One Paragraph Movie Review: Babes In Arms

Twenty-sixth film: Babes In Arms from 1939, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney’s third film together about the children of vaudeville trying to refresh the genre for a new generation. Okay. So. The fact that this is a musical and contains Mickey Rooney means that purely by the misfortune of clashing tastes, this was never going to totally be my bag. And I’m utterly aware that attitudes towards some stuff were very different nearly eighty years ago. But oh, man. It’s so racist. One song called ‘My Daddy Was A Minstrel Man’ starts with Judy Garland singing “I want to black my face” and plummets downwards from there. The final musical number contains so many belittling stereotypes it’s like an offence smorgasbord. I don’t… I don’t think you should watch this movie. Less than one hey-isn’t-that-the-witch-from-The-Wizard-Of-Ozzes out of five, because I guess I have to give it something for the somersaults and harmonies. No.