It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Blistering performances.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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.

I have to confess some disappointment in Little Nellie Kelly. Not that I was disappointed with the performances of Judy Garland and the rest of the cast. But I was actually hoping to see an adaption of some kind of George M. Cohan's musical comedy that ran 276 performances during the 1922-23 season on Broadway. But other than the title song and another number, this is not what ran on Broadway at the time. Pity because I would like to have seen just what a George M. Cohan musical comedy was all about. Other than the straight drama/mystery Seven Keys To Baldpate none of Cohan's work was ever brought to the sound screen.I'm surprised that this film is not run as often as The Quiet Man in and around St. Patrick's Day every year. The story has Judy Garland playing a mother and daughter. Mother marries George Murphy over in Ireland to the distress of her father Charles Winninger. After all of them emigrate to America, Judy dies giving birth to Judy. So the young girl is raised by her father and maternal grandfather.Which wasn't easy to do because Winninger and Murphy quarrel rather stupidly and don't speak to each other even though they're living in the same household. If it wasn't for the fact that Winninger is helping to raise Garland his granddaughter by staying at home, Murphy would have and should have thrown him out years ago. Winninger is just plain allergic to work.In the scenes he's in Winninger's a lovable loafer and really steals everything he's in. Barry Fitzgerald must not have been available though his brother Arthur Shields is in the film as the father of Douglas MacPhail that the younger Garland falls for. Winninger is playing a part Barry would normally have been cast in. He and Garland clicked so well that they were cast as father and daughter again in Ziegfeld Girl the following year.The soundtrack is an odd mix of Cohan's songs, Irish ditties, and some new numbers and for Judy, a revival of Singing In The Rain which producer Arthur Freed coincidentally enough wrote the lyrics for. However her best number is with Douglas MacPhail, It's A Great Day For The Irish which she made a Decca record of as a solo backed by The Wearing Of The Green. It's a more modern version of the same type of song as MacNamara's Band.Judy's worldwide legion of fans will love Little Nellie Kelly. Still it might have been nice to have one of George M. Cohan's musicals done in some fashion.

Judy Garland was a sensation in THE WIZARD OF OZ and BABES IN ARMS--but in 1940 she was eighteen years old, and LITTLE NELLY KELLY finds her in transition between the child star she was and the adult star she would become.Based on a George M. Cohan play, the film offers Garland a double role: first as Irish-born Nelly Kelly and later as her teenage daughter, "Little" Nelly Kelly. The storyline is sentimental. Against father Charles Winninger's wishes, Mother Garland marries George Murphy and leaves Ireland for America--with her stubborn and ill-tempered father in tow. After becoming an American citizen, she dies in childbirth (Garland's only death scene, and she plays it very well), leaving possessive grandfather and police officer husband to wangle over the future of daughter Garland.The first portion of the film is the weakest, with neither Garland nor Murphy entirely at home with their Irish accents; another flaw is the fact that Winninger's irascible grandfather eventually becomes a shade too obnoxious to fully engage our sympathies and Murphy is none-too-convincing in old-age make-up. Although not a musical per se, the real highlight of the film are Garland's few songs, which include "A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow," "A Great Day for the Irish," and an elaborate staging of "Singin' In The Rain." Although she still shows traces of the affectations forced upon her in previous films by director Busby Berkley, she performs both her numbers and her scenes with a playfulness and sincerity that is quite charming.Although expertly made, LITTLE NELLY KELLY is essentially an inexpensive programmer designed to test Garland's potential as an adult actress--a test which she clearly passes. But the film is so greatly overshadowed by both her earlier and later achievements that it is negligible in both her cannon and the musical genre as a whole, and as such will be of interests more to Garland completest than to casual viewers. Recommended for hardcore fans only.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

George M. Cohan's famous musical comedy of the early 1900's became Judy Garland's first young adult movie role after her role as pre-teenager Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz". It was also her best role and best performance, second to "Oz", prior to "Meet Me in St. Louis". The story tells of a feisty young Irish lass, Nellie Noonan, who falls in love with a handsome Irish cop, Jerry Kelly (George Murphy), then moves to America. Her pig-headed Irish father, Mike Noonan (Charles Winnger), follows, in spite of the fact that he hated seeing his beautiful little girl get married and leave him. When Nellie gives birth to a little girl, tragedy strikes, leaving Jerry and Mike to pick up the pieces and raise Little Nellie Kelly together. Little Nellie is equally as feisty as her mother, but is modernized and very American. She has the affection of many local boys, most especially Dennis Fogarty (Douglas MacPhail), a clean-cut young lad who has the approval of Jerry, but not Grandfather Mike who wants to keep Nellie all to himself. Nellie triumphs by singing in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and later at a huge party.During her teenage years, perky Judy Garland appeared mostly opposite the sometimes too energetic Mickey Rooney; MGM always seemed to consider her not as glamorous as their other young stars, Ann Rutherford and Lana Turner, but in "Little Nellie Kelly", she is the epitome of confidence and youthful joy and happiness. There are no down-putting ballads here, like "In Between", "I'm Nobody's Baby", and "But Not For Me" from the Rooney films. For example, as the older Nellie Kelly, she delivers a very poignant "A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow", later reprised by the younger Nellie in a swing version. In the St. Patrick's Day parade, she leads the chorus in the production number "It's a Great Day For the Irish!" with a confidence her characters lacked in the Rooney films. Then, at the party, she sings a swinging version of the decade old standard "Singin' in the Rain", with special introduction lyrics added just for Judy. Later, Judy herself is serenaded by her admirers in the George M. Cohan song from the original show, "Nellie Kelly, I Love You!". While it is obvious that the play's story was somewhat altered to modernize it for the early 40's, it still retains Cohan's charm. Judy also lost the nervous gestures she was forced to use in the Rooney films and acts with grace and confidence.Charles Winninger is amusing as the lovable but hard-hearted grandfather, especially in a sequence where he stirs up a union struggle when Little Nellie tries to get him to work at a construction site; George Murphy goes from young romantic hero to proud and loving father without blinking an eye; The future senator is totally at ease here, and is quite likable. Douglas MacPhail went from second lead in "Babes in Arms" to Garland's love interest, singing "Nellie Kelly, I Love You" with his surprisingly mature deep voice. The rest of the cast is fine too, in much smaller roles, most notably familiar character actress Almira Sessions in the brief role of baby Nellie's nurse.