Summer Stock

Although I'm writing about Summer Stock during a retrospective of Gene Kelly films, the focus of this film is squarely on Judy Garland. It was her last MGM film--they finally tired of the drama she created surrounding her drug abuse and mental problems. In a totally theatrical way, her last music number she filmed would end up being one of her most iconic.

Garland plays a farmer who is having trouble making ends meet. She has a dull fiance (Eddie Bracken) and a faithful housekeeper (Marjorie Main), but her two farmhands quit, not having been paid. Her artistic sister (Gloria DeHaven) has invited a troupe of actors, led by Kelly, to use the farm's barn to showcase Kelly's new musical.

The comedy stemming from actors trying to pitch in and help out on a farm is ripe, but frankly the film didn't do enough with it, beyond Phil Silvers trying to milk a cow by talking to it. Kelly, who replaced Mickey Rooney (he and Garland had made millions with several musicals in the early 40s, but by 1950 Rooney's star had dimmed considerably), works hard to keep the film afloat, especially with a dance number involving a newspaper and squeaking board, but he can't do it on his own.

But at the end of the film, Garland, who has joined the show, performs "Get Happy." Wearing a tuxedo jacket, fedora, and black stockings, the scene seems to come from a different movie--indeed, it was filmed later, to give the film some extra zip. Garland, like some musical comedy angel, moves her way through a chorus of male dancers, imploring us to "forget your troubles, come on get happy, you gotta chase all your cares away. Shout hallelujah, come on get happy, we're heading for the judgement day." It's a mesmerizingly good scene, one that I could watch over and over, and except for perhaps "Over the Rainbow," it is the most special of all the songs she sang in her career.

Other than that, Summer Stock is blah. But Kelly wasn't through--his next film would be heralded as one of the best ever.