(archive footage)
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
Tisha Doughty
Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.
Ma Finney
Three women are going on a trip that leaves incommunicado with the rest of the world and before they leave; a woman who either has a history or relationship with each of their husbands leaves them a letter that says that she is leaving with one of their husbands. As they wait to return so they could find out who it is, they each remember an important moment in their lives that involves them and their husbands...and the woman.
Angel
Karate experts attempt to rescue a girl who was kidnapped by a mother and her two psycho sons.
Mrs. Karmann
A psychic's girlfriend finds out that a lump on her back is a growing reincarnation of a 400 year-old demonic Native American spirit.
(archive footage)
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
Sheba
Melba Stokes, her mother Sheba and daughter Cheryl embark on a crime spree after their California beauty parlor is repossessed. Their destination is Arkansas, where the three generations of women want to reclaim the family farm.
Fenzie
An ancient Asian statue with the power to grant health and long life via secret acupuncture points is being pursued by a wealthy criminal, but his plans are put in peril when a slovenly detective is tasked with protecting the relic.
Thelma Lambert
Young Terry Lambert returns home from serving a prison term for a gang-rape he was forced to participate in. He seeks revenge on his lawyer and the girl who framed him. But his real problem is his overbearing mother, whose boarding house he resides in and who keeps bringing him glasses of chocolate milk. One of her boarders, Lori, becomes attracted to him. However, while he was serving his prison sentence, Terry developed an interest in rough, violent sex, and gory death. Now, one by one, some of the town's women pop up dead.
Mother Bonaventure
Drama based on the life of Joyce Duco, with Joanna Pettet as a young nun torn between the reality of her secular job as a daytime juvenile probation officer and the vows she has taken with the church.
Aunt Margaret Bancroft
A young girl writes to President Abraham Lincoln to advise him to grow a beard.
Queen Gertrude
A filmed version of Sid and Marty Krofft's 1968 live puppet show, set at a medieval fair. The special was a pilot for a weekly series.
Annie La Cossit
A mother travels to New York to see her daughter who is awaiting trial for murder. The mother is totally convinced of her daughter's innocence and does all she can to help her. As the trial progresses however, the mother begins to have doubts.
Ethel Gaines
A bachelor's life is interrupted by the appearance of a teenager who claims to be his son.
Dolly Murdock
Stage mother Dolly Murdock (Ann Sothern) uses the attractiveness of her teenage daughter Tricia (Alexandra Hay) for her own economic gains, leading Tricia to experience a nightmarish loss of innocence.
Mrs. Kozzek
Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies start dropping and the savvy P.I. is the primary suspect in an attractive woman's death. This NBC TV movie served as a pilot for the later series.
Angela
A wild beach boy takes a job on a tuna fishing boat.
Mrs. Argona / Grace Argona
Sylvia West (Carroll Baker) may not be who she says she is. Her fiancé, the very well-to-do Frederick Summers (Peter Lawford), hires an investigator named Alan Maklin (George Maharis) to do some digging, and what he finds out about her life prior to becoming a writer is quite shocking. Will the newfound knowledge ruin the marriage? Gordon Douglas (Young at Heart) directs this drama, which is based on E.V. Cunningham's book.
Sue Ellen Gamadge
The other party is in disarray. Five men vie for the party nomination for president. No one has a majority as the first ballot closes and the front-runners begin to decide how badly they want the job.
Sade
A woman trapped in a home elevator is terrorized by a group of vicious hoodlums.
Liza
The unhappy female editor of a fashion magazine is undergoing psychoanalysis.
Crystal Carpenter
A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may be a murderess.
Dell Faring
Angered that her sister Celia has stolen her fiance, Dell Faring kills her and allows Celia's husband David, knocked out in an argument with Celia, to take the blame and end up on death row. Later Dell, finding out that David's young daughter Susan was witness to the crime and is undergoing psychiatric treatment, plans to eliminate her before her memory returns.
Frances Elliott
Mother and daughter compete over same singing role and, unbeknownst to each other, the same man.
Rita Phipps
Lora May Hollingsway, who grew up next to the wrong side of the tracks, married her boss who thinks she is just a gold digger. Rita Phipps makes as much money writing radio scripts at night as her school teacher husband does. Deborah Bishop looked great in a Navy uniform in WWII but fears she'll never be dressed just right for the Country Club set. These three wives are boarding a boat filled with children going on a picnic when a messenger on a bicycle hands them a letter addressed to all three from Addie who has just left town with one of their husbands. They won't know which one until that night.
