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Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
Character: Self
This short shows how Hollywood gets ready for the world premiere of an "important" movie. The film celebrated here is Marie Antoinette (1938), which had its premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre. We see the street leading to the theatre transformed to suggest a garden that might be seen in a French palace. This includes the placement of trees and other foliage, as well as large statues along the route. Grandstands are set up so fans can see their favorite stars as they arrive for the premiere. Finally, the proverbial "galaxy of stars" arrives in their limousines. Fanny Brice and Pete Smith make remarks at the microphone set up on the carpet outside the theatre.
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Where's Charley? (1957)
Character: Donna Lucia d'Alvadores
Lord Fancourt Babberley is forced to disguise himself as a woman - his aunt from Brazil, "where the nuts come from".
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Prima Donna (1956)
Character: Martha Blessing
A famous singer discovers a newsboy with vocal talent, but he would rather play baseball than develop his singing skills. She'd like to persuade his parents of his potential, but confusion arises when they arrive to discuss the matter.
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Smilin' Through (1941)
Character: Kathleen / Moonyean Clare
John Carteret has long been depressed and lonely, because, at his wedding years ago, his bride, Moonyean, was murdered. He accepts into his house Kathleen, the 5-year-old orphaned niece of Moonyean, and she quickly grows up to look just like her aunt.
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That's Entertainment! (1974)
Character: (archive footage)
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
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Maytime (1937)
Character: Marcia Mornay
An aging opera singer looks back on her long life, including her relationships with her vocal teacher and a student.
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Follow the Boys (1944)
Character: Jeanette MacDonald
During World War II, all the studios put out "all-star" vehicles which featured virtually every star on the lot--often playing themselves--in musical numbers and comedy skits, and were meant as morale-boosters to both the troops overseas and the civilians at home. This was Universal Pictures' effort. It features everyone from Donald O'Connor to the Andrews Sisters to Orson Welles to W.C. Fields to George Raft to Marlene Dietrich, and dozens of other Universal players.
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The Lottery Bride (1930)
Character: Jenny
Sundered lovers meet again amid tragic irony at a mining camp in northern Norway.
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Bitter Sweet (1940)
Character: Sarah Millick
A woman runs away with her music teacher in order to escape an arranged marriage, but they struggle to make ends meet.
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Broadway Serenade (1939)
Character: Mary Hale
A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
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Annabelle's Affairs (1931)
Character: Annabelle Leigh
After only 11 hours of marriage, Annabelle and her husband separate-not knowing what each other truly looks like. Annabelle is given stocks by her husband and told not to part with them. However she is an extravagant spender and is forced to give the stocks to her husband's millionaire rival.....
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
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Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To (1990)
Character: (archive footage)
This tribute to Myrna Loy is organized chronologically with a few photographs, many film clips, a handful of personal appearances, and a detailed commentary delivered on camera by Kathleen Turner. Turner walks us through Loy's career as a dancer and an actress miscast as an exotic. She comes into her own as a grown-up women: shrewd, funny, decorous, and sexy - in "Manhattan Melodrama" and "The Thin Man." Her volunteer work during World War II, later stage work, and progressive politics come in for admiration as well. It's her style - seen best in her roles as a wife of charm and independence - that's captured and celebrated here.
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The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn (1986)
Character: Self (archive footage)
In this tribute to her frequent co-star and longtime love, Katharine Hepburn hosts a behind-the-scenes look at Spencer Tracy's personal and professional life that features intimate personal accounts, interviews and clips from his most acclaimed work on the silver screen.
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The Vagabond King (1930)
Character: Katherine
The story takes place in medieval France. Poet-rogue Francois Villon, sentenced to hang by King Louis XI for writing derogatory verses about him, is offered a temporary reprieve. His hanging will be postponed for 24 hours, and in that time he must defeat the invading Burgundians and win the love of the beautiful Katherine.
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Don't Bet on Women (1931)
Character: Jeanne Drake
At a big party, Roger Fallon, now a woman-hater, right to the core - this all due to a failed marriage and disastrous love affairs - talks to Herbert Drake. Herbert who is happily married, bets Fallon that the next woman who walks into the room, whoever she is, won't let Fallon kiss her for 48 hours. Fallon takes the bet. Suddenly, a very beautiful and sexy woman walks in. It's Herbert's wife, Jeanne Drake...
