Even by Rooney/Garland/Berkeley standards, Babes on Broadway is hollow and carries very little weight. There's only one true stand-out number: a ghost theater sequence where Rooney and Garland don different costumes and characters representing great stage performers of the past. Other than that, Babes on Broadway is forgettable. At first it seems like a traditional "A Star is Born" narrative wherein Rooney and Garland rise up from being nobodies to becoming great Broadway stars. But then it gets sidetracked by a campaign to help raise money to send poor children on a vacation to the countryside. From there it's anyone's guess. Garland's characters have never been bastions of feminism in Berkeley's films, but in Babes in Arms she exists almost solely to cry and be consoled/encouraged by Rooney. The film also ends with yet another minstrel show number, just like the one in Babes in Arms. So after watching Babes on Broadway, you will be left with just two memories: a single great duet and a horrifically racist show-closer. The film demonstrates promising energy in the opening scenes when Rooney is just a nobody performing for peanuts in a New York cellar. But that energy completely dissipates barely a third of the way through the run-time.
5/10
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