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
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 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.
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]
"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)
