tavm Review of Little Nellie Kelly

Little Nellie Kelly (1940)

Little Nellie Kelly is the movie I chose to watch this St. Patrick's Day

[7/10 · 17 March 2010]

In honor of today being St. Patrick's Day, I thought I'd check out this Judy Garland movie, adapted from Irish-American George M. Cohan's musical comedy and about and with many other Irish or at least other Americans of such descent, on YouTube. In this one, Ms. Garland plays two roles of which one is of Nellie Noonan whose father Mike (Charles Winninger) is so possessive of his daughter that he hates anyone who he thinks will take her away, even one as nice as Jerry Kelly (George Murphy). After the senior Nellie dies during childbirth, Mike and Jerry raise the same-named title character who grows into the spitting image. Unfortunately, Mike is as stubborn as ever despite Jerry's repeated attempts to ingratiate himself. And then there's the 2nd generation Nellie's potential suitor, Dennis Fogarty, (Douglas McPhail) to deal with...The story, despite the now-shopworn elements, is still touching as a tale of "Old World" vs. "New World" ways that threaten to conflict constantly during the whole thing but because of Ms. Garland's appeal as both mother and daughter, never blows completely over. In fact, despite Mike Noonan's mean-spiritedness, there are occasionally touches of tenderness of him with the daughter when no one else is around that make him not so bad which shouldn't be too surprising since he's played by one of the most lovable of character actors in Mr. Winninger even if his character is somewhat of a freeloader, or slacker as he now would be referred as. And Ms. Garland is thoroughly fine whether crying or laughing as both mother and daughter. And of course, her singing is divine throughout especially during the "Singin' in the Rain" number. And classical singer McPhail is also in fine form when serenading her to one of the few of Mr. Cohan's songs retained for the film. Unfortunately, the version I saw had a segment missing (Part 7 on YouTube) because of a copyright issue with WMG (Warner Music Group). Still, I liked what I saw and hope someday to eventually see the whole thing. In the meantime, Happy St. Paddy's Day everyone! P.S. Once again, I like noting when a cast or crew member is from my birthtown of Chicago, Ill., in this case, it's director Norman Taurog.