Joyce Harmon
Encomium to Larry Hart (1895-1943), seen through the fictive eyes of his song-writing partner, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): from their first meeting, through lean years and their breakthrough, to their successes on Broadway, London, and Hollywood. We see the fruits of Hart and Rodgers' collaboration - elaborately staged numbers from their plays, characters' visits to night clubs, and impromptu performances at parties. We also see Larry's scattered approach to life, his failed love with Peggy McNeil, his unhappiness, and Richard's successful wooing of Dorothy Feiner.
June Tyme
A married couple who have a song-and-dance act in vaudeville are in trouble. Their struggling act is going nowhere, they're almost broke and they have to do something to get them back on top or they'll really be in trouble. They decide to put their young son in the act in hopes of attracting some new attention. The boy turns out to be a major talent, audiences love him and the act is on its way to the top. That's when an organization whose purpose is to stop children from performing on stage shows up, and they're dead set on breaking up the act.
Peggy
A judge flees the pressures of professional and family life for a job as a short-order cook.
Maisie Ravier
Maisie Revere, a showgirl stranded in Los Angeles, decides to join the local police department on the persuasion of Lieutenant Paul Scott who wants to use her as an undercover agent to expose a conman.
Maisie Ravier
A showgirl working for an inventor battles crooks, who want to steal his ideas.
Maisie Ravier
A Brooklyn showgirl gets mixed up in a divorce between a soldier and his wife.
This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.
Pat
The Army nurses on Bataan need help badly, but when it arrives, it sure isn't what they expected. A motley crew, including a Southern belle, a waitress, and a stripper, show up. Many conflicts arise among these women who are thrown together in what is a desperate and ultimately hopeless situation.
Maisie Ravier
Street-smart Maisie from Brooklyn lands a job at an airplane assembly plant during WWII and falls in love with handsome pilot "Breezy" McLaughlin. Breezy, however, falling in love with and getting engaged to Maisie's conniving roommate Iris, doesn't realize she's using him and it's up to Maisie to convince him.
Julia Seabrook
When his wife threatens him with divorce, a reporter courts her again.
Mary Jones
John Jones contemplates how fortunate he and his family is in America, where no wartime bombing occurs.
Ann Sothern
Acrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel's pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie's also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family's trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.
Hattie Maloney
Sailors and spies mingle in between the acts at Hattie's nightclub in the Canal Zone.
Maisie Ravier
Struggling performers, Sothern and Skelton's lives are thrown off gear when they are caught with a bagful of hard cash robbed by a goon. With Skelton in prison, how will Sothern prove their innocence?
Dixie Donegan Crane
Married songwriters almost split up while putting on a big show.
Maisie Ravier
Young undefeated boxer Terry Dolan, who's been lying to his invalid mother about his career, confides to Maisie that he hates and is terrified by boxing and wants out. Not wanting to let down his best friend and manager Skeets Maguire, who has hopes of him becoming the next champion, he is reluctant to bring up the subject with him. Maisie convinces Terry to tell Skeets, whose unexpected reaction induces him to step into the ring again.
Maisie Ravier
Showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself once again out of work. She meets a wealthy playboy who hires her to be his family's new maid. Maisie soon finds herself trying to mend the family's many problems.
Self
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
Dulcy Ward
A dizzy young woman aranges to turn her inventor-boyfriend's vacation into a chance meeting with a possible investor who happens to be her brother's future father-in-law. And Wacky stuff happens.
Maisie Ravier
Maisie becomes attached to a dirt-poor farmer and his family as they try to make ends meet joining hundreds of others digging for gold in a previously panned-out ghost town.
Florence 'Flo' Addams
When retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.
Self
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother and daughter go to town to buy a new dress. In the dress shop window is a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie. We then go to Hollywood and visit Adrian, MGM's chief of costume design, and see how multiple copies of a single clothing pattern are produced. The film ends with short segments of several MGM features.
Maisie Ravier
Maisie gets lost in a jungle in Africa and the jungle of romance. The African jungle has snakes, crocodiles and witch doctors. The romantic jungle has a dedicated doctor with an un-dedicated wife and an embittered doctor who is dedicated to no one.
