The third and ultimately final entry, following Babes in Arms and Strike Up the Band!, in MGM’s short run of “backyard musicals,” Babes on Broadway generated skepticism upon release around the casting of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, who in 1941 were starting to strain credibility in the roles of fresh-faced musical theater hopefuls. But the film struck a chord with audiences anyway, in large part because of Rooney and Garland’s maturing chemistry, with the latter’s effortless charm counterbalancing her costar’s scenery-chewing hamminess. The plot concerns the pair’s mission to independently produce a show that will shock the Broadway establishment, a familiar setup that Berkeley furnishes with numerous lengthy song-and-dance vignettes, from the heartfelt apartment-set “How About You?” to a group rehearsal scene no less elaborate or sensational than the more polished finales in the Gold Diggers series. Especially striking is the digressive multi-song sequence conceived as a salute to bygone Broadway stars, which is staged in a defunct vaudeville theater and guest-directed, in crane movements every bit as dynamic as Berkeley’s, by an upstart Vincente Minnelli.