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The weakest of the four “let’s put on a show” musicals Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland made; Babes on Broadway ironically also contains some of the best individual materials of the four films. But there’s no getting around a few simple facts: Babes on Broadway is too long and convoluted, and the minstrel show sequence finale is such a sour note that it nearly negates everything that came before it. At least they’re not in blackface for the fadeout performance of the title song.
This one really amplifies the reoccurring theme of Rooney as an oily hustler who will do anything to succeed and get ahead. He will be humbled by his experiences in this story, of course, and become worthy of Garland’s love and admiration. Garland gets more of a spine here by letting Rooney know that his machinations and betrayals have hurt her.
This downbeat tone causes a lot of Babes on Broadway to play like a film from a decade prior. It’d be easy to imagine the basics of this story and these characters plopped into a Depression-era musical, like a family-friendly 42nd Street. The whole thing either peps up or drags down depending on any individual scene, but a persistent bitterness remains. The fun of watching Mickey and Judy put on a show to save someone/something is leeched out ever so slowly here.
Along the way towards that complicated finale, Babes on Broadway manages to provide some bravura sequences. There’s the “Hoe Down,” one of Busby Berkeley’s geometric and complicated sequences that’s obviously taxing on the performers but sold entirely by their ability to make it look as easy as walking. “How About You?” is Mickey and Judy doing a Fred and Ginger meet-cute turned duet around her apartment. “Chin Up! Cheerio! Carry On!” is a morale booster as Judy nearly single-handedly does her part for the special relationship by singing about how much America supports Britain while it was going through the blitz.
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also the hilarious sight of Rooney doing an impression of Carmen Miranda in “Mama Yo Quiero.” Yes, he’s in full drag and doing a highly credible imitation of her performing style before ending it on a jokey scream of “Mama!” Rooney, Richard Quine, and Ray McDonald burn the house down during “Anything Can Happen in New York” for an appreciative Fay Bainter. The highlight of the film is Vincente Minnelli’s ghost theater sequence where Rooney and Garland imitate stage stars of the past, including George M. Cohan and Sarah Bernhardt.
If there’s so much good, then why is Babes on Broadway so low in my estimation? Because it’s all bits and pieces that never quite cohere into anything stronger. It’s getting to these set pieces that takes some doing as the connective tissue is plagued with awkward performances and tonal issues. Richard Quine is fine, Ray McDonald is there, Virginia Weidler is a child actress I never much cared for. She’s all awkward dancing and outshined by the depth of talent of her main co-stars here. Hell, Margaret O’Brien’s cinematic debut, a blink-and-miss it cameo where she delivers a hilariously melodramatic and morbid joke audition, blows her out of the water.
It’s nearly impossible to talk about Babes on Broadway without circling back to that blackface finale, so no sense in prolonging the inevitable. Its presence is bad enough, but its introduction is so shiny and happy that it somehow makes it all even worse. It just keeps going on and on as Berkeley is clearly enamored with the blackface makeup contrasting with the all-white costumes and assembling them in various shapes and patterns. There’s some good technique and astounding images here, but what you’re looking and what they’re in service towards winds up being a net negative.
