Babes in Arms
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Babes in Arms
Plot
This fun-filled spin-off of the Rodgers & Hart Broadway musical by the same name, features Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney as two young children of vaudevillian parents who aren't included in their parents travels, so they set out to produce a show of their own. Rooney's the driver here and he's up against the administrators of a fogy state-run trade school, who think the whole show idea is nonsense. A listening judge gives them 30 days to put on the show and prove they don't belong in the jail-like school. The rest of the action involves the highly talented kids successful efforts to not only stage the show, but to bring the whole troupe to Broadway. ~ RoviReview
Babes in Arms is a prime example of the "let's put on a show" musical popular in the 1930s and 1940s. The nominal plot is little more than a means of connecting the elaborate production numbers; the supporting cast are little more than props for stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Busby Berkeley's direction is able and functional: like the audience, he's just eager to get to the next dance set. MGM had other priorities at the time of Babes' production -- most notably Garland's classic The Wizard of Oz, on which the studio lost money, and the expensive, lucrative Gone With the Wind -- so the budget for the Berkeley musical was surprisingly low. What Babes in Arms lacks in production grandeur, however, it amply compensates with the captivating star turns from Rooney and Garland. ~ Richard Gilliam, RoviCast
- Mickey Rooney - Mickey Moran
- Judy Garland - Patsy Barton
- Charles Winninger - Joe Moran
- Guy Kibbee - Judge Black
- June Preisser - Rosalie Essex
Credit
Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Merrill Pye - Art Director, Dolly Tree - Costume Designer, Busby Berkeley - Director, Frank Sullivan - Editor, George Bassman - Composer (Music Score), Roger Edens - Composer (Music Score), George Stoll - Composer (Music Score), Gus Amheim - Songwriter, Harold Arlen - Songwriter, Nacio Herb Brown - Songwriter, Arthur Freed - Songwriter, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg - Songwriter, Lorenz Hart - Songwriter, Abe Lyman & Band - Songwriter, Richard Rodgers - Songwriter, Ray June - Cinematographer, Arthur Freed - Producer, Jack McGowan - Screenwriter, Kay Van Riper - Screenwriter| Babes Rockin' Hard (Film), Babes Going Crazy: Stripfight in Baja (Film) | |
| Babes in Bagdad (1952 Film), Babes in Kong Land (Film) |
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Babes in Arms (film)
| Babes in Arms | |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Busby Berkeley |
| Written by | Jack McGowan Kay Van Riper Annalee Whitmore |
| Starring | Mickey Rooney Judy Garland |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | October 13, 1939 |
| Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Babes in Arms is the 1939 film version of the 1937 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version stars Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes and Betty Jaynes.
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Contents
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Production
The movie was written by Jack McGowan, Kay Van Riper and Annalee Whitmore (uncredited). It was directed by Busby Berkeley and produced by Arthur Freed.[1]
The original Broadway script was revamped to accommodate Hollywood standards. It concerns a group of youngsters trying to put on a show to prove their vaudevillian parents wrong and make it to Broadway.
Most of the Rodgers and Hart songs were cut, except for the title tune, "The Lady Is a Tramp" (used as background music during a dinner scene), and "Where or When". Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown wrote a new song for the film, "Good Morning" (later made famous in Singin' in the Rain). Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg (composer and lyricist for The Wizard of Oz) wrote a new finale, called "God's Country".
Garland and Rooney later sang "I Wish I Were in Love Again" from the Broadway version of the show in the 1948 Rodgers and Hart biopic Words and Music. Garland also sang "Johnny One Note" in the same picture.
The original release of the film included a segment during the finale in which Rooney and Garland lampoon Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; this was edited from the film during a later reissue and not restored until the 1990s. In 1940, slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges would lampoon the title of the film with Boobs in Arms.
Filming of Babes in Arms began on May 12, 1939, soon after Garland and Margaret Hamilton had finished filming The Wizard of Oz, and was completed on July 18, 1939. The film premiered on October 13, 1939.
Musical numbers were recorded in stereophonic sound but released to theaters with conventional monaural sound. Recent home video releases feature some of the original stereo recordings.[2]
Reception
It was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Mickey Rooney, who was 19 at the time) and Best Music, Scoring by Roger Edens and Georgie Stoll.
Notes
The parody sequence, "My Day," featuring Mickey Rooney as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Judy Garland as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was removed from the negative after the president's death on April 12, 1945. The routine, for many years thought to be lost, was rediscovered on 16-millimeter film and now can be viewed on Warner Home Video's DVD, "The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection."
Main cast and characters
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Mickey Rooney as Mickey Moran. |
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Judy Garland as Patsy Barton |
Other cast members
| Charles Winninger | as Joe Moran |
| Guy Kibbee | as Judge John Black |
| June Preisser | as Rosalie Essex |
| Grace Hayes | as Florrie Moran |
| Betty Jaynes | as Molly Moran |
| Douglas McPhail | as Don Brice |
| Rand Brooks | as Jeff Steele |
| Leni Lynn | as Dody Martin |
| Cliff Edwards | in a clip from The Hollywood Revue of 1929 of the song Singin' in the Rain |
| Charles King | in a clip from The Broadway Melody |
| Margaret Hamilton | as Martha |
| Lelah Tyler | as Mrs. Brice |
Worldwide Release Dates
- Brazil: June 18, 1940
- Italy: October 14, 1941
- Japan: May 12, 1951
- Guatemala: September 14, 1958
- South Africa: June 14, 1963
VHS Release
Babes in Arms was released on VHS tape in 1992.
DVD release
Babes in Arms was released on DVD for the first time as part of Warner Bros. 5-disc DVD set The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection on September 25, 2007. The set contains Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Girl Crazy, and Strike Up the Band, as well as a fifth disc containing bonus features on Rooney and Garland.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Higham, Charles; Greenberg, Joel (1968). Hollywood in the Forties. London: A. Zwemmer Limited. p. 172. ISBN 0-302-00477-7.
- ^ "Mickey Rooney Garland Collection Broadway" amazon.com, accessed September 5, 2011
- ^ "The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Mickey-Rooney-Garland-Collection-Broadway/dp/B000RT99FG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-3573852-9060615?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1182367875&sr=1-1. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Babes in Arms (film) |
- Babes in Arms at the Internet Movie Database
- Babes in Arms at AllRovi
- Babes in Arms at the TCM Movie Database
- Babes in Arms at Rotten Tomatoes
- Babes in Arms on Screen Guild Theater: November 9, 1941
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