User reviews

Jane Powell plays Judy--a kooky teenager who can sing like a bird but who has difficulty picking friends. That's because her best friend, Carol (Elizabeth Taylor) is a rich, meddling, spoiled jerk--yet Judy doesn't seem to recognize this. And throughout the film, Carol does her best to make Judy's life miserable. For no particular reason, Carol drives a wedge between her brother, Oogie, and Judy--who are sweethearts. However, this backfires when Judy ends up with a much handsomer and older man, Stephen (Robert Stack). Now, jealous, Carol is determined to take Stephen for herself. But Stephen is no dummy--he sees that Carol is gorgeous but also lets her know that he can see right through her and her wiles.

In a smaller side story, Judy's father (Wallace Beery) is a nice guy--but a nice guy who is embarrassed that he doesn't know how to dance. With his anniversary coming up, he decides to secretly take dance lessons (with Carmen Miranda) but due to Carol's meddling, people begin to think that he and Carmen are in love! SO, Judy decides the best way to fight this is to make her father feel loved--and she and the family lay it on thick. Clearly this is Beery at his best--and he's easy to love (despite his very nasty personality off-screen).

This is the sort of light family musical-comedy that MGM did best. Films like "On Moonlight Bay" and "Meet Me in St. Louis" are just a small sampling of the sort of genre that the studio made to perfection. They also made some non-musicals with similar plots that just can't be beat, such as "Life With Father", the Andy Hardy films and "Cheaper By the Dozen" (the original--not the new crappy version). These films aren't especially deep but are filled with pleasant plots, a bit of minor melodrama, some laughs and, most importantly, nice folks you'd like to meet. My only complaint is that although Powell has a good voice, her high-toned style and high pitch is NOT to my liking. It's far less simple and pleasant than Judy Garland ("Meet Me in St. Louis") or Doris Day ("By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and "On Moonlight Bay"). I am also not a huge Carmen Miranda fan, though when she wasn't singing, she was just fine. Overall, while not a great family musical comedy, it's a good one and well worth your time.

"A Date with Judy" was a typical entertainment that MGM produced over and over as a way of showing its contract players. This film was a showcase to present Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor, two of the popular young actresses at the time. While the movie will not add anything to either one of the stars resumes, it's a pleasant way for watching how times have changed. The film was directed by Richard Thorpe, and produced by Joe Pasternak.

Judy and Carol are friends from school. Judy is the talented singer who is going to perform at a school party. Carol is the spoiled rich girl who is jealous of Judy. Oogie, Carol's brother, the band leader, is in love with Judy. To complicate things a newly arrived young man, Stephen, has come into town to work for the summer and he is the object of both Judy's and Carol's attention.

Wallace Beery is the best thing in the film. He plays Melvin Foster, Judy's father. He refuses to dance at the party with his wife, and thanks to Xavier Cugat's suggestion, he decides to engage Rosita, the voluptuous Carmen Miranda, to give him private lessons. Since the tutoring takes place in his office, and it's surrounded by a cloud of mystery, it appears Melvin and Rosita are having an affair. But the biggest surprise comes at the end of the film when the Fosters are celebrating their 20th anniversary and we watch Melvin, who by now is an experienced dancer, shows off on the dance floor. A delicious moment, indeed.

Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor are charming in their roles. Robert Stack and Scotty Beckett are also good. Leon Ames, Xavier Cugat, and the effervescent Carmen Miranda make excellent contributions, but it's Wallace Beery, who steals the show.

"A Date with Judy" will delight viewers looking for a nostalgic look at an uncomplicated time in America.

1948 produced some of MGM's top teenagers to movie audiences. Put them in a gorgeous technicolor musical comedy, add some veteran adults and you have one of the best of it's time.

Jane Powell, lovely voice and all, plays Judy. Her best friend is the now-sophisticated Elizabeth Taylor, all of 15 years old, looking absolutely lovely that you know she's headed for glamorous grownup roles down the road. The camera loved her. Then there's Scotty Beckett, having started his career at the age of four, now in the awkward teens, doing one of his best performances as Judy's date. Sad he died such a tragic death at an early age.

