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."
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."