One of the many team-ups between Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland. The great Busby Berkeley directed this 1940 installment which finds Rooney out of sorts w/the direction the school band is trending to. He wants to engage the public w/what's new & happening but is constrained by the traditional so he decides to convince his fellow band mates to become a band for hire, playing gigs that will satisfy them artistically & maybe financially. After a few gigs, an opportunity comes up to compete in a radio contest but an injured friend who needs desperate medical care (is there any other kind?) needs airfare for the treatment. Are they going to help their friend or forego the contest's entry fee? Not to mention Rooney needing to figure out if Garland is girlfriend material or merely a friend makes this busy soup start to boil over. What is essentially an Our Gang serial expanded to feature length feels at odds w/itself by having fine musical & dance sequences crammed w/too much plot that could've easily been trimmed in the editing but darn it, those kids sure know how to put on a show so I'll forgive their excesses.
Review of Strike Up the Band
