That’s Entertainment! III **** (1994, Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller, Lena Horne, Debbie Reynolds, Esther Williams, June Allyson, Howard Keel, Mickey Rooney) – Classic Movie Review 6293

Even if all the best clips are already used up in Parts 1 and 2, writer-directors Bud Friedgen and Michael J Sheridan’s 1994 movie is a still delightfully entertaining second sequel, mixing rare out-takes, backstage footage and fondly remembered routines.

It is released 20 years after That’s Entertainment! (1974) to celebrate MGM’s 70th jubilee. It takes us on a musical journey from the first musical talkies and The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) to Gene Kelly’s triumphs in Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and Brigadoon (1954).

Compare and contrast: we see Cyd Charisse and Joan Crawford performing Two Faced Woman, two different but identical Fred Astaire performances of I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man, and Eleanor Powell dances in Broadway Melody of 1938 while we see in split-screen the stage and camera crew frantically at work.

Movingly, Lena Horne tells us about racism at MGM and how she lost the role of the half-African-American Julie LaVerne in Show Boat to Ava Gardner in 1951.

It is thoroughly pleasurable required viewing for all musical fans, narrated in person as co-hosts by the then still surviving great MGM stars: Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller, Lena Horne, Debbie Reynolds, Esther Williams, June Allyson, Howard Keel and Mickey Rooney.

It is preceded by That’s Entertainment! (1974) and That’s Entertainment, Part II (1975).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6293

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