Scatter many film veterans to the likes of Wallace Berry and Selena Royale as Judy's parents, Robert Stack, young and handsome as Elizabeth's love interest, Leon Ames as Elizabeth and Scotty's dad, Clinton Sundberg as the butler to Ames, Xavier Cugat and his band with Carmen Miranda his star attraction, and one of her last films, and George Cleveland as Judy's Grandpa.

A trivia note: watch the scene with Judy waiting to be picked up for the prom. Early in the picture. Grandpa enters and actually kicks the dog to make his entrance. I had to rewind to believe what I saw. The dog also yelped when he did. And this is the guy who later played all those "Lassie" TV programs. Shame on you George!

All in all a charming and lighthearted film with the beauty of Taylor, the voice of Powell and the comedy of Beckett. Jane sings "A Most Unusual Day" and "Love Is Where You Find It".

A Date With Judy probably is Jane Powell's career role, maybe even more so than Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It's Jane at her juvenile cuteness with the movie song probably most identified with her.

Amazingly enough, It's A Most Unusual Day did not even get nominated for the Oscar sweepstakes that year which saw the best song as Buttons and Bows. Still the Jimmy McHugh-Harold Adamson song has an enduring quality, it's one eternally optimistic tune. Jane sings it so well.

The movie is based on a popular radio series of the time and in a few years it would move on to television where Judy Foster and Oogie Pringle would continue the everlasting courtship.

In this film we have two story lines working in tandem. War veteran Robert Stack working as a soda jerk, putting himself through college, and interested in both Jane Powell as Judy or Oogie Pringle's older sister Carol, who is Elizabeth Taylor. Jane is pretty, but Elizabeth was drop dead gorgeous. Is that ever a no brainer.

The second is Judy's dad, Wallace Beery learning the rumba from Carmen Miranda, so he can surprise mom, Selena Royle on their anniversary. Of course Powell and Taylor mistake the meaning of those office rendezvous.

In true family film fashion it all works out in the end. One thing I never understood is why any kid like Scotty Beckett would want to be tagged with the moniker of Oogie even though it's short for Ogden. What a name to go through life with.

Jane sings divinely though and that's the real reason for watching this pleasing, but terribly dated family film.

"A Date with Judy" is a nostalgic look at mid-20th century America when most of the world was at peace, or at least enjoying a calm. It's a picture of middle and upper middle-class white America after World War II. The film is set in Santa Barbara, California in 1948. Rock 'n roll hasn't yet burst on the scene. It was the sunset years of the corner drugstore with its soda fountain where teens met after high school. That's just before drive-in restaurants came on the scene in the1950s. Kids still dressed modestly and nicely. The bobbysoxer boom was just around the corner.

This is one of the lighter types of comedy-musicals that MGM made with various young stars after the series of Andy Hardy films with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland (1938-1946). The big musicals, of all the studios, were to come in the next two decades. That, despite the demise of the studio system.

This is a cute comedy romance with Jane Powell singing a few songs and she and 16-year-old Elizabeth Taylor organizing a high school musical program. Powell is Judy Foster and Taylor is Carol Pringle. Powell was three years older than Taylor, and although Taylor got her start in films younger than Powell, it was Powell's singing that propelled her career in musicals. Of course, Taylor's star would take off with excellent dramatic roles. Later Powell films were much better, but this is a light and fun film with a couple of tremendous young entertainers very early in their careers.

The most unusual casting for this film has to Wallace Beery as Judy's father, Melvin Colner Foster. The usually gruff, tough, and often nasty Beery actually pulls it off as a caring dad and nice guy in this film.

Carmen Miranda, known as the Brazilian Bombshell, adds some spice and humor to the story, as well as a tune. And, the frequently paired Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra (with Miranda) provide most of the music.

"A Date with Judy" is an enjoyable film that also gives an accurate peak at the culture of the time, place and people of the late 1940s in much of America.

Here are a couple lines from the film.

Judy Foster, "My father seems to think that his fish can get along very well without my help."

Caro Pringle, "I finally convinced father to let you and Oogie try out on his radio station." Judy, "You did? Oh, that's stinky super."

