Video: Judy Garland Scrapbook (1994)

A 46-minute retrospective, The Judy Garland Scrapbook gathers movie trailers, still photos, posters, and some rare clips to celebrate the career of one of America's greatest entertainers. Among the rare items are a performance of "Over the Rainbow" for Armed Forces Screen Magazine, March of Dimes spots with Mickey Rooney, and a wardrobe test for Valley of the Dolls. The original highlight on this 1988 video was two scenes Garland filmed for Annie Get Your Gun in 1950 before she was removed from the picture due to her personal problems. These scenes are quite grainy, though, and can be seen to much better advantage as supplements to the 2000 video and DVD releases of the final version of Annie that starred Betty Hutton. (The clip of "I'm an Indian Too" is longer here, however.) Other quibbles with this collection might be the overreliance on trailers at the expense of film clips (though it could be argued that trailers are in fact more rare) and a heavy focus on the early MGM years with significantly less attention on the later period (no mention, for instance, of For Me and My Gal, Easter Parade, or Summer Stock, although the later concert years and A Star Is Born are covered). And while the narration claims to merely offer a film scrapbook of Garland's achievements "rather than make judgments," it clearly opines that the hectic studio life was a major cause of her personal problems.