xidax

I admire a lot of the musical parts of BABES ON BROADWAY. "How About You" is a lovely song, and Rooney and Garland are sweet together performing it (and all their other scenes). The Carmen Miranda spoof is funny, the "Hoe Down" number is wonderful, and the three boys do a nifty routine about New York in the beginning.

However. B.O.B. has, I think, the most bland prefab plot and dialogue of any Judy-Mickey musical, and that takes up more time in the film than the songs and dances--and even those aren't ALL good, especially the one Garland sings in honor of the British refugee children. Richard Quine, Ray McDonald and Virginia Weidler are charming and interact just great with the two stars; if the story had more of those three, if there were more attempts at humor, and if everything was less sappy (or if the sappiness at least felt more sincere), then I would like the film, but as it is, my fast forward button gets a workout every time I watch it.

This is the only Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney musical I actually like. Their previous three had sappy plots and sometimes so-so songs, but this film rarely gets sentimental, and when it does it works. The music is the best of any of their movies, by far, and the presentation of it is fine, often more than that. It doesn't adhere to the play it's based on much, but so what; I don't know if the stage version would have translated well to film anyway. The two stars give their usual skillful performances, with unusually likeable characters and sprightly dialogue to base them on. And then there's those nice sunny REAL desert backgrounds - how often did musicals of that era get so far away from the studios? It isn't perfect - for one thing, am I the only one who finds Rags Ragland a bit annoying? - but it's still pretty inspired.

I can only assume this short's popularity has something to do with its political incorrectness; in itself it's rather lame. How funny is it really to see a grunting halfwit running around in circles after a bunch of little kids? The film does have its moments, especially with Spanky and Bumbo in the kitchen, but overall it reminded me a lot of that standard childhood nightmare of being chased by a gorilla, except not as exciting. I pass on this one.