The first of five musicals together, Babes in Arms teamed Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland as a couple of kids struggling to put on a show in the old barn. It’s not Citizen Kane, but for a wholesome good time when Americans were still recovering from the Depression and war was brewing in Europe, nothing satisfied like a nice, little flick from the iconic boy and girl next door.

In this film, Mickey and Judy are high school sweethearts who happen to be the children of vaudevillians. When their parents attempt a comeback, the ambitious young performers want to make a go of it themselves by gathering up a bunch of friends and stage a show in their backyard. The plot’s a bit old and cornball, even for 1939, but the spectacular talents involved work to make this production impressively entertaining.

Rooney was the biggest star in the world at the time, and for good reason. The young man had been working in movies since he was 6, making a name for himself as “Puck” in the 1935 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and winning the hearts of moviegoers as the lead character in the Andy Hardy films. A dancer, singer, musician, and remarkable impressionist, Rooney’s talents are showcased to great advantage in Babes, so much so that it earned him an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. And Garland herself was already a recognized vocal prodigy and a new raising star at MGM, having just finished The Wizard of Oz.

But what really brings this charming example of a backstage musical together is the incomparable staging talents of its director, the famed choreographer Busby Berkeley. Responsible for some of the most eye-catching sequences ever brought to the screen, Berkeley had so impressed studio chief Louis B. Mayer with his recent work on the dance routines for a Jeanette MacDonald film that Mayer confidently handed Berkeley the reigns for his first directing gig. Of course, with Rooney and Garland as stars it would have been impossible to fail, but Berkeley’s inspiring, show-stopping numbers (much too grand to fit in any real backyard) present the brightest young talents in the best light possible, making Babes in Arms a pure and simple joy to experience.

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