Summer Stock

To look at "Summer Stock" you wouldn't think there were any challenges. Everyone seems to be having a happy time.

The remarkable thing is how Judy Garland's weight problems, due to over eating and drugs, were covered up. She looks fresh and bubbly, along with here co-star, Gene Kelly, who was pushing 40, and hankering to get on to more ambitious film projects.

The two are perfectly paired and, with the comedy of Phil Silvers and "other woman" of Gloria DeHaven, this musical comes off swimmingly.

I really love Judy's renditions of the joyous "Hello, Neighbor," the lovely "Friendly Star," and the show-stopping, "Get Happy." Her voice is in fine condition, and is a pleasure to hear. Kelly dances up a storm, and the entire production smiles with good cheer.

As one of Judy's songs go, "If You Feel Like Singing . . . Sing!" She does, and we are the lucky recipients.

Summer Stock was the third and last pairing of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland by MGM. It's sad to think that there were no others because of Judy's personal problems. She would have a breakdown and would not be before the cameras again until four year later with A Star Is Born.

Judy barely got through Summer Stock. She had been replaced in Annie Get Your Gun by Betty Hutton and had not started Royal Wedding yet, but was also replaced there by Jane Powell. It was Gene Kelly's patience with her that got her through this film. Interesting also because Kelly was not known as the world's most patient man when working.

It was worth it because Summer Stock contains some of Judy's best musical moments. Most of the score was written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon, but someone was inspired at MGM to give Judy Get Happy by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. That is half of the team that wrote Over the Rainbow for her. Get Happy became another song identified with Judy Garland the rest of her life and into her legend.

But a favorite of mine is Howdy Neighbor. I do so love how that number is staged with Judy riding on a tractor through the fields and on the road near her farm. Catch her at the very end of the song and you can visibly see her breathing heavy. She was obviously under a strain doing this number and in fact the whole film.

Kelly doesn't do too bad either with a song that became identified with him, You Wonderful You. I still remember him singing it to Miss Piggy when guesting on the Muppets.

Summer Stock is another variation on a backstage romance and the discovery of hidden talent. Judy's sister Gloria DeHaven invites the cast and crew of her show to stay at their farm in Connecticut. But Judy's not happy with it. Of course Kelly charms her and discovers along the way who has the real talent in the family.

The film holds up well today and the talent of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly is absolutely eternal.

Judy & Gene...what a wonderful Hollywood combination! It's great to see two all-around entertainers working together. Great movie, great songs and dance numbers. Plot was a little weak, but a great musical covers a multitude of sins. I had trouble in seeing Judy as a farmgirl from the country. She had already played this role, sort of, in "Wizard Of Oz", but she was younger then. Like I said.. a good musical makes it all okay. Marjorie Mains was great as always. She had done the "Ma Kettle" role so well for so long that she had taken to playing various versions of it the rest of her life. Eddie Braken as Orville, Judy's fiancee in the movie was good casting. Phil Silvers steals the show in scenes he is in but can be a little grating at times with his silliness here. It all leads up to Judy's performance in "Get happy" though, doesn't it? I mean, you see this glorious performance and the movie suddenly goes from good to "classic". "Get Happy" would soon become one of Judy's signature songs. It's very obvious that 1949-50 were hard times for Judy. Her weight was yo-yoing (Compare the scenes in the beginning where she is in overalls to her singing "Get Happy"), in a few scenes she does not seem fully present or focused. But as another writer here has said, she could do more on her bad days then most everyone else could do on their best. She seemed happiest when she was singing. Always.

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.

I actually made a point to see this film after reading about Miss Garland. The final "Get Happy" scene was shot weeks after the film wrapped and Miss Garland was sent to a "clinic"...she was called back only weeks later and fell into a deep depression and was, suppposedly, not in good good shape mentally as she shot that scene but if you notice, she is at least 20 pounds lighter in the scene than the rest of the film. I think this just shows how brilliant Miss Garland really was, to be so troubled but still nail the scene and song that would later be a staple in her act...she truly had something in her that few have ever and will ever possess.