Review of Babes on Broadway (1941) by Bob V — 13 Apr 2011

Third installment in the "Back-yard musicals" series, which featured Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland (though they always played different parts. Well, the names were changed anyhow) and was always about kids putting on their own musical, with surprising production values and decors that make those from "High School Musical" look positively dowdy.

There's a reason of course that not only the Back-yard musical series, but also the Andy Hardy series (musicals, featuring... Rooney & Garland...) were wildly popular money-makers, and that's because it all works quite well: charismatic a-typical good guy hero, sweet young girl with a phenomenal voice, peppy songs and dance routines, tears, laughter, smiles, woe & a happy end to cap it all off. Behind the scenes there would be no happy end, at least not for Judy Garland. MGM started her - though still a child at first - on the merry-go-round of uppers and downers that would plague her life & career, eventually ending them both. But the films of both series were being turned out at such a rapid rate - and Garland also starred in other films on her own, such as "The Wizard of Oz" which heightened her profile and bankability considerably - and were so profitable to the studio that giving her a rest just would not do, and the rest if sad history.

Still, I hope I didn't sour the films with that, as they are a lot of fun, and both Rooney & Garland are at their (juvenile) best here, clowning around and infecting the audience with their glee. Garland would go on to mature parts and play more challenging roles, but everything that made her such a massive star is already in this film. And Rooney would... uh, I have no clue what Rooney did after he could no longer play the juvenile, which he managed to continue doing for an exceptionally long time. He disastrously married Ava Gardner, and became a wrinkled little old man who feeds off past glory & media-whoring? I should look into that.