Judy by the Numbers: "Our Love Affair"

Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...

By 1940 it was undeniable: Mickey and Judy were a success. Even more, Mickey and Judy with the Freed Unit behind them were a bona fide hit machine. Babes in Arms, the first Freed Unit collaboration, earned over $2 million domestically and $1 million abroad. With the promise of another blockbuster and the rise of patriotic sentiment on the verge of WWII, Louis B. Mayer dusted off an old, patriotic-sounding title and set his hitmakers on a new project: Strike Up The Band.

 

The Movie: Strike Up The Band (MGM, 1940)

The Songwriters: Arthur Freed & Roger Edens
The Players: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, directed by Busby Berkeley 

The Story: The original Strike Up The Band was a George & Ira Gershwin political musical satire from the early half of the 1930s. However, the new patriotic musical produced by Arthur Freed & company bore no resemblance to the show from which they took their title. With Mickey Rooney now the confirmed box office champion - unseating Shirley Temple at last - the majority of the movie was geared towards his talents. Rooney sings, dances, acts, plays piano, and even plays the drums. However, Freed and Edens didn't overlook young Judy. They wrote "Our Love Affair" especially for the 18 year old singer. Though Mickey introduces the song, it doesn't come alive until Judy sings it, and her song is the musical theme used throughout the movie. 

Ultimately, the movie was another smash success for MGM. It garnered another $2 million domestically and $1 million abroad, as well as 3 Oscar nominations (including one for "Our Love Affair" and rave reviews from critics. Mickey, Judy and the Freed Unit were an undoubted blockbuster force. But how would Judy Garland do on her own?

previous highlights: "The Land of Let's Pretend" (1930), "Dear Mr Gable" (1937), "Got a New Pair of Shoes" (1937),“Zing Went the Strings of My Heart” (1938), "Over the Rainbow" (1939)

March Highlights. April Sneak Peek.

The month began with final thoughts on last year's Oscars (yes, those were the 2015 Oscars no matter what search engines, IMDb, and the web say!) and the final podcast of the season. And then we bravely tried to forge ahead unmoored to any one topic, though we immediately lost our more fairweather readers. Damn you random people who aren't reading this!  Ah, well. They'll be back next season. 

MARCH HIGHLIGHTS
get caught up if you missed anything! 

Random March Highlights!
HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS and KRISHA acting showcases for older women 
GODS OF EGYPT and BATMAN v SUPERMAN bad movies: enjoyable & not
2016 CALENDAR a tentative list
MCCAMBRIDGE CENTENNIAL we had fun writing these!

Returning Series
POSTERIZED checked in w/ Sally Field & Saoirse Ronan. How familiar are you?
BEST SHOT hit Atonement (2007), and Daredevil (2016)
STAGE DOOR attended Broadway revivals The Color Purple & The King and I
TUES TOP TEN celebrated Zootopia and the Best Acting of this Decade 
Q & A returned with thoughts on superhero acting and the best of Australian cinema 

New Series!
THE FURNITURE a production design series launched w/ The Exorcist and Brooklyn
DOC CORNER new work celebrating Nora Ephron, and investigating abortion politics
READER'S CHOICE as you commanded: Gattaca and Cruel Intentions

COMING IN APRIL

APRIL FOOLISH OSCAR PREDICTIONS as we do
ACTOR MONTH A special detour to celebrate men (who get short shrift here, we know)
BEST SHOT SCHEDULE the more the merrier - join us!
APRIL SHOWERS shower scenes
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL coverage from Nathaniel, Manuel and Jason
NEW FILMS The Boss, Jungle Book, Demolition, Huntsman: Winter's War, Sing Street
REVISITS Crimes and Misdemeanors, Roman Holiday, Witness, Throne of Blood
AND MORE... to be announced

Let's Get Wet

"April Showers" returns soon. Intermittent late nights all month long. Any requests?

A "Zootopia" Top Ten

We've never even discussed Zootopia! What's wrong with us? (Don't answer) What follows is an off the cuff top ten. But consider this intro a number eleven plus: the joy of the movie is that it's not frontloaded at all continuing to offer delights all the way up to its concert finale in its fleet 108 minutes. So don't let this list feel complete: share your favorite things about it in the comments.

(This is assuming you loved it because everyone seems to)

TOP 10 DELIGHTFUL THINGS ABOUT "ZOOTOPIA"

10 Size Matters (in Comedy)
Lt. Judy Hopps, our heroine, would argue that it doesn't but it does. The animators and writers and filmmakers spin multiple jokes from the disparity in size of so many of the characters. And they've really worked the scale out. Few images in the movie radiated more comic bliss then watching a parade of conformist lemmings lining up for hundreds of miniature sweets made from one elephant sized dessert scoop.

09 Bunny Jokes
That throwaway line "your 275 brothers and sisters" and Judy's sly math joke later on "we're good at multiplying!"

8 more after the jump...

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Sci-Fi Oddity "Zardoz" (1974)

"And now for something completely different"... Zardoz (1974)

I didn't mean to begin with a Monty Python quote but they were Brit contemporaries of Writer/Director John Boorman. And Zardoz (1974), the follow up to his most enduring classic (Deliverance, 1972) might be better if it were aiming for comedy instead of merely conjuring laughs. Nevertheless it doesn't get any more "different" than John Boorman's bizarre drug trip about false gods, immortal hippie communes, sentient crystals, marauding assassins, chest hair, and Charlotte Rampling's unique power to both cause erections and lecture about them simultaneously.

I chose it for Best Shot only to finally make sense of its frequent meme-ready presence online -- the jokes on me as it will never make any sense -- but I don't regret it. It's too weird to go unseen. It's the only movie in existence that begins with a floating disembodied head spewing out firearms, the only movie where you'll ever see Sean Connery licking another man while wearing a red diaper, and the only film to demonstrate the potent psychic peer pressure of jazz hands.

"Meditate on this at second level" with us after the [NSFW] jump...

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