Please don't spend money on this.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

What a crass attempt by "the studio with more stars than the heavens" to try and blind you with them in this ill conceived, poorly mounted musical comedy review in which our headliners could used a lot more rehearsal time. In no particular order MGM major stars Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and an uncomfortable looking Marie Dressler fumble their way through this ill conceived all star variety show featuring both Hollywood stalwarts and Broadway players clumsily handled by co masters of ceremony Conrad Nagel, who gets to show off his rusty pipes and Jack Benny, who delivers more misses than hits. It is all a rather sloppy affair poorly edited and paced as comedy routines go lame and large dance numbers look more like stampedes than chorus numbers.There are also a couple of early Technicolor scenes, one featuring a shrill Shearer as an over aged Juliet and John Gilbert's billy goat voiced Romeo in a scene directed by Lionel Barrymore that is near painful to endure. Revue is not a complete disaster with Ukelele Ike introducing Singing in the Rain to movie audiences, Natova and Company providing a spirited dance number, Bessie Love being dangerously tossed about the stage in a piece of slapstick, and Marion Davies being the only star not embarrassing herself on stage. There is also a provocative large dance scene among the hoofers with the girls white and the guys in black face with the scene changing from print to negative to re-enforce the contrast. I doubt very much this scene got past censors down South.Hollywood was still struggling with sound around the time of Revue and it is evident in many scenes but with jokes falling flat, the lack of cohesion in scene transition as well as dance numbers this musical comedy show remains off key from end to end.

I have the new Warner Archive DVD release of "Hollywood Revue Of 1929" and I could not agree with reviewer Wayne Malin more. Right before the number "Lon Chaney Will Get You If You Don't' Watch Out", Jack Benny maintains that Lon Chaney does not exist. At that moment a man wearing an overcoat, derby hat, and sinister expression comes out onto the stage. Jack looks at the man, snidely chuckles and says "So you're Lon Chaney?" Benny finally reaches out to shake Chaney's right hand only to have the entire arm come off completely! Jack Benny screams with fear as Lon Chaney exits in a great scene.Movie fans look closely. That is Lon Chaney himself doing a silent, enigmatic appearance with Jack Benny right before the number!The rest of the film is a complete delight with nearly every major MGM star on the lot doing an appearance. This includes Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore,, Marion Davies, lovely Joan Crawford, John Gilbert still at the peak of his career but not for long, and many others. Buster Keaton nearly steals the entire show with his exotic dance number, and the finale with (nearly) everyone singing "Singin' In The Rain" in Technicolor is a joy to watch. "The Hollywood Revue Of 1929" is a historical gem that was unavailable for many years until Turner Classic Movies and now it's on DVD.

THE Hollywood REVUE OF 1929 allows some important Silent stars to exercise their vocal chords.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hollywood's mightiest film studio, bowed to the inevitability of sound with this cinematic variety show which highlighted performances from most of their top talent. (Conspicuous by their absence are Garbo, Chaney & Novarro, each of whom would make their talkie debut elsewhere.) Like all the other studios, it was vitally important for box-office reasons that MGM establish the viability of their top performers in the new medium, even though some of those appearing here would find their film careers swept away almost immediately.This should be looked on as a representative of its time. Much of the humor is now flat and a few of the performances sag badly, but it should be remembered that this is a cinematic collection of scared individuals, desperate to make good in the frightening new world of talk.Naturally, MGM's own in-house composers are heavily relied upon in the film, with the tunes of Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed and Joe Goodwin & Gus Edwards much in evidence.Highlights include songs by Marie Dressler, a dance by Buster Keaton and Cliff Edwards' "Singing in the Rain."

This film will not get a good reception from most modern audiences, and certainly much of the film shows its seventy plus years, but this is a delight for some of us who see the '20s as a golden age, and this movie as a small window into it. It is also a humble reminder that