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Title: Some of the Best: Twenty-Five Years of Motion Picture Leadership (1949)
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Storyline
Host Lionel Barrymore celebrates MGM Studio's twenty-fifth anniversary, introducing the vast array of movies and their characters from MGM produced movies. Although there are numerous movies from which to showcase, he introduces twenty-five for special presentation, one from each of the twenty-five years starting in 1924 and The Big Parade, and concluding in 1948 and Easter Parade. Barrymore also mentions what's in store from the studio movie-wise for 1949, with such titles as The Stratton Story, The Great Sinner, Border Incident, Edward, My Son, The Red Danube, Scene of the Crime, Conspirator, Any Number Can Play, The Secret Garden, Intruder in the Dust, Madame Bovary, Malaya, Little Women, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Challenge to Lassie, The Barkleys of Broadway, In the Good Old Summertime, Neptune's Daughter, That Forsyte Woman, and That Midnight Kiss. He also shows behind the scenes footage of the studio's actual twenty-fifth birthday party. Written by Huggo
This would've been a good bonus feature on the That's Entertainment DVD box set! It contains footage (seen in TE) from the famous 25th anniversary dinner, where MGM's stars sat on display at looong tables, eating, chatting (wish we could hear what they're saying), looking bored/uncomfortable, or hamming it up for the cameras. I've seen this footage many times, but I never tire of trying to identify the celebs, quickly, while the camera pans over them. Hey, it's a fun game - play it with a friend!
But the bulk of this clip show is, naturally, the clips. There's a special intro by Lionel Barrymore about the anniversary, followed by a montage of Some Of The Best films MGM made in their first 25 years. One movie from each year is highlighted. I notice a few of these scenes were virtually lifted and used in That's Entertainment later - nice that some of the editing was already done for them!
Then they show sneak peeks of movies that were currently in production. The dramatic scenes (in some cases *melodramatic* - boy, was Deborah Kerr overacting in her scene from "Edward, My Son" - it's hysterical!), and the presentation reminded me of soap operas on TV that show previews of upcoming episodes to get you to tune in next week. It's fascinating to see which films MGM thought would be the Important Prestige Pictures of 1949! Several of these are obscure now and didn't really become classics. Still, the clips whet your appetite and make you want to watch the whole movie - which, of course, was the point. It's too bad many of them are unavailable on home video.
Little did they know as they were celebrating, that in just a few years Dore Schary would take control of MGM, the Hayes Code would be demolished, vulgarity/violence/shock-value would rule the day ...and the Golden Age of Hollywood would be over. Ah well, we'll always have the first 25 years!