Presenting Lily Mars

1943 film by Norman Taurog

April 29, 1943 (1943-04-29)

Running time

104 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$1,045,000^[1]Box office$3,255,000^[1]

Presenting Lily Mars is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, produced by Joe Pasternak, starring Judy Garland and Van Heflin, and based on the 1933 novel by Booth Tarkington. The film is often cited as Garland's first film playing an adult role. However, the issue is complicated by the delay in this film's release caused by reshooting the finale, and Garland's brutal work schedule—She was filming Girl Crazy and For Me and My Gal at the same time.^[2] Also, in Little Nellie Kelly, released in 1940, she plays her character's mother, dying in childbirth. Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby appear with their orchestras in this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production.

Plot

Lily Mars (Judy Garland) is a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She contrives to audition for a Broadway producer whose father was the local physician and whose family piano her father also happened to tune. However, the producer wants nothing to do with her. She then heads to Broadway hoping to convince him to cast her, but after a series of disappointments, the best she can manage is an understudy job.^[3]

Cast

Judy Garland as Lily Mars
Van Heflin as John Thornway
Fay Bainter as Mrs. Thornway
Richard Carlson as Owen Vail
Spring Byington as Mrs. Mars
Marta Eggerth as Isobel Rekay
Connie Gilchrist as Frankie
Leonid Kinskey as Leo
Patricia Barker as Poppy
Janet Chapman as Violet
Annabelle Logan as Rosie
Douglas Croft as Davey
Ray McDonald as Charlie Potter
Charles Walters as Lily's Dance Partner in Finale (uncredited)^[4]
Lillian Yarbo as Rosa, Isobel's maid (uncredited)

Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes:

"Every Little Movement (Has a Meaning All Its Own)"
"When I Look At You"
"Tom, Tom The Piper's Son"
"Three O'Clock in the Morning" and
"Broadway Rhythm" featuring Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra.

The finale, "Where There's Music", originally included parts of "St. Louis Blues", "In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree", and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", which were deleted from the final version.

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned USD$2,216,000 in the US and Canada and $1,039,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,211,000.^[1]^[5]

An April 30, 1943, New York Times review bylined T. S. praises Judy Garland's “blithe talents” but concludes: “For all its sweetness, "Presenting Lily Mars" is uninviting fare; it is glorified monotony. Perhaps M-G-M should let Miss Garland grow up and stay that way.”^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
^ "Presenting Lily Mars". prod.tcm.com. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
^ Presenting Lily Mars (1943), AllMovie.
^ Presenting Lily Mars, IMDb.com
^ "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety, 5 January 1944 p 54
^ T.S. (April 30, 1943). "At the Capitol". The New York Times. p. 0. Retrieved September 6, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)