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Judy Garland’s Greatest Movies, According to Data

Judy Garland’s Greatest Movies, According to Data

Judy Garland, who helped lift America’s spirits during the later stages of the Depression in the 1930s and continued to turn in strong performances into the ‘40s and ‘50s (plus a few in the early ‘60s), would have turned 100 on June 10. She was one the brightest stars during Hollywood’s Golden Era, but a tragic one as well. She scaled the heights of fame, appearing in such films as “A Star is Born,” “Meet Me in St. Louis,” and “Easter Parade,” but battled drug and alcohol addiction throughout her career.

To determine the best Judy Garland movies, 24/7 Tempo developed an index using average ratings on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, weighting all ratings equally. Directorial and cast information also came from IMDb.

America has always had a soft spot for Garland, the youngest daughter of vaudevillians from Minnesota. Her mystique is such that in 2019, 50 years after her death, a Garland biopic was a box-office success and won a Best Actress Oscar for Renée Zellweger.

Her early films were infused with optimism and energy at a time when America needed both. She appeared in five lavish Busby Berkeley productions, and was paired with Mickey Rooney in 10 films. Garland put on her dancing shoes for films with hoofers Gene Kelly (“For Me and My Gal”) and Fred Astaire (“Easter Parade”). She played few straight dramatic roles, but won plaudits for them. (See where Garland’s films fared among the best musicals of all time.)

Garland’s addiction, which began as a child when her mother gave her stimulants to perform and depressants to rest. Movie moguls only made her life worse, restricting her diet because they thought she was overweight. She died at the age of 47 – $4 million in debt, according to some sources. (Here are 20 celebrities who died broke.)

The public either didn’t notice Garland’s problems or didn’t care. They were captivated by her charm and ability to seemingly live the songs that she sang. Garland’s character of Dorothy Gale from “The Wizard of Oz” –  the wide-eyed Kansas farm girl with pigtails and a blue-checkered dress – would become one of America’s most iconic film images.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

20. Ziegfeld Follies (1945)
> IMDb user rating: 6.5/10 (2,919 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 59% (2,500 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 67% (12 reviews)
> Directed by: Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, Vincente Minnelli, George Sidney

Inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris, the Ziegfeld Follies were elaborate stage revues mounted in the early part of the 20th century by the great Broadway showman Florenz Ziegfeld. In 1945, film producer Arthur Freed recreated the splashy Ziegfeld shows with this all-star revue on the big screen. It stars Garland along with MGM Studios’ musical comedy stars Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Lucille Ball, Lena Horne, and Red Skelton.

Source: Archive Photos / Moviepix via Getty Images

19. Babes on Broadway (1941)
> IMDb user rating: 6.6/10 (1,541 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 68% (250 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: N/A (. reviews)
> Directed by: Busby Berkeley

One of five Busby Berkeley-helmed films on this list, “Babes on Broadway” pairs Garland and Mickey Rooney as aspiring singers who want to stage a show to benefit orphaned children.

Source: Archive Photos / Moviepix via Getty Images

18. In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (3,598 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 80% (4,007 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 58% (12 reviews)
> Directed by: Robert Z. Leonard

In this musical romance loosely based on the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch rom-com “The Shop Around the Corner,” Garland plays a young woman who gets a job at a music store in Chicago at the turn of the century. She gets along with everyone, though a salesman played by Van Johnson is somewhat aloof, hiding the fact that he is attracted to her.

Source: Archive Photos / Moviepix via Getty Images

17. Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
> IMDb user rating: 6.8/10 (1,787 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 74% (1,722 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: N/A (3 reviews)
> Directed by: George B. Seitz

The Andy Hardy movies helped establish Mickey Rooney as one of America’s biggest stars in the 1930s. In this film, Garland co-stars as a neighbor vying for Rooney’s affections in competition with two other girls.

Source: Archive Photos / Moviepix via Getty Images

16. Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
> IMDb user rating: 6.8/10 (2,748 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 78% (1,501 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: N/A (3 reviews)
> Directed by: Robert Z. Leonard

In this film, Garland portrays a vaudevillian who aspires to be a performer in the Ziegfeld Follies. The film had plenty of star power besides Garland, with the likes of James Stewart, Lana Turner, and Hedy Lamarr.

Source: Archive Photos / Moviepix via Getty Images

15. Strike Up the Band (1940)
> IMDb user rating: 6.9/10 (1,606 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 78% (972 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: .% (4 reviews)
> Directed by: Busby Berkeley

In this Garland-Rooney starrer, Rooney plays a teenage drummer who aspires to win a contest for school bands with the help of a singer played by Garland.

Source: Hulton Archive / Moviepix via Getty Images

14. Babes in Arms (1939)
> IMDb user rating: 6.4/10 (2,450 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 69% (1,209 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 90% (39 reviews)
> Directed by: Busby Berkeley

Rooney and Garland play the children of vaudeville performers who try to revive the entertainment form, which is losing popularity to motion pictures. They stage a show to try to realize their dream, but run into problems, including Mickey’s jealous girlfriend.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

13. The Pirate (1948)
> IMDb user rating: 6.9/10 (4,691 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 75% (5,115 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 78% (18 reviews)
> Directed by: Vincente Minnelli

Garland portrays a woman unhappily engaged to the mayor of her town who falls in love with a performer (Gene Kelly) at a traveling circus. The film is one of four directed or co-directed by Vincente Minnelli, who was Garland’s husband at the time (and the father of her daughter Liza Minnelli).

