Babes in Arms **** (1939, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger) – Classic Movie Review 3610

Director Busby Berkeley’s 1939 musical is a triumph for Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in the first and most famous of their ‘let’s put on a show’ movies, in which the kids of broke performers stage a revue to help out their poor parents. The two talented young performers then struggle to make their own way in show business.

Unfortunately, producer Arthur Freed dropped all but two of the 1937 original stage show’s Rodgers and Hart songs, just keeping the title track and ‘Where or When’. That is a shame, but the young stars’ energy is so tremendous and Berkeley’s direction so exuberant that audiences begged for more, and very soon there was Strike up the Band (1940) and Babes on Broadway (1941). Oscar-nominated Rooney (‘I’m going to write a show and we’ll put it on right here!’) enjoys the film’s brightest moments.

It runs 95 minutes but the 91 minute re-release print cuts the original ending.

The songs include ‘Just Wild about Harry’, ‘My Daddy Was a Minstrel Man’, ‘Broadway Rhythm’, ‘Good Morning’, ‘You Are My Lucky Star’, ‘Oh! Susanna’, ‘Where or When’  and the title number.

Also in the cast are Charles Winninger, Douglas MacPhail, Leni Lynn, June Preisser, Guy Kibbee, Margaret Hamilton, Betty Jaynes, Rand Brooks, Johnny Sheffield, Henry Hull, Ann Shoemaker and Joseph Creehan.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3610
Check out more reviews on derekwinnert.com

Mickey Rooney died on April 6 2014, aged 93.