Summer Stock **** (1950, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, Phil Silvers) – Classic Movie Review 2513

Director Charles Walters’s 1950 Technicolor musical Summer Stock is the third and last pairing of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. Poignantly, and sadly, it is the troubled Garland’s final movie for her studio MGM. She was struggling with many personal problems during filming and MGM terminated Garland’s contract, apparently by mutual agreement, in September 1950.

It doesn’t show on screen. The two wonderful stars work beautifully together in this tuneful, light-as-air MGM musical. Garland plays Jane Falbury, a down-on-her-luck American small-town farmer, whose New England homestead is invaded by Joe D Ross (Kelly)’s rampaging theatre company, invited to stay and perform there by her ne’er-do-well actress sister Abigail (Gloria DeHaven) .

There’s frenzied comedy from Eddie Bracken, Phil Silvers and Marjorie Main, nine songs, just a situation and hardly any story to speak of, and a whole lot of tuneful joie de vivre.

Kelly does his famed piece of newspaper shuffle to ‘You, Wonderful You’, a special tap dance routine with a creaky floorboard. Garland and Kelly share what may be Garland’s best dance duet on screen, the swinging ‘Portland Fancy’, where a square dance turns into a heated challenge dance for the two stars. And, joy of joys, Garland (dressed all in black, with just tuxedo dinner jacket, black fedora hat, black nylons and black shoes) belts out the thrillingly stylish ‘Get Happy’, a brilliant career highspot – and movie musicals highspot too.

‘You, Wonderful You’ is music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Mack Gordon. ‘Portland Fancy’ is a traditional New England contra dance tune, played and danced to by the townspeople at the social and then the swing version danced to by the stock company members, and then by Gene Kelly and Judy. ‘Get Happy’ is a 1930 song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler.

Judy Garland belts out the thrillingly stylish ‘Get Happy’.

This ‘Get Happy’ sequence, to an arrangement by Skip Martin, was choreographed by Charles Walters and filmed two months later than the rest of the movie, after Garland sought the help of a hypnotist in Santa Barbara and lost 20lbs. She performed the number perfectly in just a couple of takes.

Other songs include: If You Feel Like Singing (Music by Harry Warren, Lyrics by Mack Gordon), Happy Harvest (Music by Harry Warren, Lyrics by Mack Gordon), Friendly Star (Music by Harry Warren, Lyrics by Mack Gordon), Blue Jean Polka, Heavenly Music (Written by Saul Chaplin), All for You (Written by Saul Chaplin), Dig-Dig-Dig Dig For Your Dinner (Music by Harry Warren, Lyrics by Mack Gordon), and Mem’ry Island (Music by Harry Warren, Lyrics by Mack Gordon). They’re certainly good if not a vintage crop.

Also in the cast are Carleton Carpenter, Hans Conreid, Ray Collins, Nita Bieber, Erville Alderson, Eddie Dunn, Almira Sessions, Kathryn Sheldon and Teddy Infuhr.

The choreographer is Nicholas Castle Sr.

Summer Stock [If You Feel Like Singing] is directed by Charles Walters, runs 108 minutes , is made and released by MGM, is written by George Wells (screenplay) and Sy Gomberg (screenplay and story), is shot in Technicolor by Robert H Planck, is produced by Joe Pasternak, is scored by Conrad Salinger, Johnny Green (musical director), Saul Chaplin (musical director), with music by Harry Warren, Saul Chaplin, Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Mack Gordon, Ted Koehler and Saul Chaplin, designed by Cedric Gibbons and Jack Martin Smith and choreographed by Nicholas Castle Sr.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2513

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