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Judy Garland’s not a girl, not yet a woman in Little Nellie Kelly, an oddball film that has her playing both mother and daughter. Loosely based on the George M. Cohan play of the same name, Garland finds herself stuck between the opposing male forces of her life in both incarnations and a metric ton of Irish clichés sprinkled on top. The whole thing feels engineered for viewings on St. Patrick’s Day and not for much else.
Here’s a bit of historical trivia for you: this is the lone death scene in Garland’s entire career. It comes early in the film when she dies post-childbirth, and she reappears as the teenaged daughter. Garland was eighteen at the time and plays both a little older and a little younger than her real age. The role(s) don’t give her much in the way of variation aside from an attempt at an Irish accent in one and a love interest in the second, her Babes in Arms co-star Douglas McPhail.
Garland tries valiantly to make this mawkish tripe work, but not even her immense talents can quite overcome it all. George Murphy and Charles Winninger play the two male counterparts of Nellie’s life. In Ireland, Garland is Nellie Noonan in love with Murphy’s Jerry Kelly and caretaker of her belligerent drunk father, Winninger. The father hates his future son-in-law but still travels with them to America. Nellie Noonan dies, Murphy and Winninger spar over raising the daughter, and enter a long stalemate that places Nellie Kelly as the peacemaker and object of their affection. Eventually she meets a suitor, McPhail has a lovely baritone but zero screen presence, and the fractious cycle between Murphy and Winninger starts anew.
Winninger’s character is clearly meant as a lovable caricature but plays a deeply unlikeable, manipulative bastard. Garland and Murphy are unbelievable as lovers what with him being very obviously twenty-years her senior. They fare far better as loving father and daughter. It’s hard to buy Garland’s instant love affair with McPhail as well, but much of that problem lands squarely on his shoulder. So here comes Judy’s powerful voice to save the day on songs like “It’s a Great Day for the Irish” and “Singin’ in the Rain.” A must-watch for the Garland aficionado (hey!), but skippable for the rest unless you’re looking for a creaky blarney about the auld sod.
