randolph Foster, Jean McLaren as Mitzi Hoffman and Lillian Yarbo as Nightingale, with Eula Guy, Buddy Howard, Francis Pierlot, Sheila Stein, Polly Bailey, Paul Bradley, Fern Eggen, Alice Kelley and Rena Lenart.

RIP the MGM soprano girl-next-door star Jane Powell.

Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was notable for her performances in A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Hit the Deck (1955).

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,585

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