Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

richspenc Sadly, this is the last film before MGM fired Judy Garland. Its sad that her life was getting shaky around this time due to the toll her drug addiction was having on her. And I think it's even more sad that it was never Judy's fault that she got addicted to pills in the first place since it was MGM and Judy's mother that forced her to start and to keep taking these pills years earlier. They made her take these addictive stimulants so she could keep working long energetic hours at the studio. Then she became addicted to barbiturates cause the stimulants gave her insomnia. She and the other MGM stars were given some barbiturate pills half hour before bed, then fell asleep, then got woken up only 4 hours later and given their first stimulants of the day, a little breakfast (they were never allowed to eat that much so to keep their weight down), then back to work. Judy worked such long hours, slept those short 4 hour nights, and ate such a low calorie diet for so many years, that it all had taken such a toll on her by this time period, around 1950. And she wasn't as up to scratch at work anymore and was missing work all the time. That's why MGM fired her. Its all so unfair. Judy Garland was one of the most wonderful gifts we ever had in this world.Anyway, this film was pretty good but it wasn't one of the best like many of Judy's earlier films, but it was not Judy's fault. Some of the script is rather corny with the whole "goofy actors barging unannounced into Judy's barn" deal. I didn't care that much for the Phil Silvers character since he was too goofy and sorta a "bull in a China shop" kinda character. He destroys Judy's tractor, but not to be destructive, it's because he's clumsy and not smart enough to stay off a machine that he didn't know how to operate. Gene Kelly was good here but not quite as good as he was in "Me and my gal", "Anchors aweigh", and "Singin in the rain". And he and Judy, even though they are good together, did not have as much wonderful chemistry and magic together that they had in "Me and my gal". He still had a very good dance number where he kept ripping newspaper on the floor into smaller pieces with his dance moves. Judy still had some wonderful shining moments, especially when she sang including a very good song " Howdy neighbor, happy harvest" while she was riding home on her tractor. And also great in her famous "Get happy" song. Judy was engaged to Eddie Bracken, who was also sort of a goofy character, who was always irritating his dad. I liked Gloria Dehalivand as Judy's acting school sister who was the one who had the idea to stage production in her and Judy's barn to begin with. I didn't care for Judy's short hairstyle in this film as much as all her hairstyles in her previous films, but I still love Judy Garland very much. She was really one of the greatest things in Hollywood's already golden golden age.

TheLittleSongbird While it is not one of the best films of either Judy Garland (in her last MGM musical) or Gene Kelly, Summer Stock nevertheless is a treat for fans of either of them or both and it showcases their talents well.One shouldn't expect an awful lot from the story (true this said for a good deal of musicals before and during this period), it's certainly not disposable because Summer Stock does such a good job in entertaining and moving the viewer but it is rather weak in how thin as a wafer and trite it is, some parts also could have been developed longer to help them and some of the characters' motivations (particularly in the case of Gloria DeHaven) ring true better. Bumbling Phil Silvers is an acquired taste, some will find him funny, others annoying. For me he was a mixed bag, because at some points he was very amusing and then there were other points where he did grate (his accent in the Dig, Dig, Dig number is not for the easily offended either) and didn't seem necessary. The number Heavenly Music will also evoke mixed reactions, it will induce laughs for some and an equal share of cringes from others, for this viewer the campiness of the number got overly-silly to the point it got irritating and jarred with the rest of the film.However, Summer Stock looks fabulous, being shot in gloriously colourful Technicolor (clearly loving the ever photogenic Garland) and having good use of lighting, lavish costumes and handsome and never cheap sets. The film is very energetically and whimsically scored, the swinging Happy Harvest , restrained Friendly Star and particularly the characterful and sweet You Wonderful You instrumental arrangements standing out, and the songs apart from Heavenly Music are great, deserving a better distinction of having only two memorable songs or something like that. Especially good are the rousing Get Happy (an instant classic and one of Garland's signature tunes for very good reason), the charming You Wonderful You and the incredibly heartfelt and intimately filmed Friendly Star. Summer Stock boasts equally strong choreography, Portland Fancy perfectly shows what made Garland's and Kelly's partnership here click so well and is one of the finest dance duets in a Garland film and Kelly's newspaper routine is some of his best solo work. A large part of Kelly's appeal was how he did things that don't seem all that special or interesting and turned them into something truly extraordinary.The script is good-humoured and warm-hearted with a great deal of witty humour and charm, and while the story is not perfect in any shape or form it's at least breezily paced and cheers one up after a hard day complete with some nice emotional investment. Summer Stock is directed beautifully, and while there are reservations about Silvers the cast are very good indeed, Garland and Kelly in fact wonderful. Unlike some viewers, while a little jarring in Get Happy Garland's fluctuating weight didn't bother me because she is so charming, emotive, is exquisitely photographed, copes with ease with the dancing and sings an absolute dream, especially in Friendly Star. Kelly is at the top of his game with the dancing, he sings pleasantly and he's a dashing leading partner. His and Garland's partnership is a joy. Gloria DeHaven does make a real effort bringing some charm to a character that is quite shallow and doesn't have an awful lot to her and her voice is radiant, and Eddie Bracken is admirably more restrained than usual. Hans Conreid doesn't have an awful lot to do but is suitably smarmy.All in all, in her last MGM musical Judy Garland went out on a high in a film that even with its faults is very easy to 'get happy' to. 8/10 Bethany Cox

