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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Mickey Rooney - A Talent Unsurpassed and Unappreciated, 7 August 2005

Author: prosper54-1 from United States

To get an idea of just how talented a performer Mickey Rooney is, watch his banjo playing in the movie's final number, The Robert E. Lee. At first you may think he's just going through the motions, but he's actually playing the banjo for the last 3 minutes of the movie. His dance numbers are also superb.He was at the height of his popularity when this 1941 movie came out, the #1 Box Office Male Star for 6 years in a row. To say this movie is too sugary, is a cheap shot and you must put it into perspective of when it was made. (The black face number at the end was far from sugary). Rooney dances and imitates Cagney in Yankee Doodle; He does a perfect impersonation of Carmen Miranda in another number and the finale is worth the price of admission. Corny, yes. Talented? precisely.

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Shock over a minstrel show??? How do you think Al Jolson became famous?, 7 August 2005

Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

This big MGM "let's put on a show" musical is obviously a showcase for the over-sized talents of JUDY GARLAND and MICKEY ROONEY.

But it amuses me to see young commentators expressing "shock" and dismay at the blackface routines shown in the big finale. They never knew how popular minstrel shows were, even into the 1940s? Where have they have been living? They never heard of Al Jolson and how he rode to stardom on his blackface routines?

The film actually rises above its clichéd plot whenever Judy takes the spotlight with a song. Never has she looked so radiantly youthful and vibrant. Rooney, while of course obviously talented, tends to ham it up a bit too much whenever he's given the spotlight, which is a little too often for my taste. Fay Bainter does nicely as a patron of the arts while James Gleason gets on the nerves with his frustrated bit as a producer.

Amusing to see gangly RICHARD QUINE hoofing it up (before he became a film director). The standout dancer is Ray MacDonald, the fresh faced kid who lights up the screen whenever he dances, resembling, in style and acting technique, Donald O'Connor. Tragically he, like others in the cast, ended his life much too soon.

Judy and Mickey do a fabulous version of "How About You?" and Buby Berkeley's genius at staging intricate dance routines is nowhere more evident than in the "Hoe Down" number, probably one of the catchiest of all the musical routines.

There are slow spots and the film could easily have omitted footage to pare it down to a running time of, say, an hour and forty minutes. As it is, you have to be willing to stick with it for the full two hours, something only likely to occur if you're a true fan of Garland and Rooney.

You can catch a brief glimpse of two up and coming stars, Margaret O'Brien and Donna Reed. Reed has a brief moment as a receptionist.

Trivia note: Shirley Temple was originally considered for the Virginia Wiedler role. Might have been OK too, since the part is not that demanding musically and Temple could certainly still do the required amount of hoofing.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
I Like Them Fine, How About You?, 23 September 2007

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Despite the fact the Busby Berkeley finale was a minstrel show, I like Babes on Broadway just fine. If you want to see Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland as a team at their peak, this isn't the film. But I like it fine anyway

Mickey is a member of a trio which also consists of Ray McDonald and Richard Quine singing for their supper at a one armed spaghetti joint owned by Luis Alberni. One of the three customers in the joint one night is Broadway girl Friday, Fay Bainter who loves the act and Mickey especially. She spends the rest of the film trying to get ulcer ridden producer James Gleason to hear him and the rest of the talent Rooney collects for that inevitable show he wants to put on.

Of course one of those talents is Judy Garland, another eager young hopeful and the musical highlight of the film is their singing the famous Vernon Duke song, How About You. It's not one of Berkeley's big production numbers, it's done with Mickey and Judy at a piano in her place, but their infectious enthusiasm will grab you immediately. How About You was later done in the fifties with a really fine arrangement by Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby in one of their joint albums.

The other highlight for me is the surreal number done when Judy and Mickey arrive at a long closed theater for their show and are transformed by the spirits of the performers of long ago who headlined in the place. What has to be remembered is that several of these people were actually still alive when Mickey and Judy are imitating them, people like George M. Cohan, Harry Lauder, Blanche Ring. Faye Templeton, Sarah Bernhardt, and Richard Mansfield were long dead or retired by then. Still people in the audience remembered them and Mickey and Judy's reverential treatment to these stage stars of long ago must have struck a chord in movie audiences we can't appreciate today.

The minstrel show finale of course isn't good, yet even that is salvaged somewhat by Judy's singing of Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones. She also recorded it for Decca and the number still plays well today. When Judy does it even in blackface, somehow instead of degrading, it comes out as a tribute, like Fred Astaire in blackface imitating Bill Robinson in Bojangles of Harlem.

My favorite of their joint projects has always been Girl Crazy, still Mickey and Judy are as alive and fresh in Babes on Broadway as ever and it's a great example of matchless chemistry and teamwork.

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7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Remember the TIME FRAME, 6 August 2005

Author: msytn from United States

This movie CANNOT be reviewed in terms of current times. It is ridiculous to even think it can. Of course NOW to see a black face routine would be totally unacceptable (and that is as it should be) but you have to remember WHEN this movie was made and base reviews on that. The musical routines for the most part are excellent. Mickey DOES overact horribly but you can't really blame all that on him. Busby Berkley was the director and he should have toned it down. It is obvious that one young person who said that Mickey should never have had a career has obviously never seen the TV movie BILL. With good direction, Mickey is a fabulous actor. Judy shines in anything and everything she ever did, even when it was hokey (and this movie definitely had some bad jokes). I am just sorry that Virginia Weidler did not have a longer career and that she died so young. If you want to see her in something brilliant, watch THE PHILADELPHIA STORY where she plays Katharine Hepburn's younger sister.

