Every MGM star but Garbo got an opportunity to display hidden talents in Mr. Mayer's answer to the need of musical revues at the beginning of the sound era. Like Warner Brothers' "Show of Shows", Fox's "Movie Tone Follies", Universal's "King of Jazz" and "Paramount on Parade", this is filled with lavish songs and dances, dramatic scenes from plays, and a mixed bag of comedy routines. This one came first, however, and introduced the Nacio Herb Brown/Arthur Freed standard, "Singin' in the Rain", here performed by Cliff "Ukeilele Ike" Edwards ("Pinocchio's" Jimminy Cricket) and later reprised in a large Noah's Ark setting with the entire cast (including a parasol twirling Marie Dressler) in the finale.
Joan Crawford gets a hot dance number, showing what she had done in silent movies, and would get only a few chances to do in the remainder of her long career. The fabulous Dressler is hysterically funny in the big "For I'm the Queen" number and also performs an underwater ballet long before MGM signed Esther Williams to contract. Eight years before playing Juliet in MGM's lavish full-length version of "Romeo and Juliet", Norma Shearer got to do the balcony sequence here, with a helium voiced John Gilbert. A spoof of the horror genre, "Lon Chaney's Gonna Get You If You Don't Watch Out", is another highlight. Overall, it is a historically important film that may seem creaky at times, but has many enjoyable factors.
Joan Crawford gets a hot dance number, showing what she had done in silent movies, and would get only a few chances to do in the remainder of her long career. The fabulous Dressler is hysterically funny in the big "For I'm the Queen" number and also performs an underwater ballet long before MGM signed Esther Williams to contract. Eight years before playing Juliet in MGM's lavish full-length version of "Romeo and Juliet", Norma Shearer got to do the balcony sequence here, with a helium voiced John Gilbert. A spoof of the horror genre, "Lon Chaney's Gonna Get You If You Don't Watch Out", is another highlight. Overall, it is a historically important film that may seem creaky at times, but has many enjoyable factors.