That’s Entertainment! (1974) – reviewed by George

We’ve just had seven weeks of the history of Broadway musicals, now we ‘re looking at five weeks of the history of movie musicals, specifically MGM musicals. This week: “That’s Entertainment!”, a history/clipfest  that begins with a longshot of Cliff Edwards (later the voice of Jiminy Cricket) singing and playing the ukulele to “Singing’ in the Rain” in the 1929 movie “Hollywood Revue”, which was the first all-talking all-singing all-dancing movie ever made. In the 30’s Jimmy Durante sang it to Sidney Toler (my favorite Charlie Chan), and in the 40’s Judy Garland sang it. Eventually the song became sort of a theme song for MGM, and then became not only performed in a movie, but was the title of the movie, with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor.
The various segments of this movie are introduced by Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Peter Lawford, Liza Minnelli, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, and Elizabeth Taylor. The list is alphabetical, not by appearance.
In 1929 sound was king, and MGM won the Best Picture Oscar with “Broadway Melody of 1929”. Seems MGM’s affinity for musicals went from there. Clips: Eleanor Powell dances in “Rosalie”, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald sing in “Rose Marie” and are called the most successful singing team ever, Dennis Morgan sings “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” in 1936’s Best Picture “The Great Ziegfeld”, and Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell tap to Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine” in “Broadway Melody of 1940”, called the last of the great black&white musicals.
Now scenes from two black&white musicals apparently not considered great: Jimmy Durante teaches Frank Sinatra some show biz tips with “The Song’s Gotta Come from the Heart” from “It Happened in Brooklyn”, and Elizabeth Taylor sings from “Cynthia”.
Then color! Lena Horne sings “Honeysuckle Rose”, Kelly and Sinatra do “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, June Allyson sings “Thou Swell”, and Allyson and Peter Lawford do “The Varsity Drag” from “Good News”.
Next is a bit about new talent with clips of Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter singing “Abba Dabba Honeymoon”, and the entire cast of “A Date with Judy” joining Jane Powell and Elizabeth Taylor (not her voice) in singing “It’s a Most Unusual Day”, including  Scotty Beckett, Selena Royle, Wallace Beery, Robert Stack, Leon Ames, Jerry Hunter, George Cleveland, Carmen Miranda, and Xavier Cugat! And a clip of “The Acheson, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” from”The Harvey Girls”.
Now back in time to discuss the conversion to sound and the end of many careers. Suddenly experience on stage became the most important item on a resume, and many dramatic actors were forced by their studios into doing musicals. Shown singing and/or dancing (and some quite well): Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Clark Gable.
“Broadway to Hollywood” was Mickey Rooney’s first movie as a child from vaudeville. After a clip of Mickey dancing in that film, we move on to what I call the “Let’s put on a show” movies, but which Mickey says the brass at the studio called “Backyard Musicals”, such as “Babes in Arms, “Babes on Broadway”, and “Strike Up the Band”.
Next Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire dancing together, and then clips of Fred dancing with Ginger Rogers and singing “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” (in color, so you know it’s not one of their RKO movies), and Fred and Ginger are called the most popular dance team of all time. Then clips of Fred dancing with Joan Crawford, Jack Buchanan, a hat rack, six pairs of shoes with nobody in them, and that unforgettable “Dancing on the Ceiling” number from “Royal Wedding”. Then we close Fred’s segment with his dance with Cyd Charisse from “The Bandwagon”: “Dancing in the Dark”.
Clips of Esther Williams are next, showing her swimming with various leading men, with huge choruses of bathing beauties and male swimmers, and with incredible effects like fountains of water and fire coming out of the pool.
Debbie Reynolds in clips from “Three Little Words”, her first picture, where she played the “boop-boop-a-doop girl” Helen Kane (although Helen’s highly unusual voice was used).
The MGM 25th Anniversary Dinner (actually lunch) with almost every contract player seated at huge long tables facing the guests and the cameras. This is your chance to play “Who’s That?” Hint: they are seated almost in alphabetical order.
Next a collection of clips that seem to have very little to group them together: Ann Miller dances in “Small Town Girl”, Kathryn Grayson sings with Mario Lanza in “Toast of New Orleans”, Donald O’Connor’s great number from “Singing’ in the Rain”, “Make ’em Laugh”, and bits from the color version of “Show Boat”: the boat’s arrival at a town dock, Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel singing “Make Believe”, William Warfield singing “Ole Man River”, and the final shot with Ava Gardner.
Gene Kelly in some amazing athletic numbers, first with The Nicholas Brothers from “The Pirate”, and then on a set made to look like a constuction site. Said to break the studio rule and do his own stunts, which he actually did a lot, but any stunt that begins and ends in a longshot is suspect, like moving from the roof of one house under construction to another on the top of a huge long ladder.
Kelly’s clips continue with “On the Town”, the first movie musical filmed on location, “Anchors Away” where he danced with Jerry the Mouse (from Tom and Jerry), and the “Singin’ in the Rain” number. To me this dance contains two masterstrokes: the bit about getting under the pouring waterspout and then removing the umbrella, and the lovely touch of giving the umbrella away to a little man who doesn’t have one. And then there’s the finale of the movie with the Gotta Dance-Broadway Melody number – it really deserves to be called an instant classic.
Judy Garland: a short featuring the Gumm Sisters, then a short where she and Deanna Durbin sing together, then a clip with Buddy Ebsen from “Broadway Melody of 1938”, and then clips from “The Wizard of Oz”, “Meet Me in St. Louis”, and “Summer Stock”, her last picture at MGM.
Next a Bing Crosby clip where he sings “I’m Goin’ Hollywood”, and then a Cole Porter song from “High Society”. for which he returned to the lot after 20 years: “True Love” with Grace Kelly.
The we close with clips from “Hit the Deck”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, “Gigi”, and “An American in Paris” – Best Picture winner for 1951.
MGM made over 200 musicals in its first 50 years.
Written, Produced, and Directed by Jack Haley, Jr.