Tonight we're gonna party like it's 2008!

Tonight's TCM lineup has all three of MGM's That's Entertainment! movies, followed by That's Dancing!, a title which I suppose implies that dancing is somehow not entertaining. (Sorry for the bad joke.) I figured I had commented at some point about That's Entertainment!, and it turns out that my brief comments were on New Year's Eve 2008 -- because TCM ran the exact same lineup of movies to ring in the new year of 2009. Well, not quite the same exact lineup. TCM, after the four compilation movies, is running the American Masters episode about the Freed Unit at MGM that they ran a few months back. It's part clip show just like the movies, but with a rather different set of interviews, since MGM didn't really think the moviegoers would care quite so much about a bunch of behind the scenes people like songwriters. And to be fair to MGM, I don't quite disagree, especially when you consider how many stars they were able to get to do the new pieces between the clips.

At any rate, last night after It Started With Eve, I saw that TCM ran the (presumably) original trailer for That's Entertainment! that would have been seen in theaters back in 1974. There are a few funny things, such as the comment about never seeing the likes of this again. I suppose that might have something to do with the fact that MGM was falling on hard times, and in the 1974 scenes specifically filmed for the movie, the studio is really beginning to look scruffy. But there's also a line at the end of the trailer: "Boy, do we need it now", that sounds a bit odd to me. Sure, there was a lot going on in America at that time, but I don't know if I'd want to use a line like that to promote my film.

I looked on Youtube, and I think, not having watched it, that this is the trailer:



Happy New Year 2014!