That's Entertainment! (1974)

Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favourite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.

Director:

Jack Haley Jr.

Writer:

Jack Haley Jr.

Stars:

Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby

2 wins.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Fred Astaire	...	Himself - Co-Host / Narrator / Clip from 'The Band Wagon'
Bing Crosby	...	Himself - Co-Host / Narrator / Clip from 'Going Hollywood'
Gene Kelly	...	Himself - Co-Host / Narrator / Clips from 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' - 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'An American in Paris'
Peter Lawford	...	Himself - Co-Host / Narrator - Clip from 1947 version of 'Good News'
Liza Minnelli	...	Herself - Co-Host & Narrator
Donald O'Connor	...	Himself - Co-Host / Narrator / Clip from 'Singin' in the Rain'
Debbie Reynolds	...	Herself - Co-Host / Narrator
Mickey Rooney	...	Himself - Co-Host / Narrator / Clips from 'Babes in Arms' - 'Girl Crazy' - 'Babes on Broadway'
Frank Sinatra	...	Himself - Co-Host
James Stewart	...	Himself - Co-Host
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Herself - Co-Hostess / Narrator / Clip from 'Cynthia'
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
June Allyson	...	Clip from 'Words and Music' (archive footage)
Kay Armen	...	Clip from 'Hit the Deck' (archive footage)
Ray Bolger	...	Clips from 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'The Harvey Girls' (archive footage)
Virginia Bruce	...	Clip from 'The Great Ziegfeld' (archive footage)

Storyline

MGM musical numbers from the introduction of sound in the late '20s through to the 1950s, possibly with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Judy Garland getting the most coverage. Linked by some of the stars who worked at MGM handing the commentary on one to another.

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Plot Keywords:

studio | 1950s | compilation film | backlot | musician | 

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Taglines:

More than a movie. It's a celebration.

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Genres:

Documentary | Family | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 June 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

That's Entertainment: 50 Years of MGM

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,200,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$26,890,200

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) Mono (35 mm optical prints) 70 mm 6-Track

Color:

Color (Metrocolor) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the film unexpectedly took off at the box office, MCA Records issued a deluxe two-record-set soundtrack album, which also became a surprise chart-topper, as it featured many recordings that had never been released, most of them from the pre-1946 era. (MGM Records had invented the soundtrack album as a viable commercial product with its release of Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), so most of its musicals after that date were issued as soundtrack albums. Though there had been several releases of albums recorded directly from the sound track of earlier films, most were studio recreations recorded after the fact.) The MCA soundtrack album from That's Entertainment! also included several pieces of Henry Mancini's lush underscoring.

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Goofs

At the beginning of the film, Frank Sinatra says The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is the "first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing movie ever made,". In fact it wasn't, the first was The Broadway Melody, which was released in February, nine months before "The Hollywood Revue" was ever released. Indeed, by the time of That's Entertainment III (1994), narrator Gene Kelly was now calling The Hollywood Revue of 1929, "one of the first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing movies."

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Quotes

[first lines]
Frank Sinatra: [narrating] The year is 1929; the singer, Cliff Edwards, also known as Ukelele Ike. The film: "Hollywood Revue"; it is the first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing movie ever made. In the years that followed, "Singin' in the Rain" would become a theme song for MGM.

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Crazy Credits

After the closing credits, some video releases include the film's original instrumental exit overture.

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Alternate Versions

In the "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" sequence from The Great Ziegfeld (1936), some prints have a slightly different narration from Frank Sinatra ending with "and somewhere in that loveliness, you'll find Dennis Morgan singing the song." In the theatrical print, presented in 1.85 widescreen, Sinatra adds the line, "If anyone could afford to film this number today, it might look something like this," as the pillarboxed "standard flat" image is expanded to fill the frame.

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: A Midsummer's Nice Dreams (2011)

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Soundtracks

La Cucaracha
(uncredited)
Traditional Mexican folk song
Performed by The Three Gumm Sisters
From La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935)

User Reviews

showcasing MGM's finest

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.