A fabulous star vehicle for Judy Garland, who glows with talent and basks in the best songs and production values that MGM could bestow on her. The studio also gave her a new leading man, a dancer with a neon smile who had impressed Broadway critics as John O'Hara's heel in Pal Joey. His name? Gene Kelly, here making a stunning movie debut. Director Busby Berkeley, on top form and for once shorn of his kaleidoscopic box of tricks, uses his leads brilliantly: the sheer charm of the title number and When You Wore a Tulip should be what cinema is all about. Kelly's character is not the most endearing ever, but the plot's engrossing, nonetheless.

Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.