We Must Have Music

What makes this short remarkable is that it not only contains footage of Judy Garland but also Deanna Durbin (not mentioned in the credits) It was made as a showcase for young talent at MGM and led to a contract for Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin though was released and went to Universal Studios.

This MGM promotional film covers the importance of music to movies, starting with a rather soulful woman singing "The Curse of an Aching Heart", and then a fade in and out to "the first important musical": THE BROADWAY MELODY (1929).

Well, it was important to MGM, I suppose. After that, it turns into an advertisement for the forthcoming MGM Nelson Eddy vehicle, THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER. It flopped.

It was an important period in MGM when this was made. Arthur Freed had been a songwriter for MGM for a decade -- some of his songs were used in THE BROADWAY MELODY. He had been an uncredited producer on THE WIZARD OF OZ, and well working on a series of Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musicals. The following year would see the premiere of Gene Kelly, and a decade-long sweep of great musicals.

Oh, this ends with a series of two-second shots of a couple of dozen shots of MGM stars. The point of this short is "Rent MGM musicals. They're patriotic" and to prove it, here's Rise Stevens singing "America the Beautiful."

This short was made at a weird time in MGM and U.S. history - 1942. That was the first full year of WWII and also a year in which many old familiar faces were tossed out of MGM. The short shows a variety of musical excerpts, some with still familiar faces Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in rehearsals for a number in Babes on Broadway with Busby Berkeley directing, and a musical excerpt from The Chocolate Soldier in which it is obvious MGM is trying to make a film star of opera singer Rise Stevens by building her up, which, in retrospect, did not work out.

The short then talks about all of the films in production as page after page is shown with the film's name, the stars, and who is in charge of the musical score, thus showing off MGM's composition talent, and MGM had plenty in 1942.

Next the narrator says no other studio has so much talent in one place at one time and all of the big MGM stars of the day are shown. The problem is, studio head L.B. Mayer is about to toss a bunch of these stars - Lew Ayres, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Greta Garbo, for example. Clark Gable is shown, but with the death of Carole Lombard, he went to go fight the war to forget even though he was past 40, and maybe that had already happened by the time this short was made. James Stewart is done with MGM, although his wartime service is what severed his service there. Robert Montgomery will not make another film for MGM until 1945, with his career also interrupted by WWII service. Unfortunately, by that time, Montgomery will have developed a case of stage fright and wind up directing more than acting in his next film for MGM - "They Were Expendable". His post-war acting career will not be what it was pre-war, but he does branch out into directing.

The finale is a rousing patriotic song, and doesn't give a hint that MGM's finest days are actually behind it for all kinds of reasons - L.B. Mayer cleaning house of his most talented stars, the war interrupting careers and contracts, and probably even the lingering effects of the death of Irving Thalberg six years before. Still it is entertaining as a fond farewell to pre-war America and MGM's past glories.

One final head scratcher, the short clearly mentions Wallace Beery as upcoming star of "Doan of the USA", which was apparently never made. I wonder what happened? Was the project canceled or was it renamed? At any rate, I found it entertaining and nostalgic. Enjoy.

This was basically a promotional short for the M-G-M musicals but there are some treats like Judy Garland's cut title number from Ziegfeld Girl, Rise Stevens' rendition of "America the Beautiful" cut from The Chocolate Soldier, Herbert Stothart conducting the score from said film, and Busby Berkeley choreographing the "Hoedown" number in Babes on Broadway. There's also scenes of the various studio musicals and, to really fill time just as I'm filling for number of lines in this review, pages of the studio movie titles along with the stars and the conductors with a check attached to each name of those latter occupation at the bottom of the papers. So on that note, We Must Have Music is worth a look for you're so inclined. It's an extra on the Ziegfeld Girl DVD.

This is strictly a promotional musical piece for MGM's cluster of stars under contract to the studio during the studio contract system in the '40s.

It starts off with Judy Garland singing, "We Must Have Music," from one of her many musicals at MGM, then goes on to show very brief clips from similar films produced by the studio.

Contrary to another comment at this site, there is no mention whatsoever of Deanna Durbin (who was under contract to Universal at this time). There is an opera singer by the name of Rise Stevens who did "The Chocolate Soldier" with Nelson Eddy, but nowhere can you spot Deanna.

The impressive MGM lineup of stars goes on to show close-ups of all the studio's favorites, except for Lassie. Movie fans can feast their eyes on Lana Turner, Robert Taylor, Greta Garbo, Ruth Hussey, Laraine Day, Hedy Lamarr, Kathryn Grayson, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and lots of others.

Strictly for fans of MGM musicals, it does give brief credit to all the composers at the studio and the films they worked on.

There's an interesting segment showing how rehearsals were done under Busby Berkeley for one of the Garland/Rooney production numbers called "Hoe-Down."