The patriotic spectacle’s ambient violence and frustrated desire emerge in nervously roving takes that capture Garland’s twitchy, electrifying energy, which, here, generates sexual heat.

(The musical numbers) may be smaller scale than (Berkeley's) greatest works, but there's a heat and a passion to them that is hard to ignore.

It’s not often that a performer lands the starring or co-starring role in his or her very first motion picture -- Gregory Peck, Barbra Streisand, and William Hurt are some of the lucky ones -- yet here’s Gene Kelly doing just that.

...has real affection for the vaudeville world it depicts.