Hollywood: The Great Stars

Hollywood: The Great Stars (1963)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

When viewed today this here is a pretty basic and simple documentary that shows off some of the biggest stars in Hollywood's history. However, I'm sure when this was shown in 1963 several of these film clips probably hadn't been seen in years if not decades so there's no doubt that watching this when it was first released probably had a much bigger impact.

Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbank, William S. Hart, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland are just some of the stars highlighted.

Henry Fonda plays host and narrator as we go through the various stars that have graced Hollywood. As you can tell from the list, everyone got their start in the 30's with the exception being Brando, which just goes to show the impact he had on Hollywood that he would have been included. For the most part this is a mildly interesting documentary but as I said it probably had a greater impact when released than today. It's worth noting that Monrue gets quite a bit of screen time, which was probably due to the fact that she had died less than a year before this was shown.