That's Entertainment!

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This article is about the 1974 MGM compilation film. For other uses, see That's Entertainment.
That's Entertainment!

2004 DVD release
Directed by Jack Haley, Jr.
Produced by Jack Haley Jr.
Written by Jack Haley Jr.
Starring Frank Sinatra
Fred Astaire
Bing Crosby
Gene Kelly
Music by Henry Mancini
Distributed by MGM
Release date(s) May 23, 1974 (U.S. release)
Running time 134 min.
Language English
Followed by That's Entertainment, Part II
IMDb profile

That's Entertainment! is a 1974 compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate its 50th anniversary. It was followed by two sequels and a related film called That's Dancing!.

The film, compiled by Jack Haley, Jr., turned the spotlight on MGM's legacy of musical film from the 1920s through the 1950s, featuring performances culled from dozens of the studio's famous films. Archive footage of Judy Garland, Eleanor Powell, Lena Horne, Esther Williams, Ann Miller, Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Jeanette MacDonald, Cyd Charisse, June Allyson, Mickey Rooney, Mario Lanza, and many others was featured.

Released during the height of the Watergate scandal and just after the Vietnam war, That's Entertainment! was marketed with a tagline of "Boy, do we need it now!" The idea of celebrating the happy-go-lucky musicals of an earlier era hit a nerve with a nostalgic public; That's Entertainment! was hailed by critics and would become one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1974.

The film was compiled in various segments hosted by a succession of the studio's legendary (and then-living) stars: Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Bing Crosby, James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Liza Minnelli (representing her mother, Judy Garland).

Most of the hosts were filmed on MGM's famous backlot, which looks disturbingly ramshackle and rundown in this film, because MGM had sold the property to developers and the sets were about to be demolished (several of the stars, including Bing Crosby, remark on this during their segments). The most notable degradation can be seen when Fred Astaire revisits the ruins of a train station set that had been used in the opening of The Band Wagon two decades earlier, and when Peter Lawford revisits exteriors used in his late-40s musical, Good News. That's Entertainment! was the last major project to be filmed on the backlot.

The title of the film derives from the anthemic song "That's Entertainment!", by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, which was introduced in the 1953 MGM musical, The Band Wagon. The title is usually expressed with an exclamation mark, but it is also correct to refer to it without (see the DVD cover).

Contents

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Musical numbers featured

[edit] Sequels

That's Entertainment! is one of the few documentaries to spawn official sequels -- either two or three, depending upon one's criteria.

In 1976, That's Entertainment, Part II was released. The idea of multiple hosts was dropped for this production, with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly partnering to co-host the retrospective.

Then, in 1985, That's Dancing! was released, a retrospective that looked back at the history of dancing in film (unlike the That's Entertainment films, however, this documentary did not focus exclusively on MGM productions). This film is sometimes considered part of the That's Entertainment! series, especially since its starting credits contain a card with the That's Entertainment! III title (not to be confused with the 1994 film), but even though it shared studio and producers, it is considered a separate production.

Finally, in 1994, That's Entertainment! III was released, which featured more retrospectives with a focus on previously unreleased (or rarely seen) material cut from the MGM films.

All three films were released to DVD in 2004. The box set collection of the films included a bonus DVD that included additional musical numbers that had been cut from MGM films as well as the first release of the complete performance of "Mr. Monotony" by Judy Garland (the version used in That's Entertainment! III is truncated). That's Dancing! received a separate DVD release in 2007.

[edit] See also

[edit] Other uses

That's Entertainment is also the title of a 1985 television series produced in the Philippines.

[edit] External links

Languages