Ethel Turp
Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.
Garda Sloane
Joel & Garda Sloan, a husband and wife detective team, who also sell rare books in New York, take a vacation to Seaside City. At Seaside, Joel's pal, Mike Stevens is managing and preparing for their beauty pageant. Joel is made one of the judges plus he has invested $5,000 in it, to Garda's dismay. Eric Bartell, promoter, arrives to dupe Stevens. When Ed Connors, New York racketeer arrives, Bartell is mysteriously murdered. Joel and Garda set out to investigate the murder.
Ellen Connelly
Guests at a women's residence club help a jilted small-town girl turn to modelling.
Maisie Ravier / Mary Anastasia O'Connor
Wisecracking showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself trapped in a Wyoming town when her new employer closes the show prematurely. She meets ranch foreman Charles "Slim" Martin when he accuses her of lifting his wallet and ends up being hired as a maid for ranch owners Cliff and Sybil, who are attempting to mend their rocky marriage after Sybil's infidelity with a cowboy.
Jean Livingstone
After committing a murder, Kay assumes a new identity and boards a ship. But, Kay is unaware that Sam, a skirt chasing detective, is following her and must outwit him to escape imprisonment.
Carol Rogers
The day after Carol returns from a European trip, she wakes up to find her dead father's creditors hauling everything away. Her aunt wants her to marry a millionaire, but Carol insists on getting a job.
Herself
While visiting Hollywood a starstruck movie fan (Eddie Cantor) fantasizes about himself cast in an Arabian adventure. Director David Butler's comedy--with many songs--also features Tony Martin, Roland Young, Gypsy Rose Lee (billed as Rose Hovick), John Carradine, June Lang, Virginia Field, Charles Lane, The Peters Sisters and many big-name guest stars playing themselves.
Bettina Louise "Betty" Russell
After striking it rich in Alaskan gold, a young man returns to marry his fiancé only to be snubbed. Her sister, however, is worth considering, until he learns about her gold-digging family.
Antoinette "Toni" Pemberton
A New York City lawyer finds himself falling in love with the daughter of a screwball South Carolina family.
Mary Strand
A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.
Millicent Kendall
A man on the lam in the Canadian wilds encounters a young woman in a remote lodge who is also on the run.
Connie Taylor
Jerry and Connie are engaged to be married, but they're also rival newspaper reporters, and when they're both assigned to cover the same murder case, the temptation to out-scoop the other threatens their relationship.
Eleanor
Hank Medhill, artificial silk manufacturer, has returned to the U.S. from Japan to learn that his former girlfriend, Eleanor Breen is about to marry. Hank convinces Eleanor to leave the groom-to-be and marry him. Shortly after the marriage, they discover that they have nothing in common. They separate. Hank decides to pick any name from the phone book and date them. That date results in a wild and frightful night for Hank, thanks to Eleanor's clever plan.
Frances Cooke
A girl in search of a rich husband mistakes a millionaire for a male model.
Kit Bennett
A strong-willed young woman hires a student to impersonate a boorish French count and brings him home to meet her parents.
Mary Cantillon
Ann Sothern essays the title role in My American Wife. The story opens in Smelter City, Arizona, where the richest man in town is grizzled old Indian fighter Lafe Cantillon (Fred Stone). Lafe's social-climbing sister-in-law (Billie Burke) insists that her daughter Mary wed a titled European, Count Ferdinand (Francis Lederer). Much to Lafe's delight, Mary isn't assimilated into Continental high society; instead, she instructs Count Ferdinand in the virtues of good, old-fashioned American democracy. And, of, course, the Count and Lafe become great chums when the "furriner" proves that he can ride a bucking bronco with the best of 'em.
Ann Edwards
Standard tale of husband and wife living a party lifestyle. He works in a gambling hall and she occasionally models and sings. Because they want to start a family wife feels the need to change their situation. Situation is changed and husband gets a new job and then a promotion but is tricked into a bad business deal and wants to go back to his old life.
Mary Taylor
A fishing-boat captain's bride eyes his first mate at sea.
Fay Stevens
Gangster tries to censor a crusading radio station by jamming its signal.