I found it interesting that MGM's two leading sopranos (Kathryn Grayson and Jane Powell) performed the same song ("Love is Where You Find It")in two different movies that were released in 1948. I had first heard the song sung by Kathryn Grayson in "The Kissing Bandit" and the first thing I thought of was how the song would sound if sung by Jane Powell. When I saw "A Date with Judy" 5 days ago for the first time, I got my answer! I thought Elizabeth Taylor was a hoot as a sultry "come-hither" sophisticated type against Jane Powell's perinnial "good girl". It's a wholesome corny flick, but boy, they don't make them like that anymore! As always I wish there had been more singing. Can anyone tell me where to get song lyrics from all the great old MGM musicals. I would love to have the words to "Love is Where You Find It".

Sweet comedy, a time capsule of teen-hood in the movies in the 40's with wonderful music courtesy of Xavier Cugat and his band.

Jane Powell is charmingly pert, full of youthful exuberance something she excelled at. According to her autobiography though that very spryness became a type of prison limiting her casting and when musicals declined in popularity made it impossible for her to transition to other types of pictures.

Someone who certainly didn't suffer the same issue is Elizabeth Taylor, very young and very beautiful, this was one of her first roles that flirted with adulthood.

The doomed Scotty Beckett, a major child star throughout his youth, plays Jane's gangly boyfriend, the unfortunately named Oogie, struggling with puberty in one of the roles attempting to ease him into adult roles. He couldn't make the leap and within the year started the long slide into trouble with the law and drug addiction that ended in his suicide two decades later at 38.

In one of his last roles Wallace Beery is full of warm understanding as Jane's father in a departure from his usual bluster, he and Selena Royale at well matched as a long married couple.

Lastly Carmen Miranda is a delight as always, her clothes and hats are outlandish, take special note of her shoes and wonder how she could possibly walk in them! One quibble, the Technicolor is unusually garish and at times the cast practically glows orange.

This musical comedy focuses on the trials and tribulations of a teenager rebelling against her parents and coping with puppy love. This is pure fluff, harmless and forgettable. It feels like an extended sitcom. In fact, it is much too extended for such fluff, far outstaying its welcome with a running time of nearly two hours. Powell is the teen of the title and Stack is the hunk she pines for. In his penultimate film, Beery is the teddy bear of a father. Miranda shakes the groove thing. It is interesting that Powell is the star here in only her fourth film while Taylor, who had already appeared in eight films, is given a secondary role.

Teenage girl in Southern California is in a quandary: could it be that her stodgy father is really having an affair with a spicy band singer? Jane Powell plays the suspicious kid, Wallace Beery is her pop, insane Carmen Miranda plays the colorful chanteuse. Modest sitcom, a featherweight piece of fluff, but perhaps an overlong one, with tired songs and not enough funny lines or gags. It's entirely slick and squeaky-clean, and might charm some with its nostalgia. Elizabeth Taylor easily steals the picture away from the others playing Jane's "progressive" pal--one who gets to wear false eyelashes to the prom!

** from ****

I first saw 'A Date With Judy' at the Radio City Music Hall in late August 1948 when I was eight years old.....what an epiphany!!! Years later I revisited the film via television...how could it ever hold up...but...it remains a total charmer!! Music via Powell is lovely, Elizabeth is breathtakingly beautiful...and charming.....then there is the rest of a super cast...Wallace Beery, Robert Stack, Selena Royale, George Cleveland (the wonderful grandfather from Lassie), Scotty Becket, Xavier Cugat...and lest we not forget, the superlative Carmen Miranda! "It's A Most Unusual Day" ( remember Hitchcock's use of this as Cary Grant walks through the Plaza just before his kidnapping?), Judaline, Love is Where You Find It" and most memorably of all.."Cuanto Le Gusto" (I have murdered the spelling but 'a rose is a rose'!) Super music and memories of the radio program and comic book of the same name.

This is a delightful musical , and was very successful, in 1948 and is a treasure for today...and it's been released on DVD! It would look sumptuous in Blueray...maybe soon?

Remember when Shirley Temple became a teenager and she made a few awkward films about the generation gap before rock 'n roll kicked in? A Date with Judy reminds me of one of those movies.

