Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ That's Entertainment (redux) -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Nick*Z]

I have to admit I hate that ballet too. It’s my lease favorite part of the movie. I can’t listen to Gershwin’s piece anymore without visualizing those awful dated cheesy dance moves. Worst yet, they cut the music arbitrarily.

Have to disagree here. The ballet was a revelation in its day, and is still one of the greatest examples of a film ballet, second only to the dramatic arc achieved in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes. The dramatic shifts in the music are expertly realized by Minnelli and Kelly's keen artistry in their respective fields of planning. And Kelly's Chocolat is a tour de force.

The minor tragedy for That's Entertainment! is that it omitted much of the ballet in favor of a Cole's Notes glimpse that left a good deal of its artistry and brilliance on the cutting room floor. That said, it caps off That's Entertainment! quite nicely and is, by far, the best finale from all 3 That's Entertainment! movies.

I think the most proletariat ballet ever put on film is The Broadway Melody Ballet from Singin' in the Rain'. But the one that most succinctly summarizes and embodies MGM's motto, 'Ars Gratia Artis' (or art for art's sake) is the Gershwin finale from An American in Paris.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

We just watched the new disc, which my wife gave me for Hanukkah. It's terrific. I loved it. I was moved to tears at times.

 

[Jimbo.B]

Have to disagree here. The ballet was a revelation in its day, and is still one of the greatest examples of a film ballet, second only to the dramatic arc achieved in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes. The dramatic shifts in the music are expertly realized by Minnelli and Kelly's keen artistry in their respective fields of planning. And Kelly's Chocolat is a tour de force.

The minor tragedy for That's Entertainment! is that it omitted much of the ballet in favor of a Cole's Notes glimpse that left a good deal of its artistry and brilliance on the cutting room floor. That said, it caps off That's Entertainment! quite nicely and is, by far, the best finale from all 3 That's Entertainment! movies.

I think the most proletariat ballet ever put on film is The Broadway Melody Ballet from Singin' in the Rain'. But the one that most succinctly summarizes and embodies MGM's motto, 'Ars Gratia Artis' (or art for art's sake) is the Gershwin finale from An American in Paris.

The ballet was simply copying what R&H had been doing on the stage for years. Nothing innovative about it.

 

[cda1143]

The ballet was simply copying what R&H had been doing on the stage for years. Nothing innovative about

The ballet was simply copying what R&H had been doing on the stage for years. Nothing innovative about it.

Rodgers and Hammerstein?

 

[Jimbo.B]

Rodgers and Hammerstein?

Yes. Both Oklahoma and Carousel incorporated ballets into their stories several years before An American in Paris. An American in Paris was simply copying what was already a feature of musicals being done on Broadway—seven years after Oklahoma and five years after Carousel.

 

[Nick*Z]

The ballet was simply copying what R&H had been doing on the stage for years. Nothing innovative about it.

The ballet was simply copying what R&H had been doing on the stage for years. Nothing innovative about it.

That's a bit of a white wash, don't you think?

R&H staged a ballet for the Broadway debut of Oklahoma!, so every ballet that follows it is just a copy cat?

Very skewed perspective, IMO.

You might as well state there have been no gingerbread cookies made since the first one was baked, and no romantic novels authored since the first one was published.

And you know what they say about imitation being the cheapest form of flattery?

The American in Paris ballet is extraordinary from any artistic perspective by which one might choose to dissect and study it.

If nothing else, then consider the ballet's brilliant use of the art of Raoul Dufy, Pierre-Auguste, Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, Henri Rousseau and Toulouse-Lautrec. These haven't been arbitrarily chosen, merely to fill 17 minutes of run time with painters who are just French. Rather, each 3D recreation of a famous painting comes to symbolize a particular mood in the evolution of Lise and Jerry's tangled romance.

The musical connectivity of Gershwin's immense composition seamlessly bridges the gap between each artist's disparate style, with Kelly and Caron the only real physical constant to lead us in and out of this grand finale.

Finally, it's a ballet that concludes the whole show without a stitch of dialogue - not just An American in Paris, but That's Entertainment! as well.

Not even Rodgers and Hammerstein were brave enough to attempt that - either on stage or on film!