Adrienne Martin / Adeline Maxwell
A Stumped insurance company is forced to re-hire the most expensive, most big-headed, but best arson investigator to solve a string of major losses.
Linda Henry
An actor and two songwriters become rural con men.
Patricia Thatcher
A wealthy young man falls hard for a beautiful showgirl, and her wily father quickly realizes the naïve boy would make the perfect investor for his daughter's new show. Comedy with music.
Marge Walker
A trustworthy captain is reduced in rank so that the owner's daughter's fiancé may take charge.
Mimi
An entertainer impersonates a look-alike banker, causing comic confusion for wife and girlfriend.
Joan Larrabee
A musical comedy about a Brooklyn boy who inherits a fortune from his archaeologist father, but has to go to Egypt to claim it.
Ruth Walker
Bruce Blakely, a meek, mild-mannered certified public accountant, finally gets fed up with his money-grubbing family sponging off of him, and decides to partake of a different side and slice of life. A blonde secretary helps guide him.
Kitty Taylor
A young woman is torn between a wealthy suitor who wants her body and the honest young man who wants what's best for her.
Geraldine Sloane
Reporter Dan Collins tries to expose a crooked gambling ring, but is waylaid by Geraldine Sloane, a feisty young heiress who feels Collins has insulted her. To get revenge , she disguises herself and gets a job at Collins' paper, where she manages to throw his crusade against the gamblers into disarray.
Jane Blodgett
It's love at first sight for singer John Craddock and Jane Blodgett who meet while John is seeking a radio job with the "Blodgett Dog Biscuit Hour," and John learns that the sponsor is Jane's father, Warren Blodgett, an avid souvenir and antiques collector. John gets himself in bad with Blodgett when he accidentally ruins a deal in which Blodgett was attempting to acquire a bedpost for his collection. To break up the romance, Blodgett and his wife take Jane to Switzerland, where Blodgett has his heart set on obtaining a jealously-guarded cowbell.
Jean
A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.
Singer
Racketeer Frank Rocci is smitten with Joan Whelan, a dancer at Texas Guinan's famous Broadway night spot. He uses his influence to help her get a starring role in the show, hoping that it will also get Joan to fall in love with him. After scoring a hit, Joan accepts Frank's marriage proposal, more out of gratitude than love. The situation gets even stickier when she falls for a handsome band leader during a trip to Florida. Can she tell Frank she's in love with someone else?
Goldwyn Girl (uncredited)
Western sheriff Bob Wells is preparing to marry Sally Morgan; she loves part-Indian Wanenis, whose race is an obstacle. Sally flees the wedding with hypochondriac Henry Williams, who thinks he's just giving her a ride; but she left a note saying they've eloped! Chasing them are jilted Bob, Henry's nurse Mary (who's been trying to seduce him) and others.
Zeppelin Reveler (uncredited)
Angela and Bob Brooks are an upper class couple. Bob is an unfaithful husband. Angela has a plan to win back his affections.
Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Unfinished pre-Code era film consisting of three sections with past performers from the stage and the vaudeville circuit, then-present-day performers and up-and-coming performers. Musical excerpts were later used in Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Nertsery Rhymes (1933), and Roast-Beef and Movies (1934). "The Lock Step" was later used in That's Entertainment! III (1994)
Student
A college football star falls for his mousy French tutor.
Bit Part
Captain Stanton, who because of a misunderstanding over a woman with Major Davolo, has been cited for a court martial. As a scout, he is sent to escort a wagon train which is under military escort. It turns out that this escort is his own former regiment. When he meet Davolo, there is another fight and between Stanton and Davolo in which Davolo is killed.
Performer in 'Meet My Sister' & 'Bicycle Built for Two' Numbers (as Harriet Lake)
It's 1929. The studio gave the cinema its voice gave offered the audiences a chance to see their favorite actors and actresses from the silent screen era to see and for the first time can be heard in a gaudy, grandiose music comedy revue. But also appear actors and actresses from the first 'talkies', stars from Broadway and of course the German shepherd Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay is the host of the more than 70 well-known stars who show various acts.
Showgirl (uncredited)
Fannie joins Johnny to perform a music-hall act which becomes a success, until two Broadway producers catch the act and offer Fannie a job on their latest show; however, they have no place for Johnny, so Fannie turns down the offer. (Film considered lost.)
