Twenty Years After

If you don't mind cameo scenes shooting by faster than bullets, this 9-minutes is loaded. It's supposed to be 20-years of studio activity from 1924-1944, but we really only get glimpses of the first and last years. We do get a slick review of lush MGM productions from 1924, (Ben Hur, The Big Parade, et al.). However, the 30's are skipped over and we go directly to 1944, and the studio's cavalcade of stars plus features from that war year. (And did I see correctly, or is that a Code-defying young couple cuddling on the same bed! And what movie, pray tell, was that?) But most impressively, we get an aerial view of MGM's massive production facilities spread out like a city. And a big one. Wow!

Basically, the 9-minutes amounts to a studio promo. Nonetheless, it's still a nostalgic sprint across a Hollywood album of familiar faces and features. So old film fans, it's a short that remains flavorful despite the dispatch.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offers us a one-reeler celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding -- its consolidation, actually, since it combined the three mid-sized studios in its name. After seeing a couple of minor employees who, we are to believe, came to work at MGM that year, we are told some of the exciting things going on in 1924 --foremost of them Calvin Coolidge as President -- a brief look at a couple of hits of 1925, and then a look at the current studio.

It's not too shoddy a reason to boast a bit and MGM takes it, along with a list of their current and hopeful stars. One of the studio's slogans was "More Stars Than There Are in Heaven" and with profits at an all-time high -- the profits from MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS alone was enough to keep the whole place open for a year, everyone was feeling good about the future.