Source: Michael Ochs Archives / Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images

12. Gay Purr-ee (1962)
> IMDb user rating: 6.8/10 (1,779 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 77% (1,826 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 80% (5 reviews)
> Directed by: Abe Levitow

In this animated film, Garland voices a starstruck cat living on a farm in France who pines for the bright lights of Paris. Singer Robert Goulet voices her suitor and comedian Red Buttons is his cohort.

Source: Hulton Archive / Archive Photos via Getty Images

11. A Child Is Waiting (1963)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (2,801 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 73% (1,167 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 93% (14 reviews)
> Directed by: John Cassavetes

Garland didn’t appear in many straight dramas. “A Child is Waiting,” directed by independent movie pioneer John Cassavetes, was one of them. It is one of 12 movies on the list with a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 90% or above. In this film, she played a music teacher who works with children at a state mental institution and her methods put her at odds with the hospital’s authoritarian director (Burt Lancaster).

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

10. Girl Crazy (1943)
> IMDb user rating: 6.8/10 (1,784 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 74% (963 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (6 reviews)
> Directed by: Norman Taurog & Busby Berkeley

This is the first of seven Garland movies that received a perfect Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 100%. “Girl Crazy” is the classic ‘Hey kids, let’s put on a show” film about a college student (Mickey Rooney) who finds out his college is in desperate financial straits and wants to help the daughter (Garland) of the family who runs the school.

Source: Archive Photos / Moviepix via Getty Images

9. I Could Go on Singing (1963)
> IMDb user rating: 7.0/10 (1,429 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 76% (973 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (7 reviews)
> Directed by: Ronald Neame

In “I Could Go on Singing,” Garland is a singer who travels to London for a gig and rekindles a romantic relationship with a man that had resulted in the birth of a son, who lives with her lover in England. A fight between the erstwhile couple forces the boy to choose between parents.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

8. Easter Parade (1948)
> IMDb user rating: 7.4/10 (9,363 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 86% (9,329 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 91% (23 reviews)
> Directed by: Charles Walters

In this splashy musical, Garland plays an inexperienced dancer who is picked by a Broadway song-and-dance man Fred Astaire to be his partner after his former partner has decided to go solo.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

7. The Harvey Girls (1946)
> IMDb user rating: 7.1/10 (3,858 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 82% (5,706 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (12 reviews)
> Directed by: George Sidney

In “The Harvey Girls,” Garland plays a woman who answers an ad in New Mexico for a mail-order bride. When she finds out her would-be husband is a going-nowhere cowhand, she takes a job at the Harvey House restaurant and fends off opposition from a local saloon and a streetwise showgirl played by Angela Lansbury.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

6. For Me and My Gal (1942)
> IMDb user rating: 7.1/10 (3,299 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 83% (4,894 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (9 reviews)
> Directed by: Busby Berkeley

Garland and Gene Kelly play a vaudeville song-and-dance team separated by World War I who reunite after the war and fall in love. This is one of five Garland films directed by Busby Berkeley.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

5. Summer Stock (1950)
> IMDb user rating: 7.2/10 (4,024 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 83% (5,086 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (5 reviews)
> Directed by: Charles Walters

In this comedy/musical, Garland appears as a country girl tending the family farm in Connecticut while her actress sister (Gloria DeHaven) tours with a stock theater company. When her sister returns unexpectedly and wants to convert the family’s barn into location for a musical revue, Judy’s character is incensed, until her sister’s boyfriend (Gene Kelly) sells his car to buy the family a new tractor. Eventually, Judy gets into the act, which includes her singing the infectious Harold Arlen song “Get Happy.”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

4. A Star Is Born (1954)
> IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (16,992 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 81% (9,277 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 98% (42 reviews)
> Directed by: George Cukor

Garland’s performance in “A Star Is Born” is considered by many critics to be her greatest. This is the second of four versions of the film. Garland portrays an aspiring actress taken under the wing of an actor (James Mason), whom she eventually marries. While her career takes off, his declines, and he becomes a heavy drinker. Judy’s character must decide whether to move ahead with her career or try to save her husband’s life. Garland received the first of her two Oscar nominations for her performance. The film is ranked No. 7 on American Film Institute’s greatest musicals.

Source: Archive Photos / Moviepix via Getty Images

3. The Clock (1945)
> IMDb user rating: 7.4/10 (3,273 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 82% (1,247 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (12 reviews)
> Directed by: Vincente Minnelli

In this romance set during wartime,directed by her husband, Vincente Minnelli, Garland plays a secretary who meets a soldier (Robert Walker) on a two-day leave in New York City. After a day and night of sightseeing they fall in love and choose to get married before the soldier returns to duty.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

2. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
> IMDb user rating: 7.6/10 (22,263 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 87% (37,079 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (33 reviews)
> Directed by: Vincente Minnelli

Set during the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, “Meet Me in St. Louis” features Garland as one of four sisters in a well-to-do family learning the ways of the world in life and love. Among the songs the musical is famous for are “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The film is ranked No. 10 on American Film Institute’s greatest musicals.

Source: Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
> IMDb user rating: 8.0/10 (379,622 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 89% (876,535 votes)
> Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 99% (145 reviews)
> Directed by: Victor Fleming

The film that made Garland one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and is ranked as the third-greatest musical of all time by the American Film Institute features her as Dorothy Gale, a Kansas farm girl, transported to the land of Oz when her house is uprooted by a tornado. Garland received an honorary Academy Juvenile Award for her performance, while the film won Oscars for Best Music and Best Original Song (for Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow”).

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