The last MGM musical starring Judy Garland shows her talent undiminished. The studio’s powerful music & dance experts float four or five excellent production numbers in a story that plays like something meant for Judy and Mickey Rooney, because that’s exactly what it is. By 1950 Rooney was no longer a big name draw and Gene Kelly was enlisted to take his place. As anyone exposed to Judy Garland lore knows all too well, by this time her career was in a shambles after her aborted attempt to film Annie Get Your Gun through obvious health issues and a nervous breakdown. MGM seems to have undertaken Summer Stock as a financial gambit, extracting one last big payday out of the talented lady before letting her go.
It’s almost better not to know these things, but even when seen in ignorance there’s something a little ‘off’ about Summer Stock. Most of its humor is flat to all but those in denial, as is the dated ‘let’s put on a show’ plotting. Yet a handful of superior numbers advance the production far into favorable status.
About to lose her farm, country girl Jane Falbury (Judy Garland) talks the father (Ray Collins) of her spineless long-time fiancée Orville Wingait (Eddie Bracken) into advancing a tractor to make her work easier. But the Falbury barnyard is invaded by a summer stock company invited by Jane’s spendthrift sister Abigail (Gloria DeHaven). Before she knows it Jane is trading farm chores for barn space to put on a show. Jane also finds herself attracted to the show’s director-producer Joe Ross (Gene Kelly). That’s a problem, because Joe is Abigail’s boyfriend.
I have a feeling that the debacle of Annie Get Your Gun did not filter down to the average ticket buyer, who by 1950 likely still identified Judy Garland as that cute girl on The Yellow Brick Road. She still enjoyed public approval and affection, as audiences responded enthusiastically to Summer Stock. But a curse hangs over the movie: after fourteen years sacrificing her youth and health to MGM, the studio decided it could no longer work with with it’s once-brightest star. Weighing almost a fourth more than when she was booted from Annie / Gun, Garland was probably at a healthy weight. MGM showed its panic by dressing her farmer character in ‘fat clothes’ — plenty of loose work shirts and rustic overalls. Judy’s dark dresses cannot hide the fact that she’s no longer the unhealthy skinny wreck she’d been for the second half of the 1940s.
This immediately becomes evident in the concluding “Get Happy” number, a showstopper that puts Summer Stock into must-see classic status. Across a cut, the tiny Ms. Garland suddenly sheds at least fifteen pounds, recovering the lean look and cute figure that plays so well on screen. The crazy thing is that when the show continues, Judy looks plump and healthy again, with even a tiny double chin. She certainly was trying to bounce back with Summer Stock, which doesn’t flatter the studio’s actions, at least not in the published versions of MGM history. With the pressure from New York to streamline the factory and cut costs, I would imagine that the brass had it in mind all along to relieve themselves of Garland’s hefty contract salary.
Summer Stock would be easy to imagine as a 1943 Garland and Rooney production, and that’s its main fault. Its mechanics are even simpler than a show like Babes on Broadway: aave the farm, put on a show, ditch the loser love interests so the leads can get together. Neither dedicated pro showman Joe nor farm hayseed Jame have any intention of being the stars, no sir … events force them to rise to the occasion. Why, Jane Falbury’s aunt was a wild entertainer, you see, and darned if Jane isn’t some kind of natural dancer. She’s kept her voice in shape by singing in the shower! We can see Ma and Pa Kettle losing their sense of humor over these creaky plot ideas.
Part of the lack of enthusiasm for Summer Stock is the lazy way the George Wells – Sy Gomberg script abuses the supporting players. Amusing personality Eddie Bracken and perky MGM contract player Gloria DeHaven are tasked with playing unfunny, unpleasant jerks so as to make Garland and Kelly seem all the more virtuous for dumping them. Marjorie Main and Phil Silvers are allowed screen time when an easy laugh is needed. Hans Conreid is a one-note Broadway snoot, and the very talented Carleton Carpenter is shoehorned into doing minor expositional duty, as if the studio no longer had an interest in him and just plunked him into the first open slot. Jeanne Coyne and Carol Haney are said to be in the stock company — I wish I were better at spotting them.
The music in general fares much better, with a short list of numbers making Summer Stock well worth checking out. The show kids break up the locals’ stuffy square dance, a move that seems mean-spirited until Kelly and Garland face off in sort of a dueling dance challenge that’s both simple and refreshing. Kelly and Phil Silvers’ dumb-hicks song routine Heavenly Music has them wearing blacked-out teeth and oversized Hobbit-like feet, and bumbling like the country wolf in the Tex Avery cartoon. Kelly does his own version of one of Fred Astaire’s minimalist novelty numbers, the ones in which Fred dances with an inanimate object like a hat rack. Alone on the stage, Kelly finds a squeaky floorboard and a noisy newspaper and uses them to add percussion enhancement to his impromptu tap-shuffling.
Naturally, on the night of the big do-or-die show the rather primitive-looking revue of the rehearsals is transformed into a flashy extravaganza. The stage has grown a slick floor, the costumes are suddenly elegant and elaborate scenery sprouts from nowhere. Carleton Carpenter’s one-man lighting turns into a full MGM crew effort. The show looks more like the Follies Bergère than Yahoo, Iowa.
The Get Happy number really looks like it belongs in a different movie. On a higher plane both stylistically and musically, it’s yet another Judy Garland miracle that comes across as effortless perfection. Even the chorus boys seem to have individualized looks and personalities, and Garland moves among them like the most polished performer that ever was. Instead of leaving MGM as a failure who fell apart and couldn’t finish a movie, she goes out on a career high. Indeed, Get Happy’s altered tuxedo look with a jazzy hat over one eye would become Garland’s chosen image for fifteen more years of stage and television appearances, as well as key numbers in A Star is Born.
