Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1940s: Stars, Stripes and Singing

A certain amount of grumbling about this collection of clips is justified--most major visual examples from both MGM and Fox musicals, who dominated the industry in the 1940's are missing. There's no Carmen Miranda in dazzling Technicolor, no scenes from Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly--Instead, almost all of the Technicolor clips of any length are from the same MGM film "Till The Clouds Roll By," simply because the film itself is in Public Domain, meaning the users did not need to pay royalty fees to use the clips; other included scenes come from theatrical previews, which means most of them are substandard in color and length.

Any strength here is to be found in the interviews which are part of the "extras" and that's where the fan can find some candid and often delightful information from the people who made the films. This is not a stinker film by any means, but given the better skills in assemblage, and a better budget, this could have been really significant documentary.