 

[cda1143]

...The ballet was a revelation in its day, and is still one of the greatest examples of a film ballet, second only to the dramatic arc achieved in Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes. The dramatic shifts in the music are expertly realized by Minnelli and Kelly's keen artistry in their respective fields of planning. ...

...

the one that most succinctly summarizes and embodies MGM's motto, 'Ars Gratia Artis' (or art for art's sake) is the Gershwin finale from An American in Paris.

The ballet was simply copying what R&H had been doing on the stage for years. Nothing innovative about it.

Yes. Both Oklahoma and Carousel incorporated ballets into their stories several years before An American in Paris. An American in Paris was simply copying what was already a feature of musicals being done on Broadway—seven years after Oklahoma and five years after Carousel.

Yes and a hundred years before Rodgers and Hammerstein it was being done at every opera performed in Paris.

Even if this scene were only, as you say, a copy of what was already done on stage, to translate a theatrical experience of a live ballet to the screen, while retaining the wonder and spectacle of that experience, is - in and of itself, an extremely difficult and remarkable achievement. This would be the case were it a literal copy - which it certainly isn't. It is a completely original, brilliantly choreographed and brilliantly filmed interpretation of Gershwin's music - a great and very difficult artistic achievement. If that doesn't count as innovative I don't know what does.

Yes ballet already existed. Yes ballet in staged productions already existed, but this scene is as far as one can get from Gene Kelly setting up the camera in back row of the Ziegfeld theater and letting the film roll while he copied the work of others.

 

[Jimbo.B]

...





Yes and a hundred years before Rodgers and Hammerstein it was being done at every opera performed in Paris.

Even if this scene were only, as you say, a copy of what was already done on stage, to translate a theatrical experience of a live ballet to the screen, while retaining the wonder and spectacle of that experience, is - in and of itself, an extremely difficult and remarkable achievement. This would be the case were it a literal copy - which it certainly isn't. It is a completely original, brilliantly choreographed and brilliantly filmed interpretation of Gershwin's music - a great and very difficult artistic achievement. If that doesn't count as innovative I don't know what does.

Yes ballet already existed. Yes ballet in staged productions already existed, but this scene is as far as one can get from Gene Kelly setting up the camera in back row of the Ziegfeld theater and letting the film roll while he copied the work of others.

Ballet was indeed regularly incorporated into opera in Paris and often written by the composer solely for that purpose while often cut when the operas were performed in other countries. Many of these ballets have become quite famous on their own, however they were original works of art, not appropriated from other sources.

 

[Tom Fynan]

That's a bit of a white wash, don't you think?

R&H staged a ballet for the Broadway debut of Oklahoma!, so every ballet that follows it is just a copy cat?

Very skewed perspective, IMO.

You might as well state there have been no gingerbread cookies made since the first one was baked, and no romantic novels authored since the first one was published.

And you know what they say about imitation being the cheapest form of flattery?

The American in Paris ballet is extraordinary from any artistic perspective by which one might choose to dissect and study it.

If nothing else, then consider the ballet's brilliant use of the art of Raoul Dufy, Pierre-Auguste, Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, Henri Rousseau and Toulouse-Lautrec. These haven't been arbitrarily chosen, merely to fill 17 minutes of run time with painters who are just French. Rather, each 3D recreation of a famous painting comes to symbolize a particular mood in the evolution of Lise and Jerry's tangled romance.

The musical connectivity of Gershwin's immense composition seamlessly bridges the gap between each artist's disparate style, with Kelly and Caron the only real physical constant to lead us in and out of this grand finale.

Finally, it's a ballet that concludes the whole show without a stitch of dialogue - not just An American in Paris, but That's Entertainment! as well.

Not even Rodgers and Hammerstein were brave enough to attempt that - either on stage or on film!

But Rodgers, Hart and George Balanchine did just that in On Your Toes in 1936 with the Slaughter on 10th Avenue ballet. That R&H also had ballets in Babes in Arms in 1938, and Pal Joey in 1940, which has a dream ballet. Pal Joey of course starred a young dancer named Gene Kelly.

After Oklahoma and Carousel, ballets became almost de regueur for Broadway musicals up until the mid sixties. It’s not surprising that Kelly used one in An American in Paris. Very little art is created in a vacuum.

