A Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland vehicle from 1943. Rooney, son of a millionaire, is a gadabout who hits the clubs, living it up till his dad can't take it anymore, sending him out West to an all boy academy but the moment he makes his way along to the school, he finds Garland by the side of the road trying to get her jalopy started. They don't hit it off right away (shock & surprise!) but as the regimen of the school starts to get to Rooney (mostly dressing up in cowboy garb & riding the range which he doesn't excel at) he claps his hands in defeat & writes his father to tell him so but then he finds out the college will be closing due a shortage of students so he proposes, w/Garland's ardent support (especially since the school dean is her grandfather) to make the college coed & to publicize the upcoming changes, have a beauty contest of sorts, crowning a belle who'll be representative of the establishment. What winds up the story is a mistaken gift of a locket which is initially promised to Garland but then is passed around like a collection plate & putting on the final show number which almost always takes place on a stage the school has no way of having. Ample tunes & dance sequences abound (Busby Berkeley did the choreography here w/Tommy Dorsey & his band, playing themselves, providing the background sounds) w/the 2 lovers assured to be together at the end & the school to live out many semesters to come. Also starring Nancy Walker (Mom of TV's Rhoda) as a friend of Garland's.
Review of Girl Crazy
