the audience applauded

Thanks for the memories!

Pretty Good

As Good As It Gets

Early in this picture is a sequence directed by George Pal involving some animated fruits. Sadly, this is by far the best aspect of the movie and the rest is a dated film that pleased crowds back in 1940 but which is a much harder sell today.Jimmy Connoors (Mickey Rooney) is the drum playing leader of a swing band made up of high school kids. They are great and so is their lead singer, Mary (Judy Garland). In fact, they inexplicably put on Broadway quality shows complete with expensive costumes and sets in a small American town. Oddly, when Jimmy wants to take them to Chicago to compete in a contest sponsored by Paul Whiteman*, they have to scrounge for money (they could have sold a few costumes for the $200!). Can Jimmy and the gang manage to get to Chicago to wow everyone or are their dreams just dreams?For me, the problem with "Strike Up the Band" is the number of GIGANTIC production numbers....so many that the plot seemed irrelevant at times. If you love huge production numbers that make no real sense, then you're in for a treat. But I just felt as if MGM was overwhelming the audience with flash and glitz and forgetting to make a film with more fleshed out characters and story.*While you'd never suspect it when you see Whiteman, he was the biggest bandleader of the early to mid-1930s and helped launch the career of Bing Crosby.

Like Babes in Arms (1939), this musical comedy starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland was directed by Busby Berkeley. The film won an Academy Award for its Sound, Recording, and its Original Song "Our Love Affair" by George Stoll and Roger Edens was Oscar nominated, as was their Score. George Pal (uncredited) animated a fruit orchestra sequence for the song. John Monks Jr. and Fred Finklehoffe wrote the screenplay; the George and Ira Gershwin title song is used in the musical finale.James 'Jimmy' Connors (Rooney) is a high school drummer that's bored with playing the same old songs, like the national anthem; so he organizes late night jazz jam sessions with his friends. His girlfriend Mary Holden (Garland) is a talented singer that's frustrated because Jimmy treats her like a pal instead of a gal. Jimmy's widow mother (Ann Shoemaker) has always wanted him to go to college to become a doctor like his father, but his real passion is his music. Encouraged by Mary, he decides to ask their school principal, Mr. Judd (Francis Pierlot), if he can organize a dance band. Because Mr. Judd had been thinking of disbanding the school's orchestra because of mounting debts, he agrees and enthusiastically proclaims that he'll buy the first ticket (e.g. to the dance). The school function is a big success and soon Jimmy has an even bigger idea, to enter conductor Paul Whiteman's radio contest for high school bands, which is offering a top prize of $500 to the winner. Unfortunately, romantic entanglements distract Jimmy from this goal.June Preisser plays Barbara Frances Morgan, a worldly new rich girl at school, who decides that Jimmy is just the boy for her. He seems helplessly unable to resist her charms and temporarily lets down his Mary, his best friend Philip Turner (William Tracy) and the other band members. Larry Nunn plays 13 year old Willie Brewster, who has a crush on Mary and tries to comfort her in Jimmy's absence. Margaret Early plays Phil's girlfriend Annie. But Jimmy gets it together and, with Mary's and Phil's help, he and his Riverwood High School pals produce and act in a musical play for the local Elks Club, raising $150 towards the $200 they need to get to Chicago for Whiteman's contest. Barbara then steals Jimmy away from the cast party with his friends by telling him that she can convince her father to hire their band for her eighteenth birthday party. However, when Mr. Morgan (George Lessey) says that he'd already made other arrangements, Jimmy is upset until he learns that Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra has been hired, and he and his friends are all invited.At Barbara's party, Jimmy and his band can't resist taking the stage and playing a number of their own during the hired band's break; they impress the bandleader so much that Whiteman offers Jimmy a job in New York. But Jimmy's mother, who'd earlier released her son from her dream of him becoming a doctor when she'd realized his sincere passion for his music, reminds him that disappointing his friends was no way to start his new career. So Jimmy tells Whiteman his decision, but then secures the remaining $50 as a loan using his drum set for collateral.However, Willie, who'd hurt his arm during the Elks Club show and neglected to take care of it, is now in need of a doctor; the situation is so serious that the doctor (Howard Hickman) states that unless the boy sees a specialist in Chicago right away, his life is in danger. Jimmy doesn't hesitate to give the band's $200 in order to charter a plane for Willie's transportation. When Mr. Morgan reads about it, he asks Jimmy to meet him for breakfast he's made arrangements for a Chicago bound train to transport Jimmy and his band to Chicago to participate in Whiteman's contest, which utilizes a local audience as well as (American Idol-like) telephone voting to select its winner. After the obvious outcome, the titled finale is performed.

