That's Entertainment!

Extremely entertaining compilation film that looks back at classic MGM musicals. If I had any real complaint it would be the clips are mostly very short and it leaves you wanting to see more. Must have been even more frustrating in 1974 when that wasn't an option. It was nice seeing some of the (literally) old stars introduce the clips. It was especially nice to see the great MGM backlot one last time before it was torn down. But man, the sight of it in such disrepair made me kind of sad. The same sadness could be seen on the faces of some of the old stars as they walk around the lot, talking about how the old place doesn't look quite the same as when they made movies there. There's a wistful feeling throughout the film. Yes, it's a celebration of these great musicals but there's also this feeling of mourning for a bygone era.

This is a sentimental and enjoyable look back at the time when M-G-M was the premiere studio in Hollywood and had more stars than there are in the heaven. Famous musical numbers are presented by some of those legends including Fred Astaire, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. I just don't like the way they brag and flatter each other. Is it really necessary to tell the viewer how good they were? The audience should be able to judge for themselves. And the numbers are great, no doubt about it. Fred Astaire's tap dance with Eleanor Powell is awesome, Donald O'Connor's "Make'em laugh" is funny, Gene Kelly sings in the rain and Judy Garland sings over the rainbow. It's also fun to see dramatic actors like James Stewart, Clark Gable and Cary Grant sing and dance. That's entertainment! Rating: 4/5

In a departure from my normal practice, I will not be awarding "That's Entertainment!"a mark out of ten. There seems little point in rating a film when ninety percent of it consists of clips taken from other films. This film is not a straightforward documentary history of the Hollywood musical. It was made by MGM as a celebration of MGM musicals, and studiously ignores anything made by that studio's rivals. Clips of song-and-dance numbers from some of those musicals are introduced by a number of the stars who appeared in them, such as Debbie Reynolds, Frank Sinatra and Mickey Rooney.

This compilation was probably made because of the way the cinema was changing in the mid-seventies. Although the early part of the decade had seen two particularly fine examples in "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Cabaret", by 1974 the traditional cinema musical was on the decline. There was also a move away from shooting on sets towards shooting on location. Some of the introductory scenes are shot where the musicals themselves were filmed, on MGM's famous backlot which, by 1974, was starting to look very shabby and dilapidated. (It was to be demolished for redevelopment shortly afterwards).

The first part of the film was not particularly interesting, largely because so many of the featured clips were taken from films which are now forgotten and even thirty-five years ago were probably little-known. I also wondered why so much attention was given to Esther Williams, who certainly looked good in a swimsuit but was a very limited actress and whose choreographed water-ballets must have looked hopelessly cheesy by the seventies. One thing that I did learn, however, is that the musical genre was so popular in the thirties and forties that many actors, who today would not be thought of as musical stars, were press-ganged into service, regardless of vocal talent (or the lack thereof). We therefore see clips of the likes of James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable performing in some very obscure old films. (Stewart and Taylor also serve as presenters). Of these, it is Gable who acquits himself with the greatest honour, but his musical career never took off, apparently because his fans felt that all that singing and dancing was a bit sissy and out of keeping with his he-man image.

Things liven up in the second half of the film, because it now starts to concentrate on the really famous musicals for which MGM is still remembered today. The smug, self-congratulatory tone is still present, but the studio can be forgiven a little self-congratulation when it is talking about films as good as "Show Boat", "Seven Brides for "Seven Brothers", "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain". These last two, of course, both starred Gene Kelly, who also acts as a presenter. Kelly and Fred Astaire, with their very different styles of dancing, were often perceived as rivals, so it was a good idea to have Kelly present a tribute to Astaire and Astaire present one to Kelly. The most moving moment comes when Liza Minnelli presents a tribute to her mother, Judy Garland, who had died a few years earlier.

"That's Entertainment!" was obviously popular, because it was followed two years later by "That's Entertainment II"". (There were to be two more similar compilations, "That's Dancing!" in the eighties and "That's Entertainment III" in the nineties). The appeal of films like this at the time was probably their nostalgia value for the older generation who could remember the original musicals. Today they seem more like a curiosity, albeit an entertaining one.

In the mid-seventies, when MGM as a producing force in studio history was pretty much dead, a couple of researchers started to put together a compilation of the greatest moments from the birth of the talkie to Gigi's glut of Academy Awards at the end of the 1950s. The idea of this first 'That's Entertainment!' was to showcase the cream of the musicals, using a number of MGM's former contact stars (Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney et al) to link segments together.

The result was so breathtaking and brilliant that two further sequels followed; one almost immediately, and the third after a gap of twenty years, in time for MGM's seventieth birthday. This first compilation shows us sequences from 'An American In Paris', 'Singin' In The Rain', 'The Harvey Girls', 'Hollywood Revue', and on, and on. It has special segments devoted to Astaire, Kelly, Garland, Garland with Rooney, and, er, Esther Williams. It should give any viewer the appetite to seek out full movies they haven't seen, and to reflect with affection on those they have.

For anyone who longs to experience some of the great movie musical moments again, "That's Entertainment" is a Godsend. For anyone who hasn't seen many, or any, of the great MGM musicals and wants to know what made them great, "That's Entertainment" is a revelation. Either way, it's an entertainment extravaganza that can't be beat, and it's easy to see why it was the surprise movie hit of 1974.

In fact, I remember the first time I saw it. I was sixteen, and I saw it at a matinee showing, with my Mother, at the now-defunct Cooper Theater in Denver, Colorado. I think what amazed us the most about the film was that, after almost every number, the audience burst into prolonged applause. You'd think it was a concert instead of a movie! But that's the appeal that these timeless musical moments have. You don't just watch this movie, you're PART of it.

As Frank Sinatra says at the outset of the film, "You can wait around and hope, but you'll never see the like of this again."

An affectionate tribute to the great movie musicals that became a great movie musical itself. See it! See it! See it!