That’s Entertainment! III

The editors on the first two compilations celebrating MGM musicals surpassed those two features by coming up with new material–excluded numbers from Singin’ in the Rain, Cabin in the Sky, The Harvey Girls, Easter Parade, and even the underrated I Love Melvin—-and also critiquing many of the studio’s original decisions, aesthetically as well as politically and socially. Lena Horne, for instance, does an excellent job of unpacking some of their racist policies. And the others who introduce various segments, some of which feature their own work, include June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, and Esther Williams. What emerges from all this is a sharp history lesson as well as a complex and nuanced appreciation of what Hollywood could do at its best as well as its worst. One emblematic moment gives us Joan Crawford in blackface in Torch Song singing “Two-Faced Woman” while Charisse in split-screen is lip-syncing India Adams’ rendition of the same song from a number that got cut from The Band Wagon.