Summer Stock (1950, Charles Walters) (Patreon)

59/100

Can't imagine there's much dissent regarding which musical sequences are the standouts here: Kelly's solo for newspaper and creaky floorboard is such a classic that I saw it long ago (probably in one of the That's Entertainment! compilations), and Garland's performance of "Get Happy" delivers exactly what it promises (though I'm haunted by the knowledge that she made herself miserable to look that sleek). I'm also partial to "Dig-Dig-Dig Dig for Your Dinner," as it's apparently titled (the number with Kelly dancing on the table), which positively bursts with raucous energy. So Hawks' dictum—which I just referenced in another review within the past 48 hours, but oh well, fits here too—just about gets satisfied...though the rest of Summer Stock, while never actively bad (excepting maybe Phil Silvers' mugging), doesn't distinguish itself in any way. Moldy plot (had no idea that "And we can stage the show in the old barn!" survived this late), unconvincing romance (Kelly is atypically diffident here, and not because the role demands it; I'm probably projecting based on extratextual knowledge, but it often seems as if he's Gene concerned for Judy rather than Joe falling for Jane), supremely irritating Baxter (I'm not an Eddie Bracken fan, even in his Sturges pictures), forgettable songs. Auteurists adore Walters, and he executes one lovely flourish here, pulling back from Judy singing to Joe silently listening (unbeknownst to her) and then circling back into a Garland close-up. But he's not gifted enough to make this more than a passable formulaic trifle elevated by three blissful sequences.