A few months back, I watched and enjoyed "That's Entertainment!" as well as its two followup films. These films were compilations of the song and dance numbers from many, many MGM films. And, while MGM was perhaps the greatest studio when it came to musicals, these films were wonderful BUT woefully incomplete. Wonderful musicals by RKO, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Brothers and other studios were ignored--and "Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History" attempts to give a more thorough examination of the musical--and I appreciate that. However, it sure is a tall order! In this particular installment, "The 1930s: Dancing Away the Great Depression", films from this decade alone are examined. The films of such celebrities as Eddie Cantor, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Ruby Keeler and many others are discussed. On hand as host is Shirley Jones as well as many interviews with celebrities of the era--many of which have passed away since this DVD was created.
The compilation has a few minor problems. There are no DVD or closed captions, the film's length is too short to cover all these films and stars and some of the films shown are not identified while some are--which frustrates film fiends like myself. However, the clips they used were generally in very good conditions and it was very nice to see so many old time stars. Well worth seeing.
