L'allegra fattoria

This was Judy Garland's last MGM film, and she had basically been a MGM lifer, being under contract there since 1937 at age 15. Judy was naturally always a little heavy, so MGM plied her with uppers to cause her to lose weight and then with sleeping pills at night so she could sleep through those uppers. The end result was a terrible substance abuse problem by the time she was 28 that MGM then fired her for. But I digress, mainly to let you know what she was working through in this final MGM musical film.

Jane Falbury (Judy Garland) works the family farm diligently, but she is in danger of losing it due to three bad harvests in a row, and then her two long time farm hands quit due to lack of being paid. Her younger sister Abigail (Gloria DeHaven) is due to come home to pitch in after failing in art school, and she does, but she brings with her the entire cast, crew, and props for her boyfriend Joe's (Gene Kelly) new musical show, which he plans to try out in her barn. Abigail somehow failed to tell her sister about that. At first Jane is going to make everybody leave, but then she changes her mind and lets the gang stay and put on their show as long as they pitch in on the farm. They have no idea how to do the simplest farming tasks, but they do their best, often with humorous results. And then Abigail abandons the show on a lark, leaving everybody in a lurch. Complications and a classic musical number starring Garland ensue.

This is not the best MGM musical out there, but it is enjoyable enough. Apparently Gene Kelly was instrumental in helping Judy Garland get through this, which is odd enough since he could be very harsh. After all he left Debbie Reynolds crying under a table after his withering criticism of her during the making of Singin' in the Rain. It's got a good cast including Phil Silvers shortly before he does so well on TV, and Marjorie Main steals every scene she is in as the farm housekeeper. Eddie Bracken is a good sport as he plays probably the most unappealing man in the history of the world as Jane's fiancee.