This nostalgic wartime musical from MGM and director Busby Berkeley is set in 1916, where the story follows minor vaudeville entertainers Jo (Judy Garland), Jimmy (George Montgomery), and Harry (Gene Kelly), who meet on the touring circuit and form a love triangle. Jimmy soon exits the scene to allow Jo and Harry to be together, and they have their ups and downs, both professionally and romantically, but it all becomes less important when America joins WW1 and they all end up "over there".
This starts out as the typical sort of nostalgic paean to the heyday of vaudeville that was the subject of so many musicals of the era. It eventually turns into a patriotic flag-waver and recruitment drive that, while set during the First World War, was clearly meant for the Second. This movie marked the movie debut of Gene Kelly, and he plays a rather obnoxious go-getter pretty well, even if his voice gets occasionally grating. Garland has a terrific singing voice, but she'd lost so much weight that some argued she looked gaunt. I don't think she looked bad, but she looks worried throughout the movie, whether as part of her role or not, I can't say. Richard Quine, who plays Garland's brother, went on to become a director of some success. Martga Eggerth was a Hungarian operetta singer who gets a song or two here, notably one in which the censors felt her cleavage was too distracting so they smudged the image in all of her close-ups.
This starts out as the typical sort of nostalgic paean to the heyday of vaudeville that was the subject of so many musicals of the era. It eventually turns into a patriotic flag-waver and recruitment drive that, while set during the First World War, was clearly meant for the Second. This movie marked the movie debut of Gene Kelly, and he plays a rather obnoxious go-getter pretty well, even if his voice gets occasionally grating. Garland has a terrific singing voice, but she'd lost so much weight that some argued she looked gaunt. I don't think she looked bad, but she looks worried throughout the movie, whether as part of her role or not, I can't say. Richard Quine, who plays Garland's brother, went on to become a director of some success. Martga Eggerth was a Hungarian operetta singer who gets a song or two here, notably one in which the censors felt her cleavage was too distracting so they smudged the image in all of her close-ups.