PRESENTING LILY MARS
US, 1943, 104 minutes, Black and white.
Judy Garland, Van Heflin, Fay Bainter, Richard Carlson, Spring Byington.
Directed by Norman Taurog.
One of a number of M.G.M. star vehicles for Judy Garland in the early forties. She was soon to make Meet Me in St Louis and to have a successful adult career for several years before breakdown and a sad private life blended with success in such films as A Star in Born and many concerts. She was at the height of her powers as a young actress at this time and had a very charming and lovely personality on the screen.
This is presented very well in this film, directed by veteran Norman Taurog who directed her in such films as Girl Crazy. Van Heflin, who had just won an Oscar for Johnny Eager, matches Garland but leaves her in the limelight. Regulars like Fay Bainter, Spring Byington (one of the most charming and sentimental of American screen mothers), Connie Gilchrist, give good support. In the final sequence to show Lily Mars's success her dancing partner is Charles Walters who was to become a director of many musicals including Easter Parade and Summer Stock with Judy Garland herself.
1. An enjoyable film, musical? Judy Garland vehicle? Her presence, charm, acting ability?
2. M.G.M. production values, black and white photography, re-creation of the small American town, Broadway, musical numbers and choreography? The contribution of the score, songs, dancing?
3. The traditional American show business dream? The young girl and her aspiring ambitions, the push, luck, breaks? Hardships? Reality and fantasy? Toughness and sentiment?
4. The film as a piece of Americana (based on a Booth Tarkington story?) - the middle American town, its way of life, the presentation of the poor American family? The presuppositions of family values, goodness, support?
5. The songs - from the Operetta, the satire on the Operetta, the musicals with Tommy Dorsey, Bob Crosby? Every Little Movement, the Broadway Rhythm finale?
6. The picture of the Mars family: the humour, the hats, the door knobs, Charlie and the clashes with Lily because of her ambitions, going to the theatre with Charlie, Moma and her perennial niceness and seeing the good side of things, her homely proverbs and advice to the children, the children and their acting and singing ability, their support of Lily? Lily from this background? An idealised picture of the American family - as seen especially in the atmosphere of the mid-forties?
7. The portrait of the Thornways - Mrs Thornway and her nice absentmindedness, care for Lily and helping her? John and his successful career, his push over his mother, the Broadway producer type, his attitude towards Isobel, supporting Oven? The ironies of Isobel and Oven thinking that Lily was the mother of his child and the humour derived from this?
8. Lily and her push, contriving the various auditions for John Thornway - her renditions of Macbeth, the mother with the child etc.? John's threatening to spank her? The party and her singing? The arrival at the theatre and the comedy with the hats and the doorkeeper? her wanting a job? Gaining it? Her living with the other girls at the Incubator? Phone calls. dates? The love for John, the bonds between them? The crisis of her mimicking Isobel with her singing? The stepping in and the training for the show? The failure and her having to trust John?
9. How well did the film characterise Lily - her hopes, going to the city with her family's blessing, the theatre life, the changes and hopes for her, training, the necessity of experience, the dream almost being fulfilled, the test and her acting the part of the servant, her family's applause? Meeting the requirements of an actress?
10. The importance of the discussion with the would-be actress and her being at home on the stage even if only cleaning it, the sentiment behind the singing of Every Little Movement?
11. The humour in the character of Isobel, prima donna, her finding John out, her leaving the show, her return? The ironic critique of this kind of actress? Evan and his writing, his being in the background?
12. The crises of 'the show must go on' type? Re-writes, professionalism, the sacrifice of personal ambition?
13. The finale tacked on to the film to show Lily's success, an appropriate happy ending for the film? The reality of her having to train and work hard for success? The blend of reality and fantasy in this portrait of a would-be American actress?
