That’s Dancing! **** (1985, Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis Jr, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli, Ray Bolger) – Classic Movie Review 8564

Director Jack Haley Jr’s 1985 history of dance documentary compilation feature That’s Dancing! is a kind of sequel to the 1974 That’s Entertainment!, with great clips from the Hollywood dance musicals, mostly MGM’s.

Fast forward through the simpering narration and links by hosts Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis Jr, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli and Ray Bolger, and instead marvel at the dancing from Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey, Margot Fonteyn, Shirley MacLaine, Rudolph Nureyev, Bob Fosse, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Donald O’Connor, Eleanor Powell, Ginger Rogers and Shirley Temple.

The attempt to reach a ‘modern’ young Eighties audience with contemporary clips with the likes of John Travolta and Michael Jackson is misguided, and now looks incredibly dated and silly, but only goes to show how wonderful the vintage sequences are.

Among the highlights: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in ‘Pick Yourself Up’ from Swing Time, the street ballet of West Side Story, Busby Berkeley choreography, a Ray Bolger Scarecrow sequence cut from The Wizard of Oz, Cyd Charisse in ‘Red Blues” from Silk Stockings (1957), The Nicholas Brothers’ dance specialty from Down Argentine Way (1940) and Shirley MacLaine in Sweet Charity.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8564

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