It's another "let's put on a show!" movies starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland! I saw Strike Up the Band before Babes in Arms, and while I thought it was silly at the time, compared to the earlier flick, it's as epic as Gone With the Wind.
Mickey takes the lead as a high school student far more interested in his drum set than preparing to become a lawyer to fulfill his mother's dream. Judy's in love with him, but he doesn't care about girls, only music. A lowerclassman, Larry Nunn, is in love with Judy, and when June Preisser shows up batting her eyelashes at Mickey, it stars an extremely uninteresting love quadrangle. Mickey isn't really interested in June; he's just getting into the show's rehearsals. Judy isn't interested in Larry, even though he's clearly the better choice. Larry proposes marriage and promises to never go out with other girls, the same evening that Mickey's stood Judy up to go out with June. Larry's only thirteen and offers to wait until she's ready, and when she turns him down, it's heartbreaking to see his face. Why doesn't she just tell him to wait? By the time she's gotten Mickey out of her system, Larry will probably have grown up and gotten over his crush. No heartbreak necessary. Plus, compared to the disinterested, unreliable, pushover Mickey, Larry's a dream!
If you're going to watch this one, it's either because you love the silly Mickey-Judy movies or because you want to see another Busby Berkeley musical. Busby Berkeley movies have such a special feeling to them, that even though they're dated and the music isn't always great, you're going to see someone who put a lot of thought into his craft instead of just "Let's put on a show!" like the people in his movies. You'll get to see his classic angles and beautifully framed shots, but you might not like the rest of the movie. Both leads are in their super-hyper phases, and since we know what we know about how old Hollywood fed the kids drugs to give them pep, it's not really too much fun to see them bouncing off the walls. "Who's been feeding you vitamins?" Judy jokes when Mickey approaches her with particularly intense energy. It's just not funny to hear her say that, since everyone knows they weren't really vitamins. There's just so much energy a person can put into the conga line before someone notices he's not really normal.