When I decided to get this movie from Netflix, I think this was the only one of the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musicals I had yet to watch as I remember seeing the others of theirs years ago. Yes, he's a musician and she's a singer. Yes, she's not initially his girlfriend and he gets distracted by another girl beforehand. Yes, Busby Berkeley is the one in charge. And, yes, it's corny but still very entertaining all these years later. I loved that George Pal-Puppetoon sequence involving fruit playing instruments (you really have to see this one to believe it!). I loved the "Do the La Conga" number Mickey & Judy do. I loved seeing Rooney playing the drums. I loved Ms. Garland singing of longing for love. I loved seeing Paul Whiteman and his band performing. In fact, I loved nearly everything this movie had to offer even that melodramatic spoof that this movie really didn't need. So on that note, Strike Up the Band gets a high recommendation from me.

Right after the credits end, the camera moves across an obvious teen-aged band where the boys are obviously bored playing the official theme of the Air Force. All of a sudden, the drummer adds a bit of boogie woogie into his one track beat and the teacher reminds him that they are not playing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". The drummer boy is of course Mickey Rooney who even today is still drummin' out small appearances in movies. When all of a sudden Judy Garland appears, they start talking about putting together their own dance band with Judy as the vocalist and Mick as the conductor. Everything seems to be falling into place for them. It's a piece of cake. In fact, that cake, with a bunch of fruit ends up an orchestra of its own playing "Our Love Affair" in one of the most imaginative sequences on film. Its up there with Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse dancing in "Anchors Aweigh" as what made MGM musicals so imaginative.But things don't go smoothly of course. They need $200 to get to Chicago to audition for Paul Whiteman, but miraculously, Whiteman shows up in town to play at flirtatious June Preisser's birthday party. Mickey, Judy and the gang take over. After earlier dancing to the "La Conga" (where some of the high school dance band members appear to be a bit older), they now perform "Drummer Boy", and knock Whiteman's socks off. Whiteman wants them on his show regardless for a contest of all the high school bands but when their pal Larry Nunn all of a sudden needs an operation for a broken arm, there goes to $200. Ann Shoemaker steps in for Mickey's "Andy Hardy" ma Fay Holden as the wise mother who guides Mickey's conscience (she's more like a female Judge Hardy), and the diminutive Francis Pierlot is the kindly principal.This has nothing to do with the 1930 Broadway musical other than the title song. It's 1940's jitterbug all the way, and Mickey and Judy give it their all. It's easy to see why they were the hottest team on the MGM lot and the most popular teens in America. Mickey can grate on occasion with energy but when he's serious, he's at his best. In fact, those sequences are often more touching than the comic sequences are amusing. As for Judy, she gets another "plain jane" song ("I Ain't Got Nobody") which is one of the most obscure "list songs" in history, even dropping the names of Judy's bosses, MGM, within the list. Those bosses must have been blind to really see how lovely she was, funny considering that half the movie, Judy is trying to wake Mickey up to see her for who she is over the rather obnoxious Preisser. The recent TV movie about Judy Garland had director Busby Berkley demanding to see Judy's eyes, and she really shows them here.Most famous of course is the duet of "Our Love Affair", but the over-the-top finale even outdoes the one of "Babes in Arms". Like many Broadway musicals, it even features reprises of most of the movies' songs. Even more outrageous is the cheezy melodramatic spoof, "Nell of New Rochelle" that the teens put together seemingly in hours. "Strike Up the Band!" is worth repeat viewings even if it isn't something one thinks how teenagers really were back in 1940.