Jane Falbury (Judy Garland) is trying to make a go of her failing farm while mostly ignoring her wealthy longtime fiancĆ©, Orville (Eddie Braken), when her flighty actress sister (Gloria DeHaven) shows up with an acting troop that includes Joe D. Ross (Gene Kelly) and sidekick Herb (Phil Silvers). Joe is under the impression that the farm is going to be the stage for his new show. Naturally thereās lots of confusion and lots of singing and dancing.
Summer Stock is more famous now as a documentary of Judy Garlandās physical and mental health than as a musical film. Garlandās drug habit was at its worst, or at least as bad as it got where she was also partially functional. Somehow her singing voice is solid. Otherwise, things arenāt so good. When she showed up for filming at all, she couldnāt follow direction, so her characterās emotional state has little to do with the movie and more to do with how Garland was feeling at the time. This is a light-as-fluff movie, so her extreme outbursts feel uncomfortable. Since she didnāt always show up when she was needed, numbers had to be re-choreographed on set, to remove her. It also meant that proper coverage wasnāt filmed leading to some odd editing and lots of continuity errors. And her weight swings are impossible to ignore, apparently leading to her costumes needing to be altered on a consistent basis. Her over-sized collars were meant to draw attention away from her fluctuating waist, but as I find the changes in her face more distracting, they donāt do their job. The change in her between 1948ās Words and Music, where she seems healthy, and this is shocking. Sheās aged at least a decade.
So even if everything else was great, Garlandās condition was going to pull it down. And it isnāt great. Itāsā¦OK. It was meant as an homage/return to the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney āLetās put on a showā pics, so weāre not exactly starting with Shakespeare. But Rooney had lost his luster, so they brought in Kelly when Garland got out of the sanatorium.
The songs are nice, but the musical numbers (with one exception) are not good enough to carry the show on their own. Garlandās voice and Kellyās dancing help a lot. And Kelly seems to understand the type of film heās in. When heās onscreen I donāt feel like cringing, so thatās a plus. Phil Silversās goofing doesnāt make me laugh, but it does fit the tone of the movie.
After theyād wrapped filming, the powers-that-be decided (rightly) that the movie needed a big musical finish, so they called back Garland and filmed Get Happy. Three months had put her in a less troubling mental place, and she was in remarkably better shape. That number is the high point of the film and a classic. It doesnāt fit with the rest of the movie, and her dramatic physical change is impossible to ignore, but Iād rather have this number in the movie than have it make sense. If you donāt stumble upon the entire film on free TV, then just look up this one number. Iāll help:
My other reviews of Gene Kelly films: Cover Girl (1944),Ā Anchors Aweigh (1945), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), The Pirate (1948),Ā Words and MusicĀ (1948), On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954), It’s Always Fair Weather (1955),Ā Les GirlsĀ (1957), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).