En avant la musique

"Strike Up the Band" is another teaming of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland who are of course put in the position of putting on a show to save a band, a school program for children, a school from closing, etc. You name it. It could be any of those things. Of all the movie musicals that were made in their heyday, these were the most bizarre, meaning while enjoyable and with good music still somewhat beyond belief. They always seemed to defy the odds, getting what they want, albeit with some obstacles along the way. This outing though is not quite as good as others, due to some of the supporting actors' not so subtle acting. Less is more is not an adage used here. In fact, there's nothing subtle here. Ann Shoemaker does give good support as his mother, with a nice speech about being a great man. But the length, its feeling of self-importance, and some awkward moments of corniness hurt its effectiveness. It is very enjoyable with great musical numbers for Mickey and Judy; but there's just so much of everything here, making it two whole hours, including a over-the-top tongue-in-cheek save-the-damsel production in the middle of the movie, lasting 15 minutes itself. I'm sure you'll enjoy it for what it is, but afterwards, you'll feel like you had a workout.

Jimmy Connors (Mickey Rooney) is in the Riverwood High School band, but would like to do something more with his music. He forms a band with his friends, and would like to have the band become a dance band associated with the high school. The principal agrees and allows them to put on a dance at the school, which is a success. But when Jimmy wants to take the band to Chicago to audition for Paul Whiteman, the principal declines, saying that parents are already complaining about the band taking away from the members' studies. Will the band find a way to finance that trip? Of course they do! The complications are in how they manage to do it and the adversity thrown in their path along the way.

The complications include Jimmy's mother having her heart set on him becoming a doctor, like his late father, collaborator and singer for the band, Mary Holden (Judy Garland), wanting more out of her relationship than being Jimmy's "gal pal", and a newcomer to the high school being a female barracuda with her heart set on nabbing an unwilling but polite Jimmy.

This didn't have much of a plot attached, but the music is terrific. It's a bit overlong for the material at two hours, but that includes a fantastic finale. Director Busby Berkeley was responsible for bringing film choreography into the modern era with his stage numbers that could never be performed on the stage over at early 30s Warner Brothers. Here he has the same tendency when he choreographs and stages the finale, but just go with it and enjoy the spectacle.

I really liked the stop-motion number where the fruit on the kitchen table danced. The Conga number was full of energy and delightful, and the scene in which Garland sings to herself in the library was charming. I even liked the spoof of old-time melodrama. (Somebody must have liked "That Fatal Glass of Beer.")

No I don't care what anybody says Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were excellent miss film both young actors at the time and the singing and the music was superb. Yeah I mean it was a film on a 1940 remember that! But I loved Judy Garland and always will

After the success of Babes In Arms for MGM, Arthur Freed became the hottest producer on the lot and was granted his own famous Freed Unit to produce the best of the MGM musicals for the next 20 years almost. According to Hugh Fordin's book on Arthur Freed the next scheduled property was Good News, but that got shelved for several years when Louis B. Mayer decided that a patriotic type theme was in order and after all MGM had bought the screen rights to the Gershwin musical Strike Up The Band. Freed agreed, but in the Hollywood tradition only the title and the title song were retained for the screen.

That was enough because the Mickey and Judy formula was by now established with Babes In Arms. Here the two are a pair of talented musical kids and Mickey is the drummer in his high school band. But he's got other things on his mind besides doing John Philip Sousa. Even Sousa did more than Sousa when he was leading a band. Mickey is filled with the new jive rhythms of the day and he'd like to use the other kids in the school orchestra to form a real band. He's got Garland in mind for the vocals and the object is to get an audition from Paul Whiteman.

Whiteman in his day may have appropriated for himself the title of King Of Jazz, but certainly no one did more to popularize the new American art form among white audiences. His orchestra was the training ground for many of later big band leaders. Leaders like Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller all who were sidemen with Whiteman and who kids like Mickey and Judy and the rest of the cast were listening to.

If Strike Up The Band isn't exactly let's put on a show, it still is let's put on a concert and Mickey and Judy do have some shtick to perform, their Gay Nineties spoof is quite good. Also the fantasy sequence of the 'fruit orchestra' doing Our Love Affair is also nicely done, it looks very much like Ray Harryhausen's claymation figures, but he wasn't involved with Strike Up The Band.

Strike Up The Band won one Academy Award for sound and was nominated for two others. Roger Edens and Arthur Freed wrote Our Love Affair which was nominated for Best Song, but lost to When You Wish Upon A Star. And Edens and Georgie Stoll were nominated for Best Musical Scoring.

Busby Berkeley directed the film and in the finale shows his fine hand for spectacle. Here's where the patriotism that Louis B. Mayer was seeking came out. Remember this was 1940 and a lot of people were very afraid the USA was going into another World War. The finale with the title song was the kind of rousing patriotic spectacle that Hollywood would be doing in every studio after December 7, 1941.

With Strike Up The Band Arthur Freed proved he was no flash in the pan as a producer. After 70 years the film holds up well and the talents of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland reign eternal.

Admittedly, I'm not the best judge of musicals, but this one seems disappointing given the level of talent involved. Visually, Garland and Rooney make a cute couple-- a match clearly made in malt shop heaven. And, even though I was disappointed, I can understand Garland's enduring appeal. She's definitely an incandescent presence, and one that doesn't come from just acting the part. On the other hand, Rooney is energetic and I can see him organizing a high school band. However, that energy too often becomes manic—for example, check out his conducting the orchestra at movie's end for sheer pointless delirium. Too often, his in- your-face high spirits comes across as more obnoxious than entertaining.

I guess my biggest disappointment is with the musical numbers. Berkeley's dancing phalanxes are eye-catching as usual, but there's not a single catchy tune to hang your hat on. The numbers are simply not up to Garland's level of show-stopping talent, whatever the reason. Then there's the overlong melodrama skit that unfortunately saps momentum by coming in the middle. On the other hand, the musical fruit sketch sounds silly but is really charming and well done. Also, professional musician Paul Whiteman turns out to be a pretty darn good actor. And for those interested in what those times were like, it's a chance to see what teens circa-1940 thought was "cool". Having your own dance band was clearly near the top. At the same time, the message seems to be that dance bands deserve respect, while playing in one is indeed a legitimate goal in life. Looks like controversies over music didn't start with rock-and-roll.