Judy by the Numbers: "It's A Great Day for the Irish"
Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at 9:15AM Anne Marie is tracking Judy Garland's career through musical numbers...
Have you heard the good news? April is Judy Garland month on TCM! Check your local listings to see the movies surrounding the numbers we've discussed, and the ones we haven't gotten to yet!
Before the end of 1940, young Judy Garland got two major kudos from Metro Goldwyn Mayer. First, her weekly salary was increased from $600 to $2,000. Second, MGM made her the top-billed star of another Freed Unit musical. No longer just Mickey Rooney's mooning gal pal, Judy Garland would finally get to play another leading role - in fact, in this movie she'd do it twice!
The Movie: Little Nellie Kelly (MGM 1940)
The Songwriter: Roger Edens
The Players: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Charles Winniger, Douglas McPhail, directed by Norman Taurog
The Story: Little Nellie Kelly was based on a hit George M. Cohan musical from 1922. However, any Cohan fans looking for a trip down memory lane would have been sorely disappointed - the movie only contained 2 of Cohan's original songs. The rest of the film was filled to the brim with the Freed Unit's usual tricks: a few well-loved showstoppers (including "Singin' in the Rain"), a smattering of the original show's material, and of course a Roger Edens song handcrafted for Judy Garland's talents.
Little Nellie Kelly had Judy Garland working double duty - literally. Judy played two Nellie Kelly's, a young mother (with a questionable accent) from Ireland, and later her starry-eyed daughter. Judy sings as both (mostly as the daughter) and even includes a rousing parade song with her Babes in Arms costar George Murphy. Fortunately for MGM, Judy Garland proved that even without Technicolor or Mickey Rooney, she was a star in her own right. Little Nellie Kelly grossed just under $1 million in the US (a solid gross then) proving Judy Garland could carry a movie. She could even do it twice.
Reader Comments (8)
She handles the two roles well, endearing and sweet as the first Nellie...feisty and sweet as the second. Lovely as both.
But the movie itself is pretty heavy-handed and Charles Winninger's character is hard to like, an extremely pig headed jackass for almost the entire running time. When Judy sings of course none of it matters and her rendition of Singin' in the Rain is so joyful.
A confession: I've never been a fan of Judy's "regional" songs (like "Swsnee" and this one). In fact, they usually give me the creeps on some level.
This is a bizarre little song. Makes me wonder and want to know more specifics about US/Hollywood Irish-pandering during this period. Was it common? Were Irish people being more accepted than the "Irish need not apply" days? One obvious answer could be trying to gain immigrant favor in anticipation of US entry into WWII, particularly with the already high representation of Irish men in the police, which is winked and nodded at in the song. Or was the US using its sizable Irish population to build a favorable relationship with Ireland, now that it was past the independence/civil war struggles? Interesting.
I am just learning that Roger Edens wrote songs--I always knew him as producer on Funny Face. I just read that he wrote songs for Joan Crawford's flop, The Ice Follies of 1939, the year before this Judy picture. Supposedly it was supposed to launch Joan's career as a musical star. But most of her songs landed on the cutting room floor, and the last two were dubbed. Joan blamed Jeanette MacDonald's being threatened as MGM's reigning musical queen. Sorry for digressing.
I can't remember, is George Murphy her love interest in this one? I always thought George was a good "second rate" leading man. Handsome and inoffensive. He eventually became a Senator in California but that's just right before my memory kicks in though I would have been alive when he lost. He sort of paved the way for Ronald Reagan (and Nancy) to become such powerful political leaders, for better and/or worse.
This is my favorite Judy era, from about 1939 to 1946. It's wonderful to see her carrying these corny little black and white musicals. This one doesn't have quite the dazzle of Ziegfeld Girl or the, frankly, hotness of Gene Kelly but it's pleasant enough if you can treat Charles Winninger like a lovable curmudgeon instead of just a curmudgeon.
And yay to TCM. What excellent planning on their part!
Dave-George Murphy was the romantic interest in the first part of the picture and married the first Nellie which then lead to him being the father of their child, the second Nellie. He was a good dancer but a rather flat onscreen presence missing the star quality that Kelly and later Astaire brought to the top tier MGM musicals making it easy for him to be pushed into second rung musicals shortly after Kelly debuted in For Me and My Gal a couple years after this film.
brooksboy-Yikes!! Ice Follies of 1939 is such an awful picture. One of the worst any of its three stars ever made. I think it IS the worst Crawford made of her A pictures though the wretched The Gorgeous Hussy gives it a run for the money.
This is a nice confection of a song. But oh how I wish you'd tackled the ending song of "Babes in Arms" in this series. I watched that film for the first (and probably last) time last year and was so very unprepared for that particular tribute.
joel, I need to see Follies just to see for myself its delicious dreadfulness. This was during Joan's box office poison period, so it holds particular fascination. lol