Mickey Rooney plays the son of vaudevillian parents, most of whom have decamped to Long Island. Vaudeville is dead now that it's 1939, but Mickey has performing in his blood, even selling the song "Good Morning" which is original to this movie. (Arthur Freed, who wrote the lyrics, would later reuse it in Singin' in the Rain.) When Mickey finds out that Margaret Hamilton is going to evict the underemployed vaudevillians and send their kids off to work schools, he vows to put on a show to bring in the money. He does with with the help of Judy Garland and June Preisser among others (watch for a young Johnny Sheffield).
Some of the musical numbers are interesting, such as one with all the young folks marching through town and starting a bonfire. And then there's the blackface number that's the bulk of the show Mickey writes. It's almost as nuts as the one Joan Crawford does in Torch Song, except that the later movie is in Technicolor and gets to show off Crawford's hair. There's also the finale, that has Mickey and Judy doing their impressions of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt respectively.
Mickey also gets to do an impression of Lionel Barrymore (not too successfully), and Clark Gable (absolutely hilarious). Mickey is determined and almost manic, to the point I half expected him to exclaim, "As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again!" This movie would normally be a 7/10, but Mickey Rooney's 9/10 performance raises it to an 8/10 for me.
Some of the musical numbers are interesting, such as one with all the young folks marching through town and starting a bonfire. And then there's the blackface number that's the bulk of the show Mickey writes. It's almost as nuts as the one Joan Crawford does in Torch Song, except that the later movie is in Technicolor and gets to show off Crawford's hair. There's also the finale, that has Mickey and Judy doing their impressions of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt respectively.
Mickey also gets to do an impression of Lionel Barrymore (not too successfully), and Clark Gable (absolutely hilarious). Mickey is determined and almost manic, to the point I half expected him to exclaim, "As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again!" This movie would normally be a 7/10, but Mickey Rooney's 9/10 performance raises it to an 8/10 for me.