Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

Some things I liked some I did not.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Loosely based on the 1933 Booth Tarkington novel of the same name, the 1943 PRESENTING LILY MARS can only be described as Americana at its most excessive. The flyweight story concerns a small town teenager (Judy Garland) who has been bitten by the acting bug--and who sees an opportunity when a Broadway producer and director (Van Heflin) hits town on a family visit. She accordingly lays siege to him, and when he rejects her efforts even goes so far as to follow him to New York, begging for a role in current play.Garland is a knockout in this film, not only at the height of her teenage beauty, but showing considerable comic gifts as well--and then, of course, there is that voice. Van Heflin and a memorable supporting cast are also very attractive, director Norman Taurog keeps everything moving at a nice clip, and everything is done with bang-up production values you expect from MGM. But the movie doesn't have much in the way of either script or plot, nor is the score greatly memorable.The cast carries their roles quite well, but they are constantly thrown into bits of business and dialogue that are so excessively cute that at times the movie becomes down-right cringe-inducing. The score is pleasant enough, but there's actually very little of it, and the inevitable end-of-the-movie production number has a tacked-on quality. When all is said and done, Garland and company make it worth the trip--but this is one film that will likely give even the most hardcore Garland fan pause.GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Presenting Lily Mars (MGM, 1943) is a cute film, but in my opinion it could have been better. Judy Garland is great as always, but some scenes in the film seem out of place and the romance between her and Van Heflin develops all too quickly.I mean, one minute he's ready to beat her butt, but the next minute he falls in love with her. I believe that this production, the film editing, and the script ( even though the photography was great, the scenery was nice and the costumes were nice as well) could have been a little better. It feels as though the production was too rushed. The supporting cast was good as well, especially little Janet Chapman as the second youngest daughter daughter Rosie. She at the age of 11, looks really cute and it's a shame that she didn't develop into a teenage comic actress. She's much better in this film than in her previous films as Warner Brothers in the late 1930's (except for Broadway Musketeers 1938, she's really good in that), when they tried to make her into a Shirley Temple/Sybil Jason hybrid. Overall, this film could better, but in the end, Judy gave it her all.

Presenting Lily Mars is one of a genre of film that sadly seems to have disappeared with the studio system. Ok now that you know my bias, here are some reasons I think this movie does stand out.1. Although the basic plot - Lily Mars (Judy Garland) goes to New York, becomes a star, and wins the heart of her director (Van Heflin) is a pretty stock Hollywood story of the period, the writers do vary the theme her a bit more than usual. Although Lily gets her big break when the star quits, she isn't successful and has to swallow her pride and go back to playing a minor role in the show.2. Judy Garland (enough said!)3. The supporting cast includes some really great performances. Spring Byington as Lily's mother is truely wonderful, as is Fay Bainter (the mother of the director - John Thornway (Van Heflin)). The standout supporting performance though goes to character actress Connie Gilchrist as Frankie, a one time actress turned theater custodian.Worth a watch for sure. One of those movies that are designed to make you feel better about the world and your dreams.

This long fizzle of a backstage comedy/romance doesn't number among Judy Garland's more congenial vehicles (nor, for that matter, Van Heflin's). It can't make up its mind whether to milk wartime audiences with sentimental hometown horseplay or dazzle them with the foots and spots of the great white way, and ends up doing justice to neither. Stale old tropes and gags, dating from Busby Berkeley musicals a decade old and Mickey Rooney vehicles like the Andy Hardy series and The Human Comedy, get passed around without the slightest attempt to crisp them up. Worst of all, the song and dance numbers get doled out parsimoniously (a blessing in disguise, since they're insipid and rarely do Garland justice). Norman Taurog's Presenting Lily Mars presents a pastiche of the second-rate.Garland's Lily Mars is a small-town Indiana girl intoxicated by the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd. When a neighbor's Broadway-producer son (Heflin) blows into town, she pulls a string of Lucy-Ricardoish stunts to get discovered. With the blessing of her mother (Spring Byington), she thumbs her way to New York and wedges herself into Heflin's life. (Heflin's mother is Fay Bainter, making this Hoosier town a world capital of sugary supermoms.) But once in The Big Apple, the problem proves to be Heflin's girlfriend, charmless Martha Eggerth. She's the temperamental and heavily-accented star of his big hit, an utterly dreadful Ruritanian folly, lousy with bad ballet and crummy coloratura, that's foisted off as fun. The movie's almost a break-a-leg story but pulls up lame, because Garland must learn patience and earn her stardom. But second thoughts from MGM's executive suite must have prevailed, because after the point where Booth Tarkington's story logically ends, with Garland humbly delivering the equivalent of a `dinner is served' line, Judy/Lily gives a couple of encores in the style of her daughter Liza/Francine's Happy Endings lollapalooza in New York, New York. Luckily for Garland, she would soon catch the eye of a director (and husband) who would appreciate and showcase her gifts (and her maturity) in movies like Meet Me in Saint Louis and The Clock, leaving behind forever juvenilia like Presenting Lily Mars.