George K. Arthur

Some of MGM's musical stars review the studio's history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.

Hollywood hopeful Peggy Pepper arrives at a major studio, from Georgia, to become a great dramatic star. Things don't go entirely according to plan.

To impress the girl he loves, a naive country boy tries to capture a group of local bootleggers.

Mary is an impetuous romantic who marries British aristocrat Lord Philip Rexford on a whim. Their marriage is successful, though, and they grow closer over the years. Then, a trip to the Italian Riviera unexpectedly reunites Mary with her former beau, Tommie. After some vicious gossip makes Rexford distrust her, he begins work on a divorce. Mary must now choose between the man she has married and the man she once loved.

President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a theatrical producer as the new Secretary of Amusement in order to cheer up an American public still suffering through the Depression. The new secretary soon runs afoul of political lobbyists out to destroy his department.

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

Kiki, a poor young woman who sells newspapers on the street corners of Paris, is able to land a job singing and dancing at a nearby theater. While she is there, she invites herself into the life of the revue's manager, with whom she has fallen in love.

A young prince falls in love with a beautiful barmaid while at university in old Heidelberg.

An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.

The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity but worlds apart in society: Molly Helmer, the daughter of a thief, and Florence Banning, the daughter of the judge who sent Molly's father to prison. The girls' lives come together as they reach the age of eighteen, when Florence leaves the security of the exclusive Girls Select School, and Molly, now orphaned, begins her life after reform school.

A young man uses tips from an absurd book to woo a woman he fancies.

Helen has a twin sister, who is a famous actress named "La Perry". Helen and her sister decide to trick Helen's husband to prove his love.

When she hears her boy has been killed in WWI a vengeful Kentucky hills mother shelters a deserter as a protest.When the boy returns she asks him to kill the deserter who she learns is the son of a murderous revenue agent.

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...

An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.

Oscar, a tough guard at Newberry Prison, gets into an argument with Jerry, a smallish barber. He causes Jerry to be arrested as a fugitive, and gets him sent to Newberry. It's not long before both men fall in love with Mary, the daughter of the warden. Oscar gets Jerry put on the prison football team, where he is the smallest guy there, figuring that he will look like a fool in front of Mary and then she will pick Oscar. However, things don't turn out quite the way Oscar planned.

Adapted from the play The Merry Wives of Gotham, twin sisters are separated at birth - one of them becomes a society girl in New York, the other lives in the Irish slums.

A drunkard climbs a ladder into a bedroom in the wrong house and gets romantically involved with the woman who lives there.

Sunny sings in the streets to obtain funds for a country outing. A theatre owner hears her and takes her up. During a fishing trip Sunny is about to accept the theatre owner's proposal of marriage when his estranged wife turns up...

Young José lives with his guardian, Don Julian, a middle-aged diplomat recently married to young Felicia. Society gossips in Madrid find the situation increasingly scandalous.

Marcia, a pretty young girl, goes to work as a model for a lecherous dress-shop owner. She resists his advances, despite his giving her expensive gifts. One day Mrs. Reilly, a prominent society woman and a customer of the shop, invites Marcia to a party she's throwing. Marcia winds up impersonating a famous writer in order to impress a "duke" for Mrs. Reilly, who doesn't know the "duke" isn't really a duke. Complications ensue.

There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Elton and playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both very interested in the mysterious Fay. Invited to the house of Mrs. Webley, Fay is again the center of attention for Arthur and Elton with her leaning towards stuffy old Elton. When Arthur sees Charles, Fay's Butler, lurking in the gardens, he remembers that Charles was a thief caught in Monte Carlo and he figures that Fay may be more interested in the pearls of Mrs. Webley, which she is. After Fay takes the pearls, but before she can toss them out the window, she is caught by Arthur who is very disappointed in how things are turning out.

A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.

A hopelessly hopeful drifter, a bitter young woman, and a helpless child live on the docks, spending their days in poverty and listless wandering. Overhead, a dredge hauls up mud and trash from the nearby seabed-- the same mud and trash from the day before. They finally decide to leave for the city to seek fulfillment, only to encounter further privation, destitution, temptation.

Dorothy, a young girl, is seduced by her father's chauffeur. She gives birth to a child who is given to the chauffeur's wife. The chauffeur, on a drunken binge murders the child, unaware that the child is his own.

Adapted by Alice Duer Miller from a novel by Alden Brooks, the film concerns a young man who forsakes the humdrum business world for the bohemian life of an artist. Josef von Sternberg had been the original director of Exquisite Sinner, but MGM was dissatisfied with the picture and refused to release it. When the film finally surfaced in 1926 (a full year after its completion), it had been radically altered by staff director Phil Rosen.

The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt.

A girl refuses the attentions of a young playboy with whom her sister is in love.

Tillie is a secretary always dressed in the height of fashion who tries to capture a millionaire named Pennington Fish. Once she gets a stenographic position at Mr. Simpkins's company she sets her cap for the general manager, Benjamin Franklin Whipple. Eventually Tillie announces that she is going to "catch the rich Mr. Fish by using Whipple as the worm."

Harold is a bookkeeper who works in an office but can't keep his mind on his job -- the spring weather is too nice to stay indoors. After escaping from his office he romps in the park instead.

Irene, a feisty Irish girl in Philadelphia, clashes with her family and walks out, heading to New York City to seek fame and fortune. She gets a job as a dressmaker's model and becomes involved with Donald, the scion of a wealthy family. Donald's mother doesn't approve of Irene and sets out to discredit her in Donald's eyes.

Rafael Sabatini's story of the swashbuckling era and of Bardeleys, the handsome courtier who could win any woman he set his mind to...and was not above boasting about it to all who would listen.

Lois, a stenographer at a luxury hotel, is being pursued by the hotel's house detective and a bellhop. When some valuable jewels are stolen, the bellhop--who has always dreamed of being a detective--sees his chance to both solve the jewel robbery and impress the woman he loves. The house detective, however, has other ideas.

Depression Era story set in London about a wealthy shop owner who goes bankrupt and is forced to fire his faithful staff.

Footage from the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film 'The Circus'.

Nina Duane is a criminal lawyer whose gender was professionally resented by Philip Barry, the District Attorney. She wins acquittal for man-chasing widow Mary Booth, then defeats her in romancing the D.A.

After eluding authorities, Jaca Javalie goes to the home of wealthy Theodore Banning, where he professes to be a man of magic who learned his skills in India. He demonstrates his ability by bringing peace to the Banning home. In actuality, he plans to rob Banning's private vault. When he tries to commit the robbery, he is stopped by a guest who promises to say nothing in exchange for a portion of the loot. Javalie makes another attempt to break into the vault, but the same power that he had exerted over the Banning family compels him to stop. He confesses what he had planned to do and wins the hand of Banning's daughter Nanette. A lost film.

Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit and lands on the drum of musician Al Cassidy. One thing leads to another, they fall in love and get married. Al becomes a famous songwriter and Maggie stays home and has children. One day Al is hired to write a big number for Selma Larson, one of the Follies' most beautiful stars, and falls for her.

Sweeter, faster, breezier than a flapper's kiss. Better than a buggy ride on a June night. The comedy-romance of a small town girl who showed New York that a good thing from "the sticks" is bound to get ahead.

Kelly's employer, Waters, is such a keen golfer that he asks Kelly to help him improve his game at an exclusive country club.

A British musical film directed by Victor Hanbury and Ladislao Vajda

Richard Bruce, an American in fog bound London stumbles into the midst of international intrigue, with Rose Thorne, an innocent dupe. Together they try to unravel the mystery, enlisting the aid of a cat burglar named Holmes, who they bump into along the way.

Remake of the 1917 film of the same name. A young chiropractor is tricked by a tall, homely girl into marriage, but he ducks out the morning after the honeymoon. Months go by and he learns that his bride has become a mother. Obliged to his responsibilities, he returns. however, it's just another ruse, with three borrowed babies and a midget dressed as one standing in for his new children.

The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.

Daniel Strathmore, has wealth and influence. He forms an infatuation for a beautiful adventuress and when a friend interferes he fights him and the friend is accidentally killed. Strathmore takes care of the friend's daughter, who later falls in love with him. She forgives the past and they marry. A lost film.

Shirley, a married woman, who is fed up of her husband's incessant nagging, decides to go on a cruise. Her husband also gets on the cruise as a worker in the barber shop to keep an eye on her.

He couldn't help it if the girls all fell for him. But his wife certainly cramped his romantic style!