Here is the complete “Last Night When We Were Young” sequence from “In The Good Old Summertime” (1949) as performed by Judy Garland on January 27, 1949, at MGM.
(Check out this video for the raw footage: • Last Night When We Wer... )
This deleted song has been included in several laser disc, DVD, and Blu-ray releases. However, most of the footage of the entire sequence has never been released.
The sequence begins with a scene that’s in the final edit of the film. Veronica (Judy) returns home from her disastrous date and tells her aunt about it. She then walks up the stairs and in the finished film it cuts to the next day at the Oberkugen music shop.
Originally, the film was to fade to Veronica in her bedroom. We see her move about her room and hear her thoughts which segued into “Last Night When We Were Young.” This footage is silent at first, then we hear a woman’s voice reciting Veronica’s thoughts (that Judy would dub in later) and the director (Robert Z. Leonard) telling Judy when to “Go!” to her next mark.
Now, thanks to the various takes available, we finally find out what Judy says as she’s reading the letter, “This time tomorrow night - we will have met.”
It was customary to film musical numbers with silent footage. The performers would lip sync on the set to a playback record and the music and foley effect would have been added later. However, in this case, they recorded live on set for Judy to have a guide for dubbing Veronica’s thoughts and her one line as heard here.
It’s great to be able to see this as it was intended and to see what Veronica’s bedroom looked like.
Enjoy!
A big THANK YOU to Hisato M. for obtaining and sharing this great footage with us!
Check out The Judy Room's Filmography Page on "In The Good Old Summertime" at www.thejudyroom.com/filmograp...