THAT'S DANCING! (MGM 1985) Warner Home Video

In 1974, MGM, ironically on the cusp of foreclosure, and with its back lots already on the chopping block for condo development, celebrated their former glory with a docu-tainment featuring their greatest musicals. But the paradox was even further exaggerated when the movie - That’s Entertainment! went on to become the biggest and brightest money-maker of that year, proving nostalgia still had its place at the box office. Given a lavish send-up, with a star-studded bash afterward, in which a goodly roster of the talent that had once called Metro home ate and reminisced together, That’s Entertainment! was immediately followed by a sequel. Although not as popular as its predecessor, That’s Entertainment Part II convinced writer/producer, Jack Haley Jr. there was still more than enough stardust magic in this unused material, properly archived and readily available, and, waiting for yet another sequel to follow. That it took another 18-years to get Part III in the hopper was largely the result of too much backroom bartering, effectively to have broken L.B. Mayer’s empire – once thought of as indestructible – down to bedrock. Audiences, however, did not have to wait nearly as long for another compendium of classic musicals to emerge.  

1985’s That’s Dancing!, also directed by Haley Jr., is not a sequel,  but a concerted effort to celebrate the scope of musical entertainments made by Hollywood en masse during the 1930’s, right on through to the 1980’s. As the Walt Disney Company, Columbia Pictures and Universal absolutely refused to partake of the exercise, due to licensing issues, the resulting cornucopia of goodies derived mostly from MGM, RKO, and Warner Bros., with nods to United Artists, Paramount, and, Fox’s formidable back catalog. And, like That’s Entertainment!, That's Dancing! featured a roster of hosts, culled from the realm of musical theater. To this end, Haley Jr. sought to diversify his MC’s. For the cultured sect,  ballet dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov. For the earthy showmen, Sammy Davis Jr., the Broadway hoofer - Ray Bolger, Hollywood royalty – Liza Minnelli, and, for class personified, Gene Kelly. It was something of a sad reminiscence as, in the intervening decade, MGM, the studio, once proudly hailed for having 'more stars than there are in heaven' had inexplicably vanished from the map of Hollywood – its Culver City facilities sold to Lorimar Telepictures, its fanciful back lots bulldozed for quick cash, and its assets – nearly a century of props and costumes – ruthlessly auctioned off to the highest bidder. If the old MGM was gone, then audiences were nevertheless well-reminded of what had once been.

The travesty that befell Hollywood's legendary dream factory remains one of the unforgivable tragedies of Hollywood; Metro’s boardroom, repeatedly rocked by mismanagement or an ever-evolving ‘new’ management in chronic crisis mode, leaving MGM rudderless; its stable of top-flight in-house technicians, whittled down to a handful of old timers, barely able to remember the golden age without shedding a few tears. Worse, a corporate takeover by financier, Kirk Kerkorian in 1973 had paved the way for a total divestiture of all the studio's assets he could not cart off to adorn his Vegas hotel. The back lots, sets spanning virtually every period in human history, were leveled. Props and costumes once worn by Gable, Garbo and their ilk, still considered to fetch a buck went on the auction block, while original scripts, sheet music, publicity stills and animation cells, deemed to have no re-sale value, were carted off, or cast into dumpsters, mercifully, to be raided by savvy collectors. In those sad final days, MGM went from 'the king of features' to a wholesale distributor; its cavernous real estate and acreage, one colossal garage sale. By the time That's Dancing! went into production, MGM was no longer an empire, but a holding company. Little surprise then, Haley Jr. was forced to shoot virtually all of his new inserts either indoors or elsewhere beyond those fabled walls.  

In crafting a loose narrative around another bumper crop of clips, Haley also chose to look outside MGM’s library, petitioning virtually every studio in Hollywood to participate in his new venture. Some did. Most did not. Unwisely, Haley marched ahead with what he had. However, unlike the That's Entertainment! films, That’s Dancing! emerged as something of a labyrinth of oddities rather than a vast holiday through these magic lands of make-believe. Left with gaping omissions in its narrative, That’s Dancing! could only suggest the girth of Hollywood’s nearly 60-year love affair with the movie musical. There was, for example, no good reason - other than rights issues, to omit memorable films like The Sound of Music, Grease, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Camelot and Pennies from Heaven from this compilation. As a result, Haley was forced to stay pretty close to home, relying on clips from the MGM archive, while occasionally inserting scenes and numbers from the other studios to augment his celebration. The opening credits, set to Henry Mancini's title tune, gave pause to delay our anticipation for another rousing tribute as it showcased many clips from various studios, as well as snippets from non-musicals, King Solomon’s Mines (1950), The Swan (1956), and James A. FitzPatrick’s TravelTalks short subjects.

