I'm going to call the theme for the rest of this month's Cinema Sunday posts Multiple Movie March!
Today's multiple movies are movie musicals.
So which movie musicals are we going to be looking at today?
Well, in a way, all of them?
On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, TCM ran That's Entertainment! and it's two sequels and I'll be damned if Andrea and I didn't watch all three of them.
In 1974, MGM released That's Entertainment! to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio.
Segments of the film were hosted by a such legendary stars as Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby, James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald O'Connor and more.
Well before the days of home video, DVDS, premium cable channels and streaming, this compilation was the first exposure a lot people had to classic musicals.
The first film was a major success for MGM, they reached down into the well again for more classic clips in 1976 to give us That's Entertainment, Part II.
For this 2nd film, archivists featured more obscure musical numbers from MGM's vaults, and also included tributes to comedy teams such as the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy, romantic teams such as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and a montage of iconic stars such as Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, James Stewart and Lana Turner.
Gene Kelly directed the introductory segments that featured himself and Fred Astaire which included some new dance routines from the two classic hoofers.
Gene Kelly also shot location footage of Kelly returning to Paris, the city featured in two of MGM's most famous productions, An American in Paris and Gigi. This was the last film Kelly directed.
MGM served up a 3rd sequel nearly 20 years later with That's Entertainment! III in 1994.
With the advent of home video and cable TV and with so many clips already used in the first two films, the hook for the 3rd film in the series was to showcase footage cut from famous MGM musicals.
Hosts included Gene Kelly (in his last film appearance), June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, and Esther Williams, making her first appearance in a theatrical film in more than 30 years.
Andrea and I got out of these movies what you would expect to get out of these sorts of things with nostalgic warmth for movies we fondly remembered seeing in the past and inspiration for some movies we would love to catch up on in the future.
Next week's Cinema Sunday continues with Multiple Movie March as I post about 6 (Yes, SIX!) movies.
We put on our finest duds with a fresh martini in one hand and a murder mystery to solve as we join Nick and Nora Charles for the Thin Man series.
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