A Film Canon

Released at Broadway's nadir, Babes In Arms redirects WWII against all the forces crushing show business - particularly the intransigence of the previous theatrical generation, in place of whose tired vaudeville routines musical prodigy Mickey Moran (Mickey Rooney) and his belle Patsy Barton (Judy Garland) devise the title 'kid musical'. Yet this redirection is only temporary, and comes full circle in the climactic number, "God's Country", which translates Mickey's inspirational narrative back into a militaristic register, as if the best way for young Americans to realise their Dream were to enlist - or, alternatively, as if war were just a way of ensuring that the nations could dance together again - producing a kitsch jingoism that is little more than propaganda: "We've got no Duce/ We've got no Fuhrer/ But we've got Garbo/ And Norma Shearer!" This precludes nuance, most obviously in the virtual absence of Berkeley's trademark theatrical ingenuity. Admittedly, this is replaced by a fairly ingenious transformation of the theatre into its own stage, as Rooney and his cast wander among the aisles, singing to individual audience members. However, this also epitomises the insidious, nauseating sentimentality of the entire film, as well as its elevation of the grotesque narcissism of the young to a moral achievement, both of which coincide with Rooney's tiresome persona, and its hero-worship.