Personalities

Frank Whitbeck narrates this piece puffing some of MGM's newest players, including Donna Reed, Van Johnson, and Esther Williams, some who worked and never made the top rung, like Susan Peters, and some whose names faded into obscurity.

More than the players themselves, it's a puff piece for MGM. Back then, the studios had distinct personalities, and MGM's motto was 'More stars than there are in Heaven' and the short ends with a fanfare and a series of shots of the current names. That's what MGM thought would sell pictures!

Hollywood calls personality the ability to stand out in a crowd. Aside from the list of big stars, this does a 'deep dive' into Donna Reed. Then it asks the audience to pick one of three girls opposite Mickey Rooney. One of them is Esther Williams although she's not swimming here. It names a lot of names. Some I recognize. Some I don't. One of the don't is actress Susan Peters. I've never heard of her name. This short plays her up to be the next big thing. She was struck by a tragic gun accident in 1945 and her on-screen career never recovers. That's the thing. Personality is not enough. It's a lot of luck and the unknowable pixie dust magic. This short does the unintended. It shows that fame is fickle.

A 1942 short extolling the virtues of MGM stars of the day. From the up and coming Mickey Rooney, who went on to a long career, to Susan Peters, who met a tragic end just a few years after this was made. Quick snippets of some of the stars are shown from movies they have made, but at under 10 minutes, and with so many stars in the MGM stable, this short is mainly just quick glimpses of many famous faces.

Essentially, just a long commercial for MGM, theater owners showed these shorts anyway as filler during double features, or because the big studios made them show the shorts in order to get the big budget movies. There just isn't enough time in this one to take in all the stars on display. It kinda felt like quickly flipping through a large group of photos. Watchable, but nothing outstanding.

Personalities (1942)

*** (out of 4)

MGM short made to highlight some of their up and coming stars. The film starts off talking about how personality is what actors must have and we see a few clips from the likes of Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. We then go into future stars with Donna Reed, Van Johnson, Lucille Norman and Susan Peters being called "people to keep your eyes on". Another nice section is a screen test for an Andy Hardy movie where Frances Rafferty, Carole Gallagher and Ester Williams compete for the role. The role would eventually go to Williams and it's nice seeing the tests that the director would have to pick from. All in all this is a pretty entertaining short that states its case in the ten-minute running time.

When I saw "Personalities" as an extra on the Esther Williams DVD, I was a bit confused. With classic MGM releases, Turner Entertainment usually includes a few shorts from the same year as the feature's release. However, "Personalities" came out several years earlier. Shortly after the film began, I understood why. The film is a propaganda piece which features many MGM contract players who they anticipate will be one of the big stars in the future--and Williams is one of these. Now many of the others portrayed in this bit of unabashed self-promotion NEVER became stars, but the likes of Van Johnson, Donna Reed, Susan Peters* and Hedy Lamarr** did--and for old movie buffs like me, it's great to see these predictions and see clips from these folks' early films.

*Sadly, although Peters did become a star, she also was paralyzed in a hunting accident. Although she completed a film after this (playing a conniving wheelchair-bound woman), she committed suicide at age 31.

**The film says that Lamarr was born in the Ukraine! This was absurd, as she was from Austria. However, as the film came out in the midst of WWII and Austria was part of the new Nazi Germany, the studio lied about her heritage in order to avoid any anti-Austrian bias from the public! How much truth is in all the other success stories in this film is also debatable.