Summer Stock (1950) on Netflix
Jane Falbury's Connecticut farm is in financial trouble and her two farm hands walk out. Her sister Abigail brings a theater troupe led by Joe Ross to the farm to rehearse.
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- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jane Falbury owns a family farm in Connecticut, and money is short. Her two hired hands quit because she has fallen behind on their pay, so Jane goes to her fiancé, Orville Wingait, hoping to buy a tractor on credit. Orville's father Jasper will lend her the machine if she agrees to marry Orville. Back at the farm, Jane finds that her sister Abigail has come home with a musical theater troupe led by Joe Ross. Abigail left art school to become an actress and offered the farm for the troupe's summer stock production.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Summer Stock (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Judy Garland finished her work on Summer Stock in early February 1950, but agreed to return for another week to sing "Get Happy", wearing the costume from the "Mr. Monotony" number cut from Easter Parade. A hypnotist had treated her for weight loss and she lost 15 lb, looking noticeably thinner in the number.
- Joe Pasternak asked studio head Louis B. Mayer whether to abandon Summer Stock because of Judy Garland's behavior, but Mayer insisted she be given another chance, saying that if production stopped then, "it'll finish her."
- Gene Kelly was not the first choice for his role in Summer Stock: Joe Pasternak originally wanted Mickey Rooney, but cast Kelly instead because Rooney was no longer the box office draw he had once been.
- Tension between Gene Kelly and dance director Nick Castle was so bad that the two nearly came to blows, and the difficulties on set led director Charles Walters to call the film "absolute torture" for him.
- Summer Stock was Judy Garland's last film for MGM and her final onscreen pairing with Gene Kelly. In September 1950 MGM ended her contract by mutual agreement, a decision studio head Louis B. Mayer said he later regretted.
- The "Get Happy" sequence has been referenced in pop culture: Michael Jackson performed "Dangerous" as a tribute to it at the 1993 American Music Awards and the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, with him and his dancers in suits, one dancer standing in front of him just as Garland is covered by a dancer in the film.
