Almost everything was black-and-white, except for three sequences shot in color. And one of those three sequences included Queen Norma Shearer (the reason I wanted to watch the revue in the first place)! Norma and John Gilbert did the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet. Director Lionel Barrymore says the studio wants new dialogue, so they re-do the scene in flapper slang. All in Technicolor splendor! I was so excited I was literally jumping up and down in my sofa chair. This was purportedly the scene that ended John Gilbert's career. His fans from his silent screen career where appalled at his voice and it led to his downfall. I don't really see what the big deal was; he sounded fine to me. However, I wasn't from that era and I'm sure his fans had felt that his voice shattered the image they had of him in their heads. Shearer did however make the transition to talkies smoothly and in this scene she was excellent. This would be the precursor to her playing Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (1936).
Buster Keaton in drag, performing for the Mermaid king.
Laurel & Hardy doing their thing. Falling on a banana peel is a requisite.
Busby Berkeley-esque dance numbers. Pretty!
Technicolor ballet sequence. Dazzling!
All the MGM stars in raincoats in front of a humongous painting of Noah's Ark. Creepy! (watch it here)
Marion Davies dance number (she still freaks me out though).
Joan Crawford's singing and dancing number. She did a decent job. And luckily there were no wire hangers in sight.
All the Singin' in the Rain. This is the official song of the revue and was the inspiration to the 1952 movie. I scoff at you if you thought Gene Kelley was the first to sing that! ::scoff::
There are quite a number of camera tricks and cool choreography that make this still a pleasure to see even today, with all our technology and advancements. Which just goes to show you, entertainment is timeless!
