If Busby Berkeley's films can only be evaluated based on the strength of their musical production numbers, then Strike Up the Band stands as one of his triumphs. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney are back, this time trying to win a national contest looking for the best high school musical group. Of course Rooney is the idealist, representative of America's can-do war-era spirit, and Garland is his long-suffering admirer who will eventually become his gal. June Preisser shows up again as more or less the same character she played in Busby's earlier Garland/Rooney musical Babes in Arms (1939), i.e. a self-absorbed, wanna-be actress who temporarily snares Rooney away from Garland with her charms. But, with no disrespect to the very talented Ms. Preisser, the film keeps her scenes mercifully short. Strike Up the Band features some of the most infectious and enjoyable production numbers of early 1940s musicals. Mickey Rooney had a passion for the drums in real life, so his casting as a drummer was a stroke of genius that allowed him to demonstrate his animalistic energy over and over again during the band scenes. "Do the La Conga" may be the best Garland and Rooney have ever been together. In that scene Berkeley manages to complement their personal magnetism with his trademark, massive-scale choreography. A prolonged theatrical sequence where Garland and Rooney put on a "melodrama" complete with a Temperance morale and a rescue sequence where a caped villain ties Garland to train tracks is simply superb. And anytime that Rooney leads his big brass band is pure cinematic magic.
8/10
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