However, the movie’s singular flaw remained its utter lack of continuity, the narrative structure bouncing all over the artistic map, and, from studio to studio. Busby Berkeley was given his due in a segment exclusively devoted to his contributions at Warner Bros. (completely to forget Buzz had a whole other career at MGM), and Fred Astaire was paid an homage to his RKO years by Sammy Davis Jr. No tributes to the likes of Gower Champion, Gene Kelly, or Bob Fosse, all distinct and worthy collaborators, deserving of such acknowledgement. And MGM’s in-house style, particularly in the latter compendium assembled to transition audiences into the present, illustrated Metro's total disconnect with the times, notably, break dancing and Michael Jackson, also featured at the start and conclusion of the picture. To bridge the gap, 1961’s West Side Story's electrifying 'Cool' parking garage routine was incongruously butted against MGM's 'The Red Blues' from Silk Stockings (1957), and Shirley MacLaine’s rooftop competition dance, with Paula Kelly and Chita Rivera, from Fosse’s grotesquely overblown, Sweet Charity (1969). As though it were not as yet apparent, the inclusion of Irene Cara's pulsating pop-tune, Fame (1980), Jennifer Beales’ audition from Flashdance (1983) and Michael Jackson’s music video, ‘Beat It’, only punctuated the obvious – that the first-generation glory years had truly died at least 3 decades earlier.

Somewhere, the producers jettisoned the idea to remain exclusive to movie musicals, while inexplicably excluding other relevant forms of dance. Mikhail Baryshnikov's tribute to ballet on film suffered from too much stilted exposition and not enough examples of actual ballet. The extended tributes to Astaire and Berkeley were made at the expense of celebrating even Gene Kelly, much less Gene Nelson or Donald O'Connor. For obvious reasons, That's Dancing! overlooked the great singers, creating a sort of 'black hole' within the context of the genre itself. After all, the earliest movie musicals were often trumpeted as "All dancing! all singing!" Yet, at its best That's Dancing! managed to incorporate a little of each, if neither could be considered much of a celebration. The opening sequence set to a newly arranged title tune, "That's Dancing", made stunning use of a compendium of clips never again glimpsed in this movie, while the finale tried to recap the previous 2-hours with another bumper crop, set to Carly Simon's 'Invitation to Dance'.  Between the book-ends hosted by Gene Kelly, looking woefully out of place amidst the break dancers, Liza Minnelli attempted a misguided ‘best of Broadway’ sequence – a curious claptrap including James Carney as George M. Cohen in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), a movie for which no Broadway derivative actually existed. Ray Bolger gave a brief summary of MGM’s late forties to mid-fifties tenure, drawing a parallel between the studio’s #1 dancer – Astaire, and the studio’s ‘other’ #1 dancer, Kelly.

Despite some interesting material feathered in along the way, That’s Dancing! failed to come to life except in fits and sparks. When it was all over, the public agreed. While not a financial flop, That's Dancing! was, by far, a disappointment. Viewed today, That's Dancing! is much more a relic from the 1980’s than a timeless capsule of talents gleaned from bygone years. Kim Carnes' song and the 'new' inserts have dated badly, and, unlike the introspective hosts in That’s Entertainment!, speaking directly about their own past experiences, the commentators here rang with a tinny echo of scripted faux incredulity and humility.  Retrospectively, That's Dancing! is very much like a starter home for newlyweds. You know it is not exactly ideal, but you settle for it because you need a place to stay until you get your finances in order. My advice? Skip the starter and just jump right into the That's Entertainment anthology - an infinitely more rewarding and pleasurable distraction for an hour or two.

Warner Home Video’s DVD transfer is middle of the road considering that, at the time these clips were assembled for the original theatrical engagement, digital restoration was non-existent, and photo-chemical restoration was in its infancy.  Many of the clips in That's Dancing! are imperfect and glaringly illustrate the ravages of time. Even so, it appears as though Warner Home Video has gone back to the drawing board, inserting newly mastered clips from some of their restoration efforts made in the interim. Clips from Singin’ In the Rain and the Berkeley musicals – as example – appear much more refined than others included herein. Throughout That's Dancing! the aspect ratio changes to accommodate full frame and widescreen formats. The disparity in video quality is, at times, vast and unsettling. Some clips are quite sharp and free of age-related artifacts while others appear to have been fed through a meat grinder. Arguably, the pleasure to be derived herein is from the assemblage of content for historical purposes, rather than to experience overall homogenized integrity of the images. The B&W sequences sport good solid contrast and mostly solid gray scale tonality. Movies shot in 3-strip Technicolor, monopack Eastman/Kodak, DeLuxe and other derivatives range from utterly vibrant, rich and bold, to fairly flat and unprepossessing. We get a Dolby Digital 5.1 remastering effort for which only the main and end titles fully benefit. Extras include 4 abysmal featurettes made to promote the theatrical release. They are of such poor quality that, even as archival reference materials, they are pretty low on the scale of importance. It is a genuine pity more was not done to stabilize these images. The original theatrical trailer is also included.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

1