Presenting Lily Mars │ Warner Archive Collection
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment
by CHAD KENNERK
This Judy Garland gem, based on the Booth Tarkington novel of the same name, is another excellent addition to the Warner Archive Collection. Presenting Lily Mars arrives on Blu-ray for the first time with a new 1080p HD master created in 2026 from a 4K scan of the best available preservation elements. The 1943 film reteams Judy with director Norman Taurog, who previously helmed Little Nellie Kelly, another Garland title we’d love to see on Blu-ray (hint, hint, Warner Archive). Produced by Joe Pasternak, the film costars Van Heflin as a Broadway producer who returns to his small-town Indiana family home and finds more than he bargained for in next-door neighbour Lily Mars (Garland), an aspiring actress determined to land a part in his latest touring production. Garland was never more gorgeous than in this comedic showcase, where she also sings with orchestras led by Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby (Bing’s brother).
Presenting Lily Mars was the first of three Garland films produced by Pasternak, who had recently arrived at MGM after a successful career at Universal. Initially intended as a dramatic vehicle for Lana Turner, the story was refashioned as a musical for Garland. According to Pasternak, “She admired Lana, and no convincing could make her believe she was anything but a second choice – a replacement.” Pasternak had hoped to cast Judy years earlier in his 1936 Universal film Three Smart Girls, but MGM refused to loan her out, so he instead snatched up Deanna Durbin.
Pasternak later devoted an entire chapter of his autobiography, Easy the Hard Way, to ‘The Incomparable Judy.’ “I found Judy an angel to work with,” he wrote. “She is a fast study; once she has read her script, she’ll know every speech and cue in it. Her musical ear and memory is a joy. She can hear a song once, understand it, and be able to record it.” He described Lily Mars as a deliberately small picture and a happy venture, but that changed after friends of Garland saw a rough cut without his approval and reportedly rushed to Judy “with wails of pain and distress”. The original film ended with the patriotic number ‘Paging Mr. Greenback’, shot in front of one of the old Babes in Arms backdrops. When MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer saw the rough cut, he reminded Pasternak that at MGM, money wasn’t an issue and ordered a splashier finale.
The new ending paired Garland with dancer Charles Walters, whom Arthur Freed subsequently signed to MGM as a choreographer, with the promise that he might eventually direct. He did, helming two of Garland’s finest films, Easter Parade and Summer Stock. Garland tried to take a break from MGM after Presenting Lily Mars to perform on the stage, but Mayer refused and sent her directly into Girl Crazy, her third and final film with Taurog. The director later called Garland, “the finest girl-actress of my whole experience”. Lily Mars was Van Heflin’s final movie before leaving to serve in World War II. He later fondly recalled an impromptu concert that his former co-star gave at Dick Powell’s house in 1954, saying, “Only once in a lifetime do you ever get to hear anything like that.”
Warner Archive rounds out the release with the MGM short Heavenly Music, the MGM Tex Avery cartoon Who Killed Who?, and several audio-only bonuses, including the deleted ‘Paging Mr. Greenback’ and a 1946 Lux Radio Theater broadcast of the story, with Heflin reprising his role and June Allyson as Lily.
Presenting Lily Mars is available on Blu-ray 4 August from Warner Archive Collection.
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