In this one, Wallace Beery plays the out-of-touch father, and his daughter Jane Powell tries to teach him the errors of his ways. Powell sings "Love is Where You Find It", a song that Kathryn Grayson also introduced in 1948's The Kissing Bandit; will we ever know who was truly the originator? To help teach her structured father, Powell enlists the help of Carmen Miranda and Xavier Cugat. They basically play themselves.

If you're not intimately familiar with the 1940s, the movie will seem incredibly dated. It's chalk-full of songs and dances, and a teenage romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Stack, but it doesn't really stand the test of time very well.

This film is a real riot of charm, song, wit and dazzling color. This kind of movie-making has been dead for a very long time, to my everlasting regret. Scotty Beckett and Jane Powell stand out. Unfortunately, Carmen Miranda is made to sing Hollywood's version of Brazilian songs, rather than the authentic stuff. It is disappointing that foreigners should so often be the object of amusement in American films. They are not allowed any dignity. However, Miranda makes the best of what she is given, and shines like a star.

The fun is wholesome, but not too wholesome. The plot involves suspected adultery by a venerable father!!! Plots and subplots are gloriously interwoven. Every time I see this film I am reassured that there IS such a thing as perfection.

They don't make films like "A date with Judy' anymore. Seeing it 67 years after it appeared on the screen, it is very much something out of an America that doesn't exist anymore in the way it was then depicted. Saying this, doesn't mean that the conceit of puppy love or depiction of small town America has been scrubbed from Hollywood's style book; far from it, the theme reappears in cut to fit more contemporary patterns. Middle class Santa Barbara is thinning out in today's America, whilst the town's wealthy class is growing fat on the favors of government since the 1980s. 'A date with Judy', shot in Technicolor, is a recycled radio show brought to the 'silver screen'. It is also reprocessed teen age 'love' that one found in the early 40s in the films of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland musicales. 'Judy' served two purposes: one, the feature 16 year old Elizabeth Taylor on the waxing phase of smoldering sexuality; two, as a vehicle to highlight the crystalline soprano voice of 17 year old Jane Powell. The script creaks but it has its bright moments when Carmen Miranda as a Rhumba teacher and singer of her fiancé Xavier Cugat's orchestra appears in the story. And, 'Judy' springs to life with her singing of 'Quanta la gusta', a hit of 1948. "our Gang's' Scotty Beckett, the almost 30 Robert Stack, Wallace Berry, George Cleveland, Selena Royale, Leon Ames dutiful fill the cast of uninspiring parents and grand parents, yet Beckett with his breaking voice and simple singing adds a comic note. And with mention in the credits is the black Lillian Yarbo the maid to fit the stereotype of African Americans of the time, and who is forever sweating in the the kitchen or answering the door or the telephone, and endlessly singing 'Sing low sweet chariot'. And Stack is the date for Judy but instead falls for Taylor. Although in Technicolor, one has to wonder if the state of the film hasn't deteriorated over time, for at moments when the camera takes close up of Talyor's vulpine shaped face, it looks as though she has a 5 o'clock shadow.

Judy Foster (Jane Powell) is a teenager in Santa Barbara, California. Carol Pringle (Elizabeth Taylor) is her Queen Bee. Carol convinces her younger brother Oogie to cancel his dance date with Judy. Judy meets Stephen Andrews (Robert Stack) and falls head over heels. She brings him to the dance and all the other girls come after him. Carol has a scheme to get Judy back together with Oogie while she goes after Stephen herself. Judy's father (Wallace Beery) is taking dance lessons from Rosita Conchellas (Carmen Miranda).

The best scene is Stephen confronting Carol with some truth bombs. There is also a Say Anything moment. Some of this movie feels like snippets of a modern movie but solidly within the 50's morality of white bread America. It does feel a bit jumbled and a bit messy. It's hard to land solidly with Carol but she is a very compelling character. Of course, part of that is the presence of Elizabeth Taylor. She can't help but exude charisma. It all adds up to an interesting teen movie but not really for teens.

