The Lion Roars Again

Wow... a ton of stars in the cast list, but don't be fooled. For most of them, they are briefly shown standing around, walking about, eating, listening to dull speakers or mingling while the narrator goes "Look! There's George Kennedy, and there's Loretta Swit, and there's...". Yawn. That typifies the main problem with this short... we are being shown footage of a conference, and conferences are boring. And while the fact that the conference is about movies and is being attended by lots of Hollywood celebrities makes it a little more interesting than say... a widget conference held in Omaha, Nebraska... it's still dry stuff, especially 30 something years later.

The "highlights" include visiting the sets of "Logan's Run" (1976), listening to George Burns do a short routine including a song, and the premiere of the film "The Wind and the Lion" (1975). The "highlight" for me was getting a chuckle out of spotting a young David Hasselhoff as the male model during the "Logan's Run" costume fashion show.

This short pops up between films on TCM on every once in a while, but save your 17 minutes for something better.

This promotional short touted the return of MGM to prominence, following the studio brand's reappearance in the public's mind due to the success of "That's Entertainment!" (1974). The studio wasn't in any clear and present danger in 1975, but had hit the skids in years earlier. With the glow the Gable and Garbo era mentioned by producer Dan Melnick long gone, MGM's great success with musicals was brought to focus during the 1970s. In hindsight, this really didn't give the studio much of a "new" identity, but there were good movies to be made. Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce lead a wealth of celebrity party-goers.

First, we visit "Logan's Run" (1976); the highlight is a costume show with David Hasselhoff modeling. "That's Entertainment II" (1976) is touted, with stars Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire appearing. "The Sunshine Boys" (1975) gets the next spotlight, with George Burns and Walter Matthau helping Richard Benjamin celebrate his birthday. Concluding his speech with a little song, Mr. Burns steals the show. "The Girl Most Likely To" (1973) succeed is "Sweet Revenge" (1976) star Stockard Channing. Best-looking are "Hearts of the West" (1975) producer Tony Bill and "The Wind and the Lion" (1975) star Candice Bergen.

**** The Lion Roars Again (1975) MGM : George Burns, Daniel Melnick, Richard Benjamin, Bobby Van

Lion Roars Again, The (1975)

** (out of 4)

Documentary short that covers MGM's 1975 International Press Conclave, which the studio held yearly to introduce their current films to the foreign press. Walter Matthau, George Burns and Gene Kelly are just a few of the stars who actually speak in the film. Burns also sings a quick song, which is certainly the highlight of the event. The short does a good job at showing what went on at this event but I must admit that overall the film left me quite bored as nothing too special ever happens. There's some behind the scenes footage from Logan's Run but that's about it. A ton of stars appear in the film but they don't speak to the camera.

I'm guessing this short M-G-M promotional film that I just watched on the HD DVD of That's Entertainment, Part II, was another one of those fillers (and an adequate one at that) meant to fill the rest of a two hour timeslot the Big Three networks had when showing theatrical movies that ran short on it. After then-vice president of production Dan Melnick speaks to the reporters assembled, we're shown first some sets of Logan's Run and then a fashion show of the futuristic costumes from that movie of which David Hasselhoff is one of the models. Next, there's a press conference for TEP2 where we see Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire mingle with various critics of which I swear Roger Ebert is one of them. You can hardly hear them. The next movie plugged is something called All American Girl which I found out here on IMDb would eventually be called Sweet Revenge. Anyway, its star Stockard Channing appears for a few brief scenes but is not interviewed. After that is a party for The Sunshine Boys of which Richard Benjamin is pleasantly surprised of having a giant cake brought up in his honor as it was his birthday that day. Walter Matthau talks about having a lot of fun and thinking it would flop because of that. Then, George Burns tells an amusing story of his show business experiences before doing a very amusing song. He's the highlight and at least the mics were clear on him as it wasn't when we next go to Hearts of the West and producer Tony Bill barely sounds above a whisper. The last film showcased was The Wind and the Lion and we only see a clip with Sean Connery and Candice Bergen the latter of which showed up at the studio with Melnick along with her parents. Speaking of Daniel, he said in the beginning speech that the lion never stopped roaring and yes, considering many good M-G-M movies that subsequently came since then that was true. But now the studio is up for sale again. And with the next James Bond flick and The Hobbit in limbo, one wonders about Leo's roar continuing...

When I looked at the reviews for this short film, I noticed a review by Marc (beautyboy@aol.com). Despite summing up the film quite well, some folks gave him some 'not helpfuls' and I wonder if this is a case of shooting the messenger. In other words, Marc complains about the shabby production values for the film and people give him these negative ratings--but the production values WERE shabby. The editing was bad, shots of folks going to a buffet made the studio looked like a Poverty Row production house and the films they hyped were, for the most part, mere shadows of the quality productions of the past. While "Logan's Run" is a decent little diversion, touting this as a successor to films like "Gone With the Wind" and "Meet Me in St. Louis" is ridiculous. By 1975, the studio was all but bankrupt. Soon, the entire back library of films would be sold to Turner Entertainment, the props and costumes would be sold at auction and production would all but cease. And yet, this ironic little film CELEBRATES! It's like a person celebrating because they've contracted syphilis or cancer! For fans of classic Hollywood, this film is like a sad nail in a coffin--something that just hurts to watch.