Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11467 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 135 minutes

Amazon.com
This nostalgic history lesson in the treasures of MGM musicals touches upon the obvious highlights--An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, many others--and includes clips of wonderful though more obscure performances by Esther Williams, Jimmy Durante, Eleanor Powell, and even Clark Gable singing and dancing. It's a film lover's box of candy and perfect for musical mavens, and getting a chance to see so many legends host the whole affair (many of whom have died since the film's 1974 release) is as pleasing as the old footage. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Magnificent Overview on Musicals
This movie is a celebration to the History of the musicals, including their greatest scenes and commentaries by the stars themselves.

The best of the "Entertainment" series
This is one of those movies that I could watch every day for months and never become bored. I hope you'll feel the same if you're a "golden age of Hollywood" fan, especially of the MGM musicals. The introductions by the MGM stars (and yes, they are aging, it happens to everyone!) are somewhat pompous, phony and wooden -- the lone exception, in my opinion, is Liza Minelli. Other than that curious phenomenon, this first of a trilogy of "That's Entertainment" movies from MGM, is truly the best, with their greatest clips being in this movie. As Liza said, "thank God for film" because we can forever see for ourselves just why a movie star was, well, a star. Agreed, this first film of the series could use a little editing, but that doesn't detract from the rest of the scenes nor the message. The movie does serve dual purposes -- as a short documentary of the evolution of the grand musicals, as well as outstanding excerpts of the greatest MGM had to offer. I think my favorite scene, though, was the black and white footage of all the MGM stars having lunch together in a huge gathering. It will provoke quite the nostalgia! I know it's been said many times before, but those were truly the golden days of film making, and after watching this movie you'll understand why. It's a shame very few movies are now produced that are up to the same wholesome MGM standards.

For Widescreen Viewers
I'm a purist and love to see the productions in their original aspect ratio. Having a widescreen HDTV adds to this pleasure, but could also have made viewing "That's Entertainment" problematic because of the film's mix of clips from the pre- and post-widescreen eras. Thankfully, this DVD is anamorphic and the clips roll seamlessly from standard to wide and back again. It was a sheer pleasure to watch - not quite the same as sitting in the massive 70mm theater in which I first experienced this movie, but as good as you can get for staying at home. My only quibble is that many of the older (ca. 1930s) B&W clips are quite grainy. If it's that noticeable on my small HDTV, I'm sure the grains would have seemed huge on the big screen - yet I don't recall that being a problem. So I wonder about the quality control when they made the digital transfer. Still, that's only a minor complaint for a thoroughly enjoyable movie.