Thin plot, with MGM trying to rehash some of its glory days and failing miserably. Louie Mayer had a penchant for opera singers -- Kathryn Grayson, Jane Powell, etc. -- that America did not share. Powell was great when she sang in normal cadence, but when she traveled to the moon with her voice, it turned audiences off. Elizabeth Taylor at 15 was thrown at a mature Robert Stack, who was 27. Nothing was said of any age difference. That was OK in 1948. So was the poor treatment of Scotty Beckett. Would teenagers enjoy Xavier Cugat? I doubt it. Come on! This movie has elements of charm, but its a mess, much like the so-called teen movies of the 60s, which were written by 40 year olds who had no idea what rock and roll was. Films can be very far behind the times when it comes to young people and their music. This film is no exception.

The music is nice and the acting is excellent. While I like Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor was positively gorgeous, I'm a huge fan of Wallace Beery. When we look back and consider great actors, he is very underrated. It offers a look back at the family unit of the time compared to what exists now.

This is basically a bad movie with a few good moments.

It starts with one of the good moments: Powell singing the great song "It's a Most Unusual Day". Then it starts to go downhill.

Wallace Berry, whom I liked in so many earlier movies, looks like he has been brought out of formaldehyde for this movie. He looks terrible, he acts terribly. He is, in short, terrible.

Robert Stack is also ill at ease as the handsome dreamboat. He doesn't look like a dreamboat, and he doesn't look comfortable in this movie. Can you blame him?

Elizabeth Taylor, a truly great actress, is miscast here as a teenage vamp. When she made Cleopatra years later she looked more comfortable in the part, but it was still a bad fit.

Powell plays her usual cheerful teenager. But this time it's poorly written, and she only gets one good song.

I don't understand who went to see these movies. They just aren't very good. They are like poor imitations of Deanna Durbin pictures.

As somebody who would see anything with Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Powell in it, and who has gotten a lot of pleasure out of Carmen Miranda, 'A Date With Judy' was quite the treat. It is an utterly charming film with much to like and difficult to hate.

It may feel overlong and twee by today's standards for some, both feelings understandable. Personally thought that there was very little to dislike about 'A Date With Judy', and its flaws are just a couple actually and very minor. It does to me go on a little longer than necessary for a story that is relatively slight, so a couple of parts lose momentum just a tad. Robert Stack, while handsome, is also a little too stiff for my liking.

However, 'A Date With Judy' is a lovely-looking film, lovingly shot in glorious Technicolor (that clearly loves Taylor and Powell, not quite so kind to Wallace Beery, often seen in black and white and towards the end of his life, though) and elegant and cosy production and costume design. While not unforgettable or timeless as such, the music and songs are still very good. "Love is Where You Find It" is heart-warming and heartfelt, and it is similarly easy to see why "A Most Unusual Day" was such a hit.

The script warms and touches the heart, and the storytelling while slight is warm, touching and amusing, losing very little if any of its appeal so long after the film was made and released. Richard Thorpe's direction never undermines the film's tone, which is always clear, and there is the sense that he knew what to do with the film and how to do it and that his heart was in it.

Stack aside, the cast are on point. Cute as a button and exuberantly youthful Powell effortlessly charms the viewer and her singing is divine. Taylor in one of her earliest roles is so beautiful here (if not quite as much as in 'Ivanhoe' and 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof') one can't take her eyes off her, she had a character that could easily annoy but she makes the role endearing. Scotty Beckett is amusing, while Leon Ames is movingly dignified and George Cleveland is a memorable grandfather figure.

Carmen Miranda is quite the Brazilian bombshell and a definite scene stealer. A big surprise was a more restrained and sympathetic than usual Wallace Beery, who tended to be in larger-than-life and large-slice-of-ham roles, this side to him was done remarkably by him and his learning of the rumba with Miranda stays with one forever, very sweet and moving.

Overall, an utterly charming film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I love this movie. Sure, I have to admit it's cheesy in parts. The story is light,but interesting. Jane Powell's acting and singing are great, and a young Elizabeth Taylor turns out, I think, one of her best performances. It is also the first of her "snobby, rich girl" roles.If you can find a copy of this, nab it! It's really good.