tortillachips-972-975637 I agree she looked thicker but goodness that determines a good movie or not? Hence, why she had many issues. They harassed actresses then about being skinny made folks crazy. I like the movie. Great singing and dancing. Did the plot have to be supreme? I had fun. She was a very...no extremely talented woman. I will watch anything she ever did in show business. Actresses are nit multi talented like that anymore. Very one dimensional. They are just skinny...big deal. Give me talent anytime. I would watch it again. Love Judy Garland. Besides doesn't help in real life come from unexpected places just like the movie. The farm got help from actors. Hey what a good idea!

jjnxn-1 Judy's last MGM film is bright, colorful and cheery but excepting two numbers a minor musical in her canon. Judy is wonderfully alive and sprightly, amazing in itself since the production of this was famously fraught with delays due to her fragile physical and emotional state during shooting. She's in glorious voice but her weight fluctuates noticeably from scene to scene, most jarringly in the finale where she walks off stage plump and reemerges whippet thin within the same show. There are other instances as well, the "Howdy Neigbor" number which should have taken 3 days to shoot and ended up taking 3 weeks, only completed by splicing together different successful takes, is the most obvious. Whole backgrounds change abruptly behind her while she's singing! The first of the two numbers that raise the film above the norm is the justly famous "Get Happy". An icon making moment that was filmed two weeks after the film had wrapped during which Judy had lost 20 pounds creating one of those sequences that were it not so galvanizing in and of itself would take you right out of the film. It is a bit jarring anyway since the quality of the material is so high above the rest of the film and in particular the awful number that precedes it, a barnyard travesty with Phil Silvers and Gene Kelly that is probably the worst thing he's ever done. The second number stands out in several ways. It's the hauntingly beautiful "Friendly Star" which Judy sings with tender delicacy, it's the scene in the film where she looks her best and it's appended by the movie's best straight passage, a tentative love scene between Judy and Gene. The rest of the film doesn't match these two high points but there are several pleasant scenes. Gene dances with newspapers, the lead pair tear it up during a barn dance that shows what an accomplished dancer Judy was, she effortlessly keeps up with Kelly. The film is loaded with high quality MGM stock players with Marjorie Main adding her customary basso spice to the proceedings. Metro had originally planned to reunite Judy with Mickey Rooney but changed their mind, a wise decision on their part since the two had grown apart in their performance styles. Just watch them in their last teaming in "Words and Music" two years prior to this, Judy has matured into an accomplished adult song interpreter while Mickey is still trying to get away with the same old tricks from a decade before and making a fool of himself. Fortunately Gene Kelly stepped into the role because of Judy and the kindness she had shown him in his first film "For Me & My Gal", they are a much better match. While his part isn't completely secondary it's Judy that stands out and she's the reason to see this. A shame to realize that after this she would only make five more films in the following 19 years and only two of those were musicals, a great loss to cinema.