M-G-M's Greatest Musicals

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Da Capo Press

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Studio: Da Capo Press
Theatrical Release Date: Dec 31, 1969
DVD Release Date: Dec 31, 1969
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ASIN: 0306807300
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Sales Rank: 673959

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Editorial Review from Product Description:

diviM-G-M's Greatest Musicals/i (originally published as iThe World of Entertainment! Hollywood's Greatest Musicals/i) is not a biography of Arthur Freed (1894?1973), producer of the most outstanding series of musicals in motion picture history, but a turbulent, behind-the-scenes, film-by-film account of the making of his movies (which, to the exclusion of all else, were his life). From 1940 to 1970, under the auspices of M-G-M's celebrated Freed Unit, Hollywood's master actors, writers, directors, choreographers, composers, and set designers created iThe Wizard of Oz, Girl Crazy, Meet Me in St. Louis, Annie Get Your Gun, An American in Paris, Show Boat, Singin' in the Rain, Gigi,/i and nearly forty others. The author brings to vivid life the unexpected crises and everyday magic of the Freed Unit. Richly detailed, profusely illustrated with hundreds of rare photos, this book describes the lives and careers Freed touched and often shaped?Judy Garland, Vincente Minnelli, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, and others like Saroyan, Berlin, Kern, Gershwin?and in the process reveals how a romantic, sentimental man became the uncontested master of the movie musical./div

Amazon Customer Reviews:

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

That's Entertainment!, 2006-07-16
Mr Fordin's a great writer with great taste in subject matter. I owned this one first in hardback as "The World of Entertainment". It's so fabulous I bought it again in paperback. One of the best researched and documented film books I know.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Pete Hamilton, 2004-10-22
The text of this book is very interesting. It's more of a nuts and bolts of how the movies were put together than a critque of the movies themselves. br / br /However, beware if you are replacing an older edition of this book. This edition is inferior to one that I had years ago. The pictures in this version look like they were photocopied from an earlier version of the book. Many are grainy and washed out. Also, a number of the pictures at the tops of pages are cropped so that tops of some of the heads are cut off. I know this wasn't how earlier versions of this book looked. Although a minor point, in the back of previous editions there was a list of much money each film cost, as well as the domestic and foreign grosses of each film. I found this interesting, and I was sorry to see it missing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSIN'!!!!!, 2002-05-10
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!!!!!pI love to know the behind-the-scenes of the days Gene Kelly made his magic at MGM, so Gene drew me to buying this book. Well, Mr Arthur Freed, if there could be more "bosses" like you today, the workplace would be a much happier place to be. Arthur and his "UNIT" or as I like to call them, "THE CREW" will have you laughing, maybe even crying and definitely astounded, amazed and so very happy that this man was the back bone and the money maker of this fabulous studio of the real movie days. His mind is one that could never be found again in any producer of today. They definitely cracked the mould when they made this man. So, I recommend that you buy this book, and even purchase the movie under the same title. Mr Hugh Fordin has done the most fantastic job on this book. You will feel like you are standing there in every scene that is described..

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

A book about the Master by a Master, 2002-01-23
Hugh Fordin is an expert in his field. His detailed research is clearly evident throughout this work. His love of theater, film and particularly the Hollywood (make that MGM) Musical is revealed in the many interviews he conducted with people involved in every aspect of the productions he writes about.He shares small insights and many heretofore unknown facts about this disappeared genre of movie making. If this isn't a textbook at film schools, it should be. A superb work whose value increases over the years.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent, 1999-12-20
I was expecting this to be a straight biography of Arthur Freed with discussions on his films but instead I was pleasantly surprised to see that the entire book is a blow-by-blow account of how the films were made (which to a movie buff is pure heaven) and, as the author says, Freed's movies were his life anyway.pI think it says something that the title of this book is "M.G.M.'s Greatest Musicals", since the truly amazing thing is that one man was more or less responsible for all of them. Great behind-the-scenes stories.