It's bad enough that Reel 13 feels the need to air these compilation films at all in place of an actual classic, let alone airing them in reverse order. In my blog from May about THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT PART II, I suggested that film suffered because it was an afterthought and focused on the leftover clips from the first one. Well, in rewatching THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT last night, my theory was confirmed. That's Entertainment is significantly more, well, entertaining, largely because it features all the big guns in the MGM library like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, THE BANDWAGON, the Mickey and Judy movies, etc. It is more comprehensive, more interesting, more educational, more star-studded (the second only features Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire as hosts – here we have those guys plus Sinatra, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby and more) and more impactful.
It did start to drag a little toward the end, but I think much of that had to do with having seen the sequel so recently. I had my fill of scenes from MGM musicals for one summer, but that aside, I feel pretty confident that THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT stands on its own as both a fun trip back in time as well as a thorough and reverent celebration of one particular era in the history of cinema.