That's really true, come to think of it. If you film a chorus line from the front, all you see is mistakes where dancers are out of sync with each other. But if you film from another angle, you don't notice that so much. Heck, a lot of Busby Berkeley shots have dancers faces going by and...
Just watched this today, and I agree it will never look better. The number that really surprised me was “Truthful Parson Brown.” Sure, there's no reason for it in the plot, but it comes across as some seriously good musicians sitting around, playing live, and performing for each other. Really...