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Happy Bday Judy! Eeeek!!!!
It’s the happiest day of the year on Turner Classic Movies!
Happy Birthday Judy!
6:15am Everybody Sing (1938)
How could you fault a movie that starts out with Judy busting up a music class (see photo) to sing swing music? She sings A LOT and it’s fun ’30s fluff, with rare screen appearance by Fanny Brice, who Funny Girl was based on. Definitely a pre-Oz picture, we can see MGM trying to figure out what to do with her…and so they just let her sing. And sing.
7:45am Girl Crazy (1943)
A suddenly matured Garland came on the scene in 1943, shirking off her ugly duckling persona for more glamour. Here she is the one who’s chased by Mickey Rooney at a dude ranch/boys school. This is also when her voice reaches its vocal peak and she sublimely sings her way through this great Gershwin score. If her performance of “But Not for Me” does not touch you then get your heart checked.
9:30am The Clock (1945)
Simply put, Judy’s best performance. She is (songlessly) thrown into a whirlwind wartime romance with soldier-on-leave Robert Walker as they navigate the labyrinth that is New York City. Vincente Minnelli’s direction and mise-en-scene make this forgotten classic worth rediscovering.
11:15am The Pirate (1948)
Judy is on FIRE in this camp classic co-starring the leggy Gene Kelly. Judy throws things, sings wildly, dances and daydreams to the tunes of Cole Porter. This movie shook my world when I first saw it when I was 12 and still “holds a special fascination for me” as Judy’s character says in the movie.
1:15pm Summer Stock (1950)
Judy is full of spit and vinegar here as a farmer (!) who lets her sister bring a theatre troop into her barn to put on a (totally random) show. Her last MGM movie and she steals it with her famous Get Happy number, but to me that is overshadowed by her heartbreaking performance of Friendly Star, a little known song that perfectly matches her tremulous voice. Oh and her and Gene Kelly have the hottest kiss imaginable at the end of the movie….phwaaaorr!!!
3:15pm A Star is Born (1954)
You can tell this is a Warner Bros movie and not an MGM musical but here have a different Judy as well. Her acting skills are second to none, especially Grace Kelly who walked away with the Oscar that year. My theory is that had Judy won the Academy Award that night she would’ve made many more films in the 1950s and we’d have even more to celebrate today.
6:15pm I Could Go on Singing (1963)
Judy’s last film feels somewhat autobiographic and captures Garland at her adult vocal peak. I’m not so much a fan of this movie but I respect its place in the Garland cannon. And she swears and smokes in this one. Dorothy would not approve.
So happy 89th birthday to an amazing singer and actress who scarily lives with me everyday! -
I’m a film improv comedy nerd. I was really into knowing all the improvisors that were coming out of Chicago. I don’t know if that’s geeky or not, but I guess it could be to some people. And I’m really into Judy Garland. I listen to her records a lot instead of cool music. I don’t know if that’s geeky either or just really strange. — Aubrey Plaza
(via rufustfirefly)
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Judy playing Penny Morris playing Sarah Bernhardt playing Napoleon.
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Jean Harlow centenary
Today would’ve been Jean Harlow’s 100th birthday…sadly she’s been dead since 1937 BUT her legacy is a great one. A magnetic MGM leading lady from the 1930s, Jean wasn’t conventionally beautiful or a stellar actress…but she had something…sex appeal mixed with vulnerability and a genuineness that makes her fresh today.
Immortalized in black and white, there are only a few films I’d consider essential viewing but she ignites the screen in all of them:
Dinner at Eight (1933)…as the gangster’s girlfriend trying to make it into society Jean is the girl from the wrong part of town that we all understand and love.
Red Dust (1932)…Jean is all flirt, all the time as she lures Clark Gable away from real stick in the mud.
Libeled Lady (1936)…Jean’s best performance, I can’t say enough good things.
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La Strada (1954)
8:30am
Italian actress Giulietta Masina is at once likable, mischievous and sad in this great, great film.
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Too Many Husbands (1940)
8:45am
No such thing.
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Romeo and Juliet (1936)
1 am
Semi-fascinating telling of the same-old, same-old but of interest because the stars are like 40 years old playing teenagers. The Depression was a strange time.
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The Bad Seed (1958)
3:30pm
Oh god, what a trainwreck! This picture about sums it up.
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Auntie Mame (1958)
1am
Pure delightful camp, I sometimes feel like this movie was MADE FOR ME.
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Captains Courageous (1937)
11:30am
Great ’30s child actor Freddie Bartholomew has his second best role (Hi, David Copperfield) alongside Spencer Tracy in this moving film.
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The Goddess (1957)
2:15 am
Not a well-known movie, this is apparently loosely-based on Marilyn Monroe…but the real attraction here is stage actress Kim Stanley tearing up the screen in the performance of a lifetime!
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American Beauty (1999)
2:15am
Some may dispute its classic status but I think it IS one, since it’s a product of its time yet possessing a timeless quality. Deep. Plus (see photo) it contains my favourite delivery of the “c” word on film.
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Swing Time (1936)
6:15pm
My fav Fred and Ginger has some great songs (The Way You Look Tonight!)…pure escapism.
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Lost Horizon (1937)
10:15am
Magical film has always been fascinating to me. If you haven’t seen it, watch it!
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Radio Days (1987)
4:30pm
Woody Allen’s most nostalgic film is a perfect recreation of the early 1940s NYC. The music is divine.
(and who IS Pearl Harbor?)
