January 1945
MGM
Musical, Historical
DVD
D+
The only reason why I have this movie is because it was part of a four-pack that was the only form I could get Singin' in the Rain on DVD. This is the second time I've seen MMiSL and I still dislike it. I didn't care for anyone in the Smith family, particularly not the deeply annoying Tootie. She'd already worn out her welcome in the first half hour, but wait till you get to the part where she claims that their neighbor (who Garland's character Esther has a crush on) tried to kill her, when he was actually protecting her! And she doesn't get punished! Even Esther was unlikable, as when she tells her grandfather that he was the first "human being" she danced with that night. I was glad as always to see Marjorie Main (playing a cook, as she did in Turnabout), although there's not enough of her. The house looks good in color. And "The Trolley song" and "Have a Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" were nice, but hardly worth sitting through the rest of the movie, which is so far the worst in my collection.
The script is by Irving Brecher, who also wrote At the Circus and Go West. Robert Emmett O'Connor was Henderson in A Night at the Opera. Mary Astor, who's Mrs. Smith, was Marion Manning in Turnabout. Sam Harris was in Citizen Kane. That's Hugh Marlowe, the future Lloyd Richards of All About Eve, as Colonel Darly. Leon Ames, who plays Mr. Smith, would be in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones. Sid Newman, who's a boy on the trolley, over fifty years later would be in The Wedding Singer.
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