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Babes on Broadway

 
Movies:

Babes on Broadway

  • Director: Busby Berkeley
  • AMG Rating: starstarstar
  • Genre: Musical
  • Movie Type: Musical Comedy, Backstage Musical
  • Themes: Ladder to the Top, Actor's Life
  • Main Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Richard Quine, Fay Bainter, Virginia Weidler, Ray McDonald
  • Release Year: 1941
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 118 minutes

Plot

Advertised as a sort of sequel to MGM's Babes in Arms (1939), Babes on Broadway reunites the two stars of the earlier film: Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Rooney is the guiding force of a group of young showbiz hopefuls who are trying to make it on Broadway. When things look darkest, he goes into his "Say, kids!" routine, rousing his companions to put on their own show. Highlights include a sequence in which Rooney and Garland go through a series of imitations of past theatrical greats. As cute and perky as Garland is, she has nothing on the "Carmen Miranda" takeoff performed--in full makeup and platform shoes--by the ubiquitous Rooney. Babes on Broadway ends with a typically overproduced production number stage by the film's director, the immortal Busby Berkeley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

The "Hey gang, let's put on a show!" musicals that Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland starred in during the 1930s and 1940s have been mocked endlessly, especially since the emergence of "camp" as a pop force in the 1960s. Babes on Broadway, the 1941 entry in this series, has plenty to mock -- the obligatory "Say, kids!" rouser in which Rooney first gets his great idea, an abundance of other corny dialogue, songs shoehorned in for the slightest reason, and even a minstrel show (which is pretty uncomfortable to sit through). But the entire production is filled with an overarching innocence that makes the corniness palatable. More importantly, the film has Rooney and Garland in tip-top form. Rooney's unstoppable effervescence is put to good use, reaching a climax of sorts in a full-out Carmen Miranda impersonation. His impressions in the earlier "Ghost Theatre" sequence are not as polished, but Garland's are quite good. She also scores a knock-out with her performance of "F.D.R. Jones," and both are winning in the charming "How About You." Busby Berkeley's direction is rather more restrained than usual, but he still gets in some trademark licks, especially at the end. Babes is often hard to believe, but easy to take. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Cast

Donald Meek - Mr. Stone; Alexander Woollcott - Himself; Luis Alberni - Nicky; James Gleason - Thornton Reed; Dick Baron - Butch; Frederick Burton - Prof. Morris; Cliff Clark - Inspector Moriarty; Emma Dunn - Mrs. Williams; Will Lee - Waiter; Dorothy Morris - Pit Astor Girl; Margaret O'Brien - Bit Part; William Post, Jr. - Announcer; Donna Reed - Secretary; Anne Rooney - Pit Astor Girl; Carl Stockdale - Man; Charles Wagenheim - Composer; Joe Yule - Mason, Aide to Reed; Busby Berkeley

Credit

Robert Kalloch - Costume Designer, Busby Berkeley - Director, Frederick Y. Smith - Editor, George Bassman - Composer (Music Score), Burton Lane - Composer (Music Score), George Stoll - Musical Direction/Supervision, Roger Edens - Songwriter, Ralph Freed - Songwriter, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg - Songwriter, Burton Lane - Songwriter, Harold J. Rome - Songwriter, Lester White - Cinematographer, Arthur Freed - Producer, Fred F. Finklehoffe - Screenwriter, Elaine Ryan - Screenwriter

Similar Movies

Babes in Arms; Strike up the Band; Our Gang Follies of 1938
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Babes on Broadway

Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Produced by Arthur Freed
Written by Fred F. Finklehoffe
Starring Judy Garland
Mickey Rooney
Cinematography Lester White
Editing by Fredrick Y. Smith
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) 1941
Running time 118 min.
Country U.S.
Language English

Babes on Broadway is a 1941 musical movie starring Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter, and Virginia Weidler and directed by Busby Berkeley. Donna Reed appeared uncredited as a secretary; Margaret O'Brien also appears uncredited as an ambitious little girl at an audition who melodramatically pleads: "Don't send my brother to the chair! Don't let him burn!"

Songs include: "How About You?", "Hoe Down", "Bombshell from Brazil", and "Chin Up, Cheerio, Carry On", "Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones", as well as such standards as "Mama Yo Quiero", "The Yankee Doodle Boy", and "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee".

The movie ends with a minstrel show performed by the main cast in blackface.

This was the third film in the 'Back-yard Musical' Series. Others included Babes in Arms (1939), Strike Up the Band (1940) and Girl Crazy (1943)

Good News (1947) and Summer Stock (1950) were also planned to become part of the series, although Judy Garland starred in the latter with Gene Kelly.

The film was stalled part way through production when Judy Garland secretly flew to Las Vegas to wed her first husband David Rose. She was 19 years old.

Vincente Minnelli directed Garland's big solo numbers.[1]

Contents

DVD Release

Babes on Broadway 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 on Broadway, Babes in Arms, Girl Crazy, and Strike Up the Band, as well as a fifth disc containing bonus features on Mickey and Judy.[2]

Cast

Musical Numbers

  • "Babes on Broadway" (Main Title) (MGM Studio Chorus)
  • "Anything Can Happen in New York" (Mickey Rooney, Ray McDonald, and Richard Quine)
  • "How About You?" (Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney)
  • "Hoe Down" (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Six Hits and a Miss, The Five Musical Maids, and MGM Studio Chorus)
  • "Chin Up! Cheerio! Carry On!" (Judy Garland, St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choristers, and MGM Studio Chorus)

Ghost Theater Sequence:

  • "Bombshell from Brazil" (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Richard Quine, Ray McDonald, Virginia Weidler, Anne Rooney, Robert Bradford, and MGM Studio Chorus)
  • "Mama Yo Quiero" (Mickey Rooney)

Minstrel Show Sequence:

  • "Blackout Over Broadway" (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Ray McDonald, Virginia Weidler, Richard Quine, Anne Rooney and MGM Studio Chorus)
  • "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (Ray McDonald)
  • "Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones" (Judy Garland and MGM Studio Chorus)
  • "Old Folks at Home" (Eddie Peabody on banjo, dubbing for Mickey Rooney)
  • "Alabamy Bound" (Eddie Peabody on banjo, dubbing for Mickey Rooney)
  • "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Virginia Weidler, Anne Rooney, Richard Quine, and MGM Studio Chorus)
  • "Babes on Broadway" (Finale) (Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Virginia Weidler, Ray McDonald, Richard Quine, and MGM Studio Chorus)

References

External links


 
 

 

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