A Date with Judy

I first saw 'A Date With Judy' at the Radio City Music Hall in late August 1948 when I was eight years old.....what an epiphany!!! Years later I revisited the film via television...how could it ever hold up...but...it remains a total charmer!! Music via Powell is lovely, Elizabeth is breathtakingly beautiful...and charming.....then there is the rest of a super cast...Wallace Beery, Robert Stack, Selena Royale, George Cleveland (the wonderful grandfather from Lassie), Scotty Becket, Xavier Cugat...and lest we not forget, the superlative Carmen Miranda! "It's A Most Unusual Day" ( remember Hitchcock's use of this as Cary Grant walks through the Plaza just before his kidnapping?), Judaline, Love is Where You Find It" and most memorably of all.."Cuanto Le Gusto" (I have murdered the spelling but 'a rose is a rose'!) Super music and memories of the radio program and comic book of the same name.

This is a delightful musical , and was very successful, in 1948 and is a treasure for today...and it's been released on DVD! It would look sumptuous in Blueray...maybe soon?

Jane Powell plays Judy--a kooky teenager who can sing like a bird but who has difficulty picking friends. That's because her best friend, Carol (Elizabeth Taylor) is a rich, meddling, spoiled jerk--yet Judy doesn't seem to recognize this. And throughout the film, Carol does her best to make Judy's life miserable. For no particular reason, Carol drives a wedge between her brother, Oogie, and Judy--who are sweethearts. However, this backfires when Judy ends up with a much handsomer and older man, Stephen (Robert Stack). Now, jealous, Carol is determined to take Stephen for herself. But Stephen is no dummy--he sees that Carol is gorgeous but also lets her know that he can see right through her and her wiles.

In a smaller side story, Judy's father (Wallace Beery) is a nice guy--but a nice guy who is embarrassed that he doesn't know how to dance. With his anniversary coming up, he decides to secretly take dance lessons (with Carmen Miranda) but due to Carol's meddling, people begin to think that he and Carmen are in love! SO, Judy decides the best way to fight this is to make her father feel loved--and she and the family lay it on thick. Clearly this is Beery at his best--and he's easy to love (despite his very nasty personality off-screen).

This is the sort of light family musical-comedy that MGM did best. Films like "On Moonlight Bay" and "Meet Me in St. Louis" are just a small sampling of the sort of genre that the studio made to perfection. They also made some non-musicals with similar plots that just can't be beat, such as "Life With Father", the Andy Hardy films and "Cheaper By the Dozen" (the original--not the new crappy version). These films aren't especially deep but are filled with pleasant plots, a bit of minor melodrama, some laughs and, most importantly, nice folks you'd like to meet. My only complaint is that although Powell has a good voice, her high-toned style and high pitch is NOT to my liking. It's far less simple and pleasant than Judy Garland ("Meet Me in St. Louis") or Doris Day ("By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and "On Moonlight Bay"). I am also not a huge Carmen Miranda fan, though when she wasn't singing, she was just fine. Overall, while not a great family musical comedy, it's a good one and well worth your time.

Sweet comedy, a time capsule of teen-hood in the movies in the 40's with wonderful music courtesy of Xavier Cugat and his band.

Jane Powell is charmingly pert, full of youthful exuberance something she excelled at. According to her autobiography though that very spryness became a type of prison limiting her casting and when musicals declined in popularity made it impossible for her to transition to other types of pictures.

Someone who certainly didn't suffer the same issue is Elizabeth Taylor, very young and very beautiful, this was one of her first roles that flirted with adulthood.

The doomed Scotty Beckett, a major child star throughout his youth, plays Jane's gangly boyfriend, the unfortunately named Oogie, struggling with puberty in one of the roles attempting to ease him into adult roles. He couldn't make the leap and within the year started the long slide into trouble with the law and drug addiction that ended in his suicide two decades later at 38.

In one of his last roles Wallace Beery is full of warm understanding as Jane's father in a departure from his usual bluster, he and Selena Royale at well matched as a long married couple.

Lastly Carmen Miranda is a delight as always, her clothes and hats are outlandish, take special note of her shoes and wonder how she could possibly walk in them! One quibble, the Technicolor is unusually garish and at times the cast practically glows orange.

The music is nice and the acting is excellent. While I like Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor was positively gorgeous, I'm a huge fan of Wallace Beery. When we look back and consider great actors, he is very underrated. It offers a look back at the family unit of the time compared to what exists now.

1948 produced some of MGM's top teenagers to movie audiences. Put them in a gorgeous technicolor musical comedy, add some veteran adults and you have one of the best of it's time.

Jane Powell, lovely voice and all, plays Judy. Her best friend is the now-sophisticated Elizabeth Taylor, all of 15 years old, looking absolutely lovely that you know she's headed for glamorous grownup roles down the road. The camera loved her. Then there's Scotty Beckett, having started his career at the age of four, now in the awkward teens, doing one of his best performances as Judy's date. Sad he died such a tragic death at an early age.

Scatter many film veterans to the likes of Wallace Berry and Selena Royale as Judy's parents, Robert Stack, young and handsome as Elizabeth's love interest, Leon Ames as Elizabeth and Scotty's dad, Clinton Sundberg as the butler to Ames, Xavier Cugat and his band with Carmen Miranda his star attraction, and one of her last films, and George Cleveland as Judy's Grandpa.

A trivia note: watch the scene with Judy waiting to be picked up for the prom. Early in the picture. Grandpa enters and actually kicks the dog to make his entrance. I had to rewind to believe what I saw. The dog also yelped when he did. And this is the guy who later played all those "Lassie" TV programs. Shame on you George!

All in all a charming and lighthearted film with the beauty of Taylor, the voice of Powell and the comedy of Beckett. Jane sings "A Most Unusual Day" and "Love Is Where You Find It".