Once you've run out of Shirley Temple, Alice Faye and Betty Grable movies to watch, you can start scanning the various resources for TV interviews, variety show appearances and rare outtakes that ended up on the cutting room floor. This wonderful combination of music videos and documentary footage has some great historical value as well as interesting insights into the culture of the 1930's and 40's (and a brief bit of the 1950's). To quote Charles Dickens, it was indeed the best of times and the worst of times, with entertainment at an all time great level with a quality of star that you only see rarely today, mainly on stage thanks to the great musical talents who work there.
But, as glamorous narrator Joan Collins reminds us, it was also a time when there was much racism, and for a great talent like Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, it meant only playing domestics abused by their employer, and rarely allowed to escape that mold. A job playing himself as the headliner at the "Cafe Metropole" sadly was cut, even though as Collins indicates, 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck was very progressive. Even with his power, he couldn't override stock holder's views of dropping box office receipts. Sadly, even in the script, Robinson couldn't avoid a racial slur with him admitting to co-star Adolph Menjou that he can't write. Even if true, it was an aspect of the part unnecessary that only added to stereotyping very prominent at the time.
On a more positive note, this 90 minute compilation shows lost footage of the great stars of the era, and after going through all the films of Temple, Faye and Grable, I was delighted to find these lost treasures. Views of Broadway legend Merman in two of her big movie musical appearances ("Alexander's Ragtime Band", "There's No Business Like Show Business") shows her magnetism that sometimes was overpowering on screen, if still stunning in talent. The chance to see her duet with Dan Dailey on "Anything You Can Do" from her Broadway hit "Annie Get Your Gun" is a major treat. Also quite memorable, even in his trademark blackface, is a cut segment of Al Jolson from "Rose of Washington Square" that shows his passion for performing. Early screentests, promotional shorts and songs sung by non-singers (namely Victor Mature) are all quite interesting. The career of Alice Faye is nicely covered, showing her go from Jean Harlow type knock-off to the glamorous lady she became known for playing in the 1930's and 40's. Even the non-feud between her and rising star Betty Grable is discussed, adding more to their gracious reputations that have outlived them. A little tidbit from "Tin Pan Alley" where Faye creates an idea for a song (quickly stolen by one of her male co-stars) shows the audacity of misogyny at the time, hysterically presented with a glare from Faye that would have frozen anybody had it come from someone like Bette Davis. A segment on Grable features interesting information on the making of "Hot Spot" which ended up being completely re-edited, slightly re-written and turned into the film noir "I Wake Up Screaming" which completely changed Grable's character's occupation.
As for Joan Collins, she is a gracious hostess: funny, insightful, sincere, and at one point even self effacing as she mocks herself as a young Fox contract player in a film she had been scheduled to star in that was quickly scrapped. It's ironic that the film reminded me of MGM's remake of "Beau Brummel", being filmed around the same time with Collins' "rival", Elizabeth Taylor. There are also some costume shots of Taylor in "Cleopatra", which ironically Collins was announced briefly as a substitute when Taylor fell ill. (She later recovered.) Certainly, a good number of the segments seem easy to cut, although I did like the version of "When You Wore a Tulip" cut from "Tin Pan Alley" which shows an exhausted Betty Grable stopping the filming, as well as some of the other numbers I mentioned. The major thought that crossed my mind outside of the fact that I was glad these numbers had been re-discovered and shown to the public was how disappointed the stars must have been to see their hard work escape the final print and sadly not live to see them being appreciated by those lucky enough to have seen this when it aired on AMC in the late 1990's.