This movie is a product of its times. But these times aren't much better. Which is worse, black face routines or movies with gratuitous sex and blatant violence, blood, and guts? Racism is a horrible thing but it goes on in movies even today (in films made by Caucasian and African-Americans). What makes the black face routine even worse is that it was totally unnecessary to the plot and they could have done something better.

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7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Mickey Rooney at light speed, 8 April 2004

Author: apir51 from Long Island, New York

This is one of those Hollywood 'Let's put on a show!' movies that were so popular in that bygone era. Such ha sense of sadness, though, when you realize that so many of the stars died young(Judy Garland-47, Ray McDonald-34, Virginia Weidler-41). Mickey Rooney, always a little high-strung, outdoes himself here, as he seems a 78RPM record, while everyone else is moving at 33 1/3. The minstrel number at the end is really quite embarrassing by today's standards, but it was the sort of thing they could get away with in those days. Quite a few of the standard 'view from above' shots common in Busby Berkeley films. I found it interesting as a look back at a bygone time that never really was.

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
"I like banana splits, late supper at the Ritz, how about you?", 3 September 2007

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

The third (and arguably least interesting) of the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney musicals directed by Busby Berkeley, this time featuring Rooney in the more prominent role of a penniless supper-club hoofer in New York City who organizes a benefit for unfortunate children in order to attract Broadway producers; Garland, playing a failed telephone operator and singer, falls for Rooney despite the fact he's a selfish heel (which she calls him on). Fantasy youths in a fantasy New York putting on a fantasy show, but if you're attracted to overeager, ambitious kids who sing and dance tirelessly, it might be enjoyable. Rooney, who constantly has one eye on the camera and never stops playing to the back rows, has one very fine scene where he shows Judy his new watch; otherwise, whether dressed up as a Scottish rogue, a farm yokel, or Carmen Miranda, Rooney is brashly predictable. He's comfortable on-screen, all right--too comfortable. His pandering for praise begins to strike one as inhuman, and when he tries for a quiet moment it isn't too convincing ('show-stopping' performances such as this caused Rooney to fall out of favor in Hollywood for years). Following 1938's "Babes In Arms" (for which Rooney got an Academy Award nomination) and 1940's "Strike Up the Band", Busby Berkeley seems to have fallen into a trap himself; the musical numbers have no lift (just empty cant), and the patriotic slant the story soon takes is a mighty uncomfortable match. One classic song, "How About You?", garnered the picture its only Oscar nod (it didn't win, which is a crime). Margaret O'Brien has a funny bit, as does a little boy pianist who is funnier than all the older kids put together. ** from ****

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3 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Great if you can skip from point to point, 5 June 2001

Author: (ftm2000-2) from Dallas, Texas

I recommend this movie if you can get it on laser disc. That format will allow you to jump from one musical number to another with the push of a button, while avoiding a story-line that drags, drags, drags.

Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney do their best--and their best is pretty darn good--but they are served well only by (most of) the musical numbers. Most of their spoken scenes are from hunger. Granted, the couple of musical numbers that don't work really don't work, but the ones that do really do. In addition, Mickey Rooney has calmed down from his distemper-filled early years, and Judy Garland gives a performance that shows why she inherited Mary Pickford's title of "America's Sweetheart."

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
For Rooney and Garland fans-4 stars, 6 August 1999
Author: Robert Holmes (idealspot@webtv.net) from Ft. Myers, Florida

A light, relaxing, musical treat. At this point in time MGM could be counted on to fill a movie screen with a presentation that would carry you away from the hum-drum of the pre=war era. In contex, you cannot fault the acting of the boy and girl leads nor their supporting cast. No fault to find. Was a movie usher at the time and nevered tired of the film.

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2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
just fine until that minstrel show, 4 September 2007

Author: taxib from New York, NY

My husband coerced my 12 year old daughter to sit through this film which she felt mildly entertaining... until they rolled out that minstrel show finale, and then she was just amazed and appalled. I hadn't seen the film and was actually rather shocked, but it led to a very interesting discussion with our daughter about the accepted social conventions of the times, so off-putting to us now but the performers at the time seemed quite oblivious to the possibility is causing offense. I think my daughter, for the first time, 'got' the importance of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in a way that no text book could explain. To that extent, the film was a valuable time capsule. The rest of it was rather blah "let's do a show stuff," although my daughter said Andy Rooney reminded her of Leonardo Dicaprio and after awhile I saw what she meant.

We speculated that the sleaziness of movies these days would present a time capsule of its own for future audiences, who will probably be amazed at how crass and sex-obsessed our current culture is. At least I hope that's the case. I'm so maxed out on sleaze and the effect it's having on my daughter, I seriously consider moving to another country sometimes. Anway, this movie is harmless fluff with good hearted values on the one hand and mindlessly offensive racism on the other.

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2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Great Classic Actors & Film!, 13 October 2004

Author: whpratt1 from United States

This film was full of veteran actors who were just starting out in films and many had already had great careers. We all enjoyed the great talents of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in this film. However, there was a great scene in this film with three sailors and three gals and most of these stars were uncredited and not listed, namely: Red Skelton and Ben Blue. They all had a dance number and mentioned President FDR and his friendly neighbor policy with South American Countries. This was a film made during the War Years and America had lots of problems within its own boundaries, namely bigotry among religions and nationalities. It is easy to find faults with this film, but lets face it, the Year it was made Was 1941, we had a lot of growing to DO! and Still DO!!!

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