The beginning of Babes in Arms shows vaudeville star Charles Winninger with the audience eating out the palm of his hand. In the middle of a performance, he learns his wife has given him a son, and the audience cheers him. One man, Henry Hull, warns Charles that vaudeville's popularity is dwindling, with the advent of movies, but Charles waves him off. The years pass in an extremely clever montage: the film uses old footage of Mickey Rooney in his earlier films to show the audience he's growing up. How adorable! And how lucky; how many people can see themselves growing up and growing older through movies? You'll see him tap dancing-from Broadway to Hollywood-and the film cuts to Charles Winninger and Grace Hayes clapping from the wings. Charles and Grace celebrate New Year's, and a young Mickey from Ah Wilderness! stuffs earplugs in his ears before the fireworks.
The rest of the movie is pretty terrible, so you'd better turn it off when the going gets good. Once Mickey Rooney is grown up and decides to-three guesses-put on a show with his pal Judy Garland, things become silly and stupid. It might be the most unrealistic portrayal of how a show gets to Broadway I've ever seen. If any teenager watches this and thinks he or she can write a few songs, get their friends together during a few rehearsals, and then through a family friend, get on Broadway with a snap of their fingers, they're in for a rude awakening. Henry Hull may be a nice guy, but he's not a fairy godmother-even though he seems like one in Boys Town. Mickey, Judy, and their pals are all children of vaudeville performers, and they ought to know better than to think they can fly to the top of Broadway so easily. A high-school graduate just can't wave a baton and end up conducting an orchestra on opening night as a surprise to his parents.
If the ridiculously thin plot doesn't bother you, it's still not a safe bet that you'll enjoy this movie. Mickey Rooney's in his bobble-headed, hyper-energetic phase, and Judy Garland isn't any different when she's yelling at Margaret Hamilton not to send them to reform school than when she's yelling at her to stay away from her dog in The Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, the kids in the movie who have beautiful operatic voices, Douglas McPhail and Betty Jaynes, aren't given the star spots. With the exception of a couple of songs, most of the performances are so irritating they'll need to be fast-forwarded. Do you really want to sit through a parody of the Roosevelts or a huge production number of "My Daddy Was a Minstrel Man" in blackface? I didn't either.
The rest of the movie is pretty terrible, so you'd better turn it off when the going gets good. Once Mickey Rooney is grown up and decides to-three guesses-put on a show with his pal Judy Garland, things become silly and stupid. It might be the most unrealistic portrayal of how a show gets to Broadway I've ever seen. If any teenager watches this and thinks he or she can write a few songs, get their friends together during a few rehearsals, and then through a family friend, get on Broadway with a snap of their fingers, they're in for a rude awakening. Henry Hull may be a nice guy, but he's not a fairy godmother-even though he seems like one in Boys Town. Mickey, Judy, and their pals are all children of vaudeville performers, and they ought to know better than to think they can fly to the top of Broadway so easily. A high-school graduate just can't wave a baton and end up conducting an orchestra on opening night as a surprise to his parents.
If the ridiculously thin plot doesn't bother you, it's still not a safe bet that you'll enjoy this movie. Mickey Rooney's in his bobble-headed, hyper-energetic phase, and Judy Garland isn't any different when she's yelling at Margaret Hamilton not to send them to reform school than when she's yelling at her to stay away from her dog in The Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, the kids in the movie who have beautiful operatic voices, Douglas McPhail and Betty Jaynes, aren't given the star spots. With the exception of a couple of songs, most of the performances are so irritating they'll need to be fast-forwarded. Do you really want to sit through a parody of the Roosevelts or a huge production number of "My Daddy Was a Minstrel Man" in blackface? I didn't either.