Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1939)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST B BABES IN ARMS. MGM 94-97min O 13 '39 Cast: Mickey Rooney. Judy Garland. Charles Winninger. Guy Kibbee. June Preisser. Grace Hayes. Betty Jaynes Director: Busby Berkeley Music: Richard Rodgers. Lorenz Hart, Nacio Herb Brown. Arthur Freed. Harold Arlen. E. Y. Harburg. Roger Edens Music director: George Stoll Screen writers: Jack McGowan. Kay Van Riper Musical comedy. Based on the play of same title by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The children of vaudeville entertainers who have been driven out of vaudeville by the movies take over and produce a musical which becomes a great success. Mickey Rooney presents impersonations of Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Eddie Leonard and President Roosevelt. Judy Garland gives an impersonation of Mrs Roosevelt. Audience Suitability Ratings "A, Y & C: very good of [its] kind." + + Christian Century pl318 O 25 '39 "Musical extravaganza with pleasing music, attractive dancing and amusing impersonations woven smoothly into an interesting story. Family." Calif Cong of Par & Teachers "Good. Family." DAR "A delightful, appealing and stimulating picture, replete with humor, pathos, laughter and inimitable mimicry. . . Exceptionally fine entertainment. Family." Gen Fed of Women's Clubs (W Coast) "Rodgers and Hart tunes, and lively tempo make this picture good entertainment for the family." Nat Council of Jewish Women "Family." Nat Soc of New England Women + Fox W Coast Bulletin O 7 '39 "The picture is exceedingly good entertainment of its kind; adolescents, 12-16: excellent; children, 8-12: yes." + -f Motion Pict R p4 N '39 "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency S 14 '39 "A, Y & C: good." + Parents' M p62 N '39 "It's a grade 'A' musical." + + Scholastic p30 O 30 '39 "Family-juvenile. Outstanding. An excellent musical show about show business. Referred to the Committee on Exceptional Photoplays." -f + Wkly Guide S 9 '39 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "If you remember 'Babes in Arms' as one of the sprightlier and more refreshing stage musicals of recent years, you will be happy to learn that it keeps some of its music, a good part of its story and all of its charm in the film. . . It is an altogether pleasant item, the more welcome for wearing an air of novelty in a department in which the screen has become more and more conventional." John K. Hutchens + + Boston Transcript p20 O 27 '39 "Adults and young people." Christian Science Monitor pl9 O 28 '39 "You'll forget yourself and your woes as you watch the peppy youngsters in 'Babes in Arms' swing into action in this smartly-paced, bighearted picture. . . The whole cast gets into the infectious, holiday spirit of the piece." Philip T. Hartung + + Commonweal pl4 O 27 '39 " 'Babes in Arms' is the best musical to come to the screen in many years. Based in a general way on the Rodgers and Hart smash hit of two years ago, the film has been considerably extended, enlivened, and enhanced, without a minute's letdown during the 97 minutes of its running time. It's tuneful and funny, tearful and dramatic, evenly balanced between heart-pull and humor — a perfect example of a perfect moviemaking formula, brilliantly conceived, magnificently executed. . . If it's music and fun and entertainment you're looking for, 'Babes in Arms' is your picture." Jesse Zunser -f + Cue p46 O 14 '39 "An interesting study in the inherent appeal of children and adolescents as screen entertainers. When combined with the talent most of the young players display here, it becomes entertainment for both adults and children. Exhibitors never were offered a more promising box-office attraction. It will more than fulfill any promises they make their customers." -f Hollywood Spectator p7 O 28 '39 " 'Babes in Arms' was a New York stage hit of two years ago. With Mickey Rooney as the kid producer and Judy Garland as his inspiration, new tunes, new spectacular effects, it's sure to be an outstanding screen success. . . This is young, fresh, maybe too fresh, but it has zest and speed. You'll like it immensely." Beverly Plills + + Liberty p55 N IS '39 "Those who have good cause to frown on the legion of motion -picture musicals which, in recent years, have had little more than glitter and costly stuffiness about them, should have a stout welcome for Metro-GoldwynMayer's 'Babes in Arms.' The Rodgers and Hart musical comedy, an amiable, fresh and spirited exploitation of youth and song and dance, emerges as a cleverer, far more entertaining piece of entertainment on the screen. In fact, the film is such a complete delight from beginning to end that it makes one forget everything about the original show but the tunes, and two of them ba\^e reached the screen. . . It is one of the finest musicals we have seen on stage or screen." Robert W. Dana + + N Y Herald Tribune pl4 O 20 '39 " 'Babes In Arms' — to express it in two words — is Mickey Rooney. . . The point is that even in musical comedy no one of Mickey Rooney' s ostensibly tender years should be in the spotlight as often as Master Rooney is. . . We definitely don't like the screen play by Jack McGowan and Kay Van Riper. If we must have hokum, let us at least disguise it gracefully, even when it's with music." Ben R. Crisler N Y Times p27 O 20 '39 "I know that the show people, who are much wiser than all the rest of us put together, feel that by the time a musical gets to the screen its tunes are old and the film needs freshening with new ones; yet there are stodgy loyalists among us who are disappointed to find their pet songs slighted or omitted altogether when they run to a film with a name reminiscent of past enjoyment. There are also persons who never seem to learn that they must expect endless talk and stage patter and infinite plot difficulties even in musicals that pretend to be light, airy, tuneful things. . . The numbers indeed are generally lively; it's the long, noisy, talky interludes that wear one down." John Mosher H New Yorker p75 O 28 "39 "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with 'Babes in Arms,' dedicates a top-notch musical to the untimely passing of the two-a-day. . . It offers a sounder narrative than the majority of its musical predecessors." -f Newsweek p43 O 16 '39 "Hold your hats, boys, and anything else that might shake off your lap while you're laughing. They don't come any funnier than this, and when you add a good plot, good music and Mickey Rooney — well, it may not be tremendous or colossal, but it's certainly good!" -f + Photoplay p65 N '39 Trade Paper Reviews "Run, don't walk, to your MGM booker for spots on this one — provided they don't ask you for a mortgage on the theater. It's not an epic, but it is one of the surprise entertainment packages of the year. The way we figure it is something like this: If Mickey Rooney in routine Judge Hardy stories, interspaced with a 'Boys' Town,' has attained a certain solid big money value in theaters, then Mickey Rooney put on a parade — a Mickey Cavalcade,