 

[richardburton84]

Ballet was indeed regularly incorporated into opera in Paris and often written by the composer solely for that purpose while often cut when the operas were performed in other countries. Many of these ballets have become quite famous on their own, however they were original works of art, not appropriated from other sources.

I’m pretty sure that a lot of those ballets were thrown in primarily as diversions and didn’t really move the story along as the R&H ballets and the American in Paris would. One of few exceptions of that era was the Paris version of Wagner’s Tannhauser, where he inserted a ballet at the beginning of the opera rather than midway through the second act as was customary at the time because he felt the beginning was the most appropriate place to insert a ballet.

 

[mskaye]

I’m pretty sure that a lot of those ballets were thrown in primarily as diversions and didn’t really move the story along as the R&H ballets and the American in Paris would. One of few exceptions of that era was the Paris version of Wagner’s Tannhauser, where he inserted a ballet at the beginning of the opera rather than midway through the second act as was customary at the time because he felt the beginning was the most appropriate place to insert a ballet.

I think the bigger distinction for AAIP is that it contains a ballet conceived for the cinema by a director of Vincent Minnelli's stature as opposed to simply a theatrical musical with a ballet sequence.

 

[Jimbo.B]

I think the bigger distinction for AAIP is that it contains a ballet conceived for the cinema by a director of Vincent Minnelli's stature as opposed to simply a theatrical musical with a ballet sequence.

I guess we should be grateful Minnelli didn’t direct My Fair Lady or he would have inserted a pointless ballet in that too.

 

[richardburton84]

I guess we should be grateful Minnelli didn’t direct My Fair Lady or he would have inserted a pointless ballet in that too.

Not necessarily. Minnelli didn’t insert any ballets for Gigi (even with the presence of Leslie Caron), which follows a very similar structure as My Fair Lady, so I doubt he would have actually inserted any dance sequences into that film had he directed it (while Brigadoon had a number of dance sequences, some of these were part of the original Broadway production).

 

[Jimbo.B]

Not necessarily. Minnelli didn’t insert any ballets for Gigi (even with the presence of Leslie Caron), which follows a very similar structure as My Fair Lady, so I doubt he would have actually inserted any dance sequences into that film had he directed it (while Brigadoon had a number of dance sequences, some of these were part of the original Broadway production).

Gigi was a really troubled production if the book The Freed Unit is to be believed. Minnelli had to reshoot a percentage of the film on the MGM lot because some of the footage from Paris didn’t really work. He even had to reconstruct part of Maxim’s on the lot. It’s remarkable it came out as well as it did.
The less said about Brigadoon the better.

 

[Garysb]

The rose at the end of the ballet symbolized the MGM musical at the conclusion of "That's Entertainment" instead of Gene Kelly's loss of Leslie Caron as in "An American In Paris". Gene's sadness was about that era of musicals being over. At least that is what I thought when I saw it. It seemed a very clever way to end the film. They never found a better way to end the films in the sequels in my opinion. I can't think of any other big musical numbers that end poignantly.


One thing I don't think has been mentioned was Irving Berlin did not give permission for his music that he controlled to be used in That's Entertainment. So no sound clips from "Annie Get Your Gun" or "Easter Parade" in the first "That's Entertainment". He changed his mind for part 2. A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody apparently was not in his control and was used.

 

[Nick*Z]

I guess we should be grateful Minnelli didn’t direct My Fair Lady or he would have inserted a pointless ballet in that too.

Again, the ballet in An American in Paris is not pointless.

 

[Jimbo.B]

One thing I don't think has been mentioned was Irving Berlin did not give permission for his music that he controlled to be used in That's Entertainment. So no sound clips from "Annie Get Your Gun" or "Easter Parade" in the first "That's Entertainment". He changed his mind for part 2. A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody apparently was not in his control and was used.

He was a fiercely litigious old man. I remember someone trying to screen the Judy Garland excerpts from Annie Get Your Gun publicly at a venue in the 70s and Berlin sued to stop them from being shown claiming that they would somehow harm his legacy. By the time TE3 came out in the 90s he was long dead and the controllers of his estate had no issue at all with them being released in that compilation.

 

[Garysb]

Irving Berlin prevented the film "Annie Get Your Gun" from being shown anywhere including TV from sometime in the early 1970's until the film was released on DVD, which happened after his death, claiming it hurt the licensing of the musical for the stage. In fact to this day the film can't be streamed. If it is shown on TCM cable, the Watch TCM app will have a blank screen on the live feed with a note saying programming is unavailable.

 

[Jimbo.B]

Again, the ballet in An American in Paris is not pointless.

No point in arguing this as it’s a subjective call but I find it incredibly pretentious and out of scale with the movie. To paraphrase Pauline Kael in her review of That’s Entertainment, the ballet sequence is what she liked the movie in spite of.

 

[Nick*Z]

Gigi was a really troubled production if the book The Freed Unit is to be believed. Minnelli had to reshoot a percentage of the film on the MGM lot because some of the footage from Paris didn’t really work. He even had to reconstruct part of Maxim’s on the lot. It’s remarkable it came out as well as it did.
The less said about Brigadoon the better.

Gigi wasn't troubled. It was the unwitting victim of MGM's desperate cost cutting. By 1958 MGM was already a ship taking on water, thanks to the colossal mismanagement after the ousting of L.B. Mayer and the disastrous mis-casting of Dore Schary to lead the show. But at least Schary had some idea of how to wrangle and work within the studio's ensconced star system. Those who came after him were just bean counters hoping for a miracle, but unwilling to make it happen by actually investing anything in the future or, at least, allowing those in their creative department who might have saved things from running with their visions.

And while MGM occasionally opened its purse strings for future product, it also was quick to pull back when the powers that be felt things weren't going well. The boss's considered this as 'damage control'. But all it actually did was dampen the mood around the backlot.

Minnelli had the great misfortune of shooting Gigi during one of the hottest summers on record in Paris. So, fake trees wilted, extras fainted and the ice at the Palais du Glace melted. None of this was Minnelli's fault or responsibility. But it did halt production repeatedly, enough for MGM to recall everything back to Culver City. So, the pivotal 'I Remember It Well' was photographed on 'recreations' back in California that really do look obvious, although, in hindsight, add to the artifice of the musical melange.

The interiors of Madame Alvarez's atelier where also sets at MGM, as was the costume ball sequence, staged in the old Marie Antoinette ballroom set for the montage sequence to the orchestral reprise of 'The Night They Invented Champagne. And a portion of the title song was also photographed near Tarzan lake on the MGM backlot. But these had been agreed upon before production began.

As for Brigadoon - it suffered tragically from MGM's cost-cutting, the same way Seven Brides for Seven Brothers did, with even the outdoor sequences in both movies shot on soundstages. Not certain why MGM did not permit Kelly and company to shoot at least the outdoor sequences on re-dressed outdoor hills on the backlot. Aside: Brigadoon was actually given more money that 'Brides' - both films being shot simultaneously - with 'Brides' budget being slashed to pour more money into Brigadoon while Stanley Donen was actually shooting 'Brides'.

The biggest sacrifices in Brigadoon are the two exquisite ballads, 'Come To Me, Bend To Me' and 'There But For You Go I', the first sung to perfection by John Gustafson for Jimmy Thompson, and the other, warbled by Gene Kelly.

Neither appears in the picture, although the audio, and a portion of the actual filmed footage do survive and have been included as extras. Of all those discussed, Brigadoon is the one I would like to see remade - not because Kelly and the clan didn't give it their all, but rather, because to see a Scottish fable actually played out on the legit highlands of Scotland would be heavenly.

Who to cast? Maybe Henry Cavill as Johnny Albright and Armie Hammer as the cynical Jeff. The pair had a wonderful antagonism in The Man from UNCLE that would bode well for their contentious disagreement about either to stay or leave Brigadoon. Elizabeth Debicki might work as the winsome lass/love interest. In their prime, I would have preferred either Emmy Rossum or Catherine Zeta-Jones. As for Mr. Lundy, the sage - Anthony Hopkins would have been brilliant.

But again, back to Gigi - left to his own devices, Minnelli would have brought things home, albeit, slightly behind production and again, slightly over budget. Robert Wise had a similar experience while making The Sound of Music for Fox, another studio teetering on financial ruin and desperate for a hit without actually knowing how to make one happen. Thankfully, like Minnelli with Gigi, Wise and 'Music' went on to become classics, in spite of their meddling studio executives.