That's Entertainment!

1974

Documentary / Family / Musical

11
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 86% · 16 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 86% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.8/10 10 5648 5.6K

hollywood

Plot summary

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

Director

Jack Haley Jr. Photo
Jack Haley Jr.

Top cast

Margaret O'Brien Photo
Margaret O'Brien as Clip from 'Meet Me in St. Louis'
Howard Keel Photo
Howard Keel as Gaylord Ravenal / Hazard Endicott
June Allyson Photo
June Allyson as Clip from 'Words and Music'
Dennis Morgan Photo
Dennis Morgan as Clip from 'The Great Ziegfeld'
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.18 GB
1280*724
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 11 min
Seeds 1
2.19 GB
1910*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 11 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 9 / 10

This is not a documentary...

... instead it's a celebration of MGM's golden age of the musical with introductions by the big stars of that golden age, roughly 1930-1960. Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, James Stewart (seriously, his earliest film roles included warbling in a MGM musical), Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and many others share a few of their memories and introduce various famous musical numbers from MGM musicals. One of the biggest stars of MGM's 30s and 40s musicals, Judy Garland, had died in 1969, but Mickey Rooney had a great deal to say about her contributions and about their friendship.If you've seen "Singin In the Rain" then the primitive nature of the very oldest musical numbers from "Broadway Melody" and "Hollywood Revue" in 1929 might be shocking in contrast to the production values of the ones from the 1940s.What does this film not do? It doesn't go into detail as to why the movie musical went out of vogue by 1960 and why they specifically stopped being made at MGM. Tougher labor laws and the end of the studio system made large casts of extras and large stables of contract talent impossible to continue by 1960 due to expense. That MGM struggled with understanding post war movie tastes was the reason that studio had trouble specifically. In fact the studio was still struggling in 1974 when this was made and was a big hit that year for MGM.So if you love the old musicals from Hollywood's golden age, I'd really recommend this one. If you actually want to watch a documentary on the MGM musicals, might I suggest an Episode of Great Performances entitled "Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM", made in 1996.
Reviewed by MarkJGarcia 9 / 10

Gotta Dance-Gotta Sing

This is a great documentary that takes viewers back to a time when the musical was popular in cinema. With different hosts in the film you get a chance to go back in time and look at Hollywood's Gold Age and the stars that made some of the most highly regarded films ever. They don't make them like this anymore thats for sure. There is one part in the film where Frank Sinatra is talking about the dance performances of yester-year and he says you can wait forever but you will never see performances ever again like these, and with that the film cuts to a dance routine by Fred Astaire that has to be one of the greatest dance routines I've ever seen. When you think of all the planning that went into these routines it is just mind-boggling. The steps we see in this film seem to be so perfectly choreographed. An amazing film about an amazing time in Hollywood history.
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