Summer Stock (1950)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Charles Walters

Writers:

Sy Gomberg (story)
George Wells (writer) ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 January 1951 (Sweden)

Genre:

Musical | Romance

Plot:

A small-town farmer, down on her luck, finds her homestead invaded by a theatrical troupe invited to stay by her ne'er-do-well sister.

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Farm | Barn | Actor | Barn Dance

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Judy Garland	...	Jane Falbury
Gene Kelly	...	Joe D. Ross
Eddie Bracken	...	Orville Wingait
Gloria DeHaven	...	Abigail Falbury (as Gloria De Haven)
Marjorie Main	...	Esme
Phil Silvers	...	Herb Blake
Ray Collins	...	Jasper G. Wingait
Nita Bieber	...	Sarah Higgins
Carleton Carpenter	...	Artie
Hans Conried	...	Harrison I. Keath
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean Adcock	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Erville Alderson	...	Zeb (uncredited)
Bette Arlen	...	Show girl (uncredited)
George Bunny	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Paul E. Burns	...	Frank (uncredited)
Roy Butler	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Bridget Carr	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Michael Chapin	...	A boy (uncredited)
Jeanne Coyne	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Joan Dale	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Jack Daley	...	Producer (uncredited)
Eddie Dunn	...	Sheriff (uncredited)
Eugene Freedley	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Jack Gargan	...	Clerk (uncredited)
A. Cameron Grant	...	Producer (uncredited)
Carol Haney	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Betty Hannon	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Dickie Humphreys	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Teddy Infuhr	...	A Boy (uncredited)
Rena Lennart	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Arthur M. Loew Jr.	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Frank Pharr	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Don Powell	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Elynne Ray	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Marilyn Reiss	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Joe Roach	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Albert Ruiz	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Almira Sessions	...	Constance Fliggerton (uncredited)
Kathryn Sheldon	...	Amy Fliggerton (uncredited)
Reginald Simpson	...	Producer (uncredited)
Henry Sylvester	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Jimmy Thompson	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Joanne Tree	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Dorothy Tuttle	...	Stock company member (uncredited)
Bunny Waters	...	Show girl (uncredited)
Carol West	...	Stock company member (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Walters

Writing credits
Sy Gomberg		(story)
George Wells		(writer) and
Sy Gomberg		(writer)

Produced by
Joe Pasternak	....	producer

Cinematography by
Robert H. Planck		(director of photography) (as Robert Planck)

Film Editing by
Albert Akst

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons
Jack Martin Smith

Set Decoration by
Edwin B. Willis

Costume Design by
Walter Plunkett

Makeup Department
Sydney Guilaroff	....	hair stylist designer
William Tuttle	....	makeup designer (as William J. Tuttle)
Dorothy Ponedel	....	key makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joel Freeman	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Leslie H. Martinson	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Alfred E. Spencer	....	associate set decorator

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording supervisor

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Helen Rose	....	costumes: Gloria DeHaven

Music Department
Saul Chaplin	....	musical director
Johnny Green	....	musical director
Skip Martin	....	orchestrator
Conrad Salinger	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Nick Castle	....	dance stager
James Gooch	....	technicolor color consultant
Henri Jaffa	....	technicolor color consultant
Leslie H. Martinson	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1950) (USA) (theatrical)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

If You Feel Like Singing (UK)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #14515) | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This would be the last time that Gene Kelly and Judy Garland were paired together onscreen.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the "Newspaper Dance" Gene Kelly wads up a full sheet of newspaper, drops it, then kicks it. It lands near the risers to the right of the frame. It is still there when he dances up the risers. In the next scene it is gone as he walks past where it was.

Quotes:

Joe D. Ross: We're trying to tell a story with music, and song, and dance. Well, not just with words. For instance, if the boy tells the girl that he loves her, he just doesn't say it, he sings it.
Jane Falbury: Why doesn't he just say it?
Joe D. Ross: Why? Oh, I don't know, but it's kind of nice.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Boys in the Band (1970)

Soundtrack:

Mem'ry Island

"Crispy Lettuce in Your Jeans"....Puh-leeeez!

About 20 minutes into the film, Judy, whose two old geeky farm laborers have suddenly up and left her in the lurch, goes to town and buys a brand-new shiny tractor from her even geek-ier boyfriend (Eddie Bracken) and his overbearing father (Ray Collins).

As Judy drives the tractor back to her farm, she sings this wonderfully hokey but somewhat bizarre song entitled "Howdy, Neighbor!" with music by the phenomenal Harry Warren (of 1930's Warner Bros/Busby Berkeley musical fame) and lyrics by Mack David. Technically, the song keeps twisting and turning in terms of it's harmonies, phrase lengths and rhyme schemes, as if the creators were having a great time turning what should be a simple, straightforward country tune into a sophisticated musical "brain-teaser" which never goes quite where you expect it to.

This sequence features two of the most god-awful jump-cut edits in film history, as the background ABRUPTLY changes, while Judy just keeps chuggin' along (one of these edits occurs BEFORE she pulls into town for gas, the other as she is LEAVING the town).

While she's gassing up, she is surrounded by one of the goofiest assortment of extras you'll ever see, including this strange, very tall young woman who is dressed in a sort of pre-hippie ensemble of purples and blacks, complete with a cooley-style hat hanging on her back; how this could POSSIBLY pass for 1950 backwoods garb is beyond me. As Judy sings to this motley assortment, she actually tells them that they will be "blessed with crispy lettuce in your jeans", which they all cheerfully shout back at her (as the studio back-up chorus takes over for them). I assume that the reference is to money, which used to be referred to as "lettuce".

At the very end of the song, as Judy belts out the final note with an almost-paralyzing gusto, the camera hovers above her open mouth for what seems like an eternity, as we seem perilously close to hurtling down her gullet; it's amazingly over-the-top, and Judy's final little expression to the camera, as if to say, "Man, I thought that note would NEVER end", perhaps lets us know that the entire number is perhaps intended to be a bit of a "send-up."

What does all of this have to do with the film?? Not much, really. It's just so...well....unique. This song is the only extended instance of outdoor location shooting in the film, and it's such a great example of that bright, innocent, up-beat early 50's feeling that seems to have totally vanished from films today, and indeed our world as a whole.

Summer Stock, while not really top-drawer MGM stuff, is a VERY enjoyable film, a spirited variation on the "let's put on a show in the barn" routine, with Jean and Judy as captivating as always. Marjorie Main, Eddie Bracken, and Hans Conreid are just some of the wonderful supporting players, and Phil Silvers (in those rare moments when he isn't doing his annoying, manic "Aren't I funny?" business) is also in fine form.

Gene and Phil Silver's "Heavenly Music" number near the end,(complete with blacked-out teeth, giant rubber feet, yodeling, barking dogs, etc) is MGM at its most outlandish and wacky, a nice way for the big-city theatre people to poke fun at the locals who resent them so keenly. And then there are the lovely ballads, and the film's real highlight, Mr.Kelly's late-night, squeaky floorboard, newspaper-shuffling solo dance routine in the barn.

Lots of good old-fashioned, classy fun. Is a dvd release in the future??