Review: That's Entertainment III

Basically:  a nice little something for musical-lovers and movie nerds; all others need not apply.

In the third and probably most interesting installment of their “That’s Entertainment” series, MGM pulls out all the stops.  They trot out aging musical stars to talk about the good ol’ days; like Gene Kelly (drool), Esther Williams, Debbie Reynolds, you get the idea.  What makes this volume worth watching is the never-before-seen and behind-the-scenes portions of the MGM Musical from its beginning through its decline, and a few hilarious tidbits that I’d totally forgotten about.

Like Mickey Rooney as Carmen Miranda:

They discuss the use of vaudeville and “novelty” acts, both adorable (The 5 Locust Sisters)

 . . . and TERRIFYING (The Ross Sisters)

There are several alternate versions, shown side-by-side with the original.  There’s the original version of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” before MGM dubbed Ava Gardner’s voice, and we hear these back to back.  There’s a song that was cut from Singing in the Rain (whatever, I didn’t think it was that interesting).  And there’s an amazing mash-up of two different versions of Fred Astaire’s “I Wanna Be A Dancin’ Man” which demonstrates just how bananas this dude was because the two are completely identical down to the nuances.

They show a few previously-unseen Judy Garland numbers, including two that she shot for Annie Get Your Gun before her nervous breakdown.  I like Judy and all, but I can’t imagine anyone but Betty Hutton in that role.

Sidenote:  Howard Keel is a BADASS.

They do a fairly decent job at not glossing over the Production Code and the prejudices of the musical heyday.  I have to admit that after watching Girl 27 I was hoping for a little more brutal honesty.  They discuss the “beautification” process that every contract girl had to go through, how long it took to get a screen test and even then it was no guarantee of a career outside the chorus line.  Lena Horne keeps it pretty real.  She talks about being excluded from Show Boat because the depiction of interracial relationships onscreen was strictly verboten at the time, and suggests that her song “Ain’t It the Truth” was censored from Cabin in the Sky because peeps couldn’t deal with seeing a “black girl in a bathtub.” 

And they don’t shy away from some scenes using blackface (it happened, let's be honest), and include a dance number from Good News called “Pass That Peace Pipe.”  Which may as well be “Culturally Insensitive Down at the Hop.”

All in all, it's interesting if you're really into this sort of thing.