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Monte Carlo (1930)
Character: Countess Helene Mara
A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino.
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Cairo (1942)
Character: Marcia Warren
Reporter Homer Smith accidently draws Marcia Warren into his mission to stop Nazis from bombing Allied Conwoys with robot-planes.
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Naughty Marietta (1935)
Character: Marietta
In order to avoid a prearranged marriage, a rebellious French princess sheds her identity and escapes to colonial New Orleans, where she finds an unlikely true love.
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One Hour with You (1932)
Character: Colette Bertier
Andre and Colette Bertier are happily married. When Colette introduces her husband to her flirtatious best friend, Mitzi, he does his best to resist her advances. But she is persistent, and very cute, and he succumbs. Mitzi's husband wants to divorce her, and has been having her tailed. Andre gets caught, and must confess to his wife. But Colette has had problems resisting the attentions of another man herself, and they forgive each other.
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New Moon (1940)
Character: Marianne de Beaumanoir
A revolutionary leader romances a French aristocrat in Louisiana.
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The Merry Widow (1934)
Character: Madame Sonia / Fifi
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country.
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The Love Parade (1930)
Character: Queen Louise
The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.
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Hollywood: Style Center of the World (1940)
Character: 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.
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That's Entertainment! III (1994)
Character: (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.
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Rose Marie (1936)
Character: Marie de Flor
An incognito opera singer falls for a policeman who has been assigned to track down her fugitive brother.
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The Romance of Celluloid (1937)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are presented. They include: the production of celluloid aka film stock, the materials used in the production of which include cotton and silver; construction crews who build sets including those to look like cities, towns and villages around the world; a visit with Jack Dawn who demonstrates the process of creating a makeup design; the screen testing process, where many an acting hopeful gets his/her start; the work of the candid camera man, the prying eyes behind the movie camera; a visit with Adrian, who designs the clothes worn by many of the stars on screen; and a visit with Herbert Stothart as he conducts his musical score for Conquest (1937). These behind the scenes looks provide the opportunity to get acquainted with the cavalcade of MGM stars and their productions that will grace the silver screen in the 1937/38 movie season.
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The Sun Comes Up (1949)
Character: Helen Lorfield Winter
Set in the rural south of the United States, a bereaved war widow learns to put aside her bitterness and grief as she grows to love a young orphan boy and his dog.
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The Firefly (1937)
Character: Nina Maria
Nina Maria Azara is the beautiful and alluring singing spy for Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. Her mission is to seduce French officers, in order for them to reveal Napoleon's intentions toward Spain. She is sent to Bayonne, France to gather military secrets. Prior to this, she meets Don Diego while performing at a club. Unknown to her, Don Diego is actually Captain Andre, who is sent to Spain to spy on her. While in France, Nina discovers Diego's true identity, only after she has fallen in love with him. Nina Maria outwits her potential captors, returns to Spain and goes into hiding. Napoleon's troops invade Spain, resulting in Nina's capture. In a strange twist of fate, Nina and Captain Andre are reunited, but the 2 nations are now at war...
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That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
Character: (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.
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I Married an Angel (1942)
Character: Anna / Brigitta
A count who ignores an infatuated secretary thinks he has met his match when an angel from Heaven shows up.
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Sweethearts (1938)
Character: Gwen Marlowe
The team behind a successful Broadway production tries to stop the married stars from transitioning to Hollywood.
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San Francisco (1936)
Character: Mary Blake
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 1906.
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Let's Go Native (1930)
Character: Joan Wood
The company of a musical comedy gets shipwrecked on a tropical island inhabited by a "king" from Brooklyn and his coterie of wild native girls.
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Love Me Tonight (1932)
Character: Princess Jeanette
A Parisian tailor goes to a château to collect a bill, only to fall for an aloof young princess living there.
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Oh, for a Man! (1930)
Character: Carlotta Manson
Disenchanted opera star Carlotta Manson falls for ruffian cat burglar Barney McGann and gives up her career to marry him. But Barney grows disenchanted himself at being known as the husband of a diva and itches to get back to his life of crime and manliness.
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