''That's Entertainment! III'' is a 1994 American

compilation film A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films or television programs and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common e ...

released by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

to celebrate the studio's 70th anniversary. Unlike the prior retrospectives ''

That's Entertainment! ''That's Entertainment!'' is a 1974 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 50th anniversary. The success of the retrospective prompted a 1976 sequel, the related 1985 film ''That's Dancing!'', and ...

'' (1974) and ''

That's Entertainment, Part II ''That's Entertainment, Part II'' is a 1976 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a sequel to ''That's Entertainment!'' (1974).''Variety Film Reviews, Variety'' film review; May 5, 1976, page 18. Like the previous film, '' ...

'' (1976), the third installment "focuses on outtakes, unfinished numbers and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the old musicals." Hosts for the film were

Gene Kelly Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessibl ...

(in his last film appearance), June Allyson, Cyd Charisse,

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...

Howard Keel Harold Clifford Keel (April 13, 1919November 7, 2004), professionally Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer known for his rich bass-baritone singing voice. He starred in a number of MGM musicals in the 1950s, including ''Show Boat'' (195 ...

, Ann Miller,

Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer and entrepreneur. Her acting career spanned almost 70 years. Reynolds performed on stage and television and in films into her 80s. She was nom ...

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last survivi ...

, and

Esther Williams Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Ol ...

, making her first appearance in a theatrical film in more than 30 years. ''That's Entertainment! III'' had a limited theatrical release in 1994. According to film historian Robert Osborne, writing for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' at the time, the film did "pleasant business" at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre.

Reception

Writing in ''The New York Times'', film critic Caryn James called the film "a lively and funny compilation of curiosities suggesting what might have been." James wrote that the "one real problem" with the film was that many of the clips were very short. "Because these excerpts are so much weaker than the glorious musical numbers, excerpted at greater length in the first "''That's Entertainment!,"'' it makes some sense to cut them drastically. But over the course of a two-hour film, the effect is jarring, like stop-and-go driving in heavy traffic." Critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film three and a half stars. He praised its focus on musical numbers that did not appear on screen due to any number of factors, including "commerce, taste, race, sex and running time." He called it "a genuinely fascinating film, one that may tell more about MGM musicals, and aspects of American society, than a film devoted to still more highlights from musical numbers that did make their way into films."

Home media

All three films were released to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

in 2004. The box set collection of the films included a bonus DVD that included additional musical numbers that had been cut from MGM films as well as the first release of the complete performance of "Mr. Monotony" by Judy Garland (the version used in ''That's Entertainment! III'' is truncated). The home video version of ''That's Entertainment! III'' also contains several musical numbers not seen in the theatrical release. The film was later remastered for high-definition release on Blu-ray and HD DVD.

References

External links

* * {{That's Entertainment 1994 films 1994 documentary films American documentary films American musical films Documentary films about films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Documentary films about Hollywood, Los Angeles Compilation films Films scored by Marc Shaiman American sequel films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language documentary films English-language musical films 1994 musical films

Reception

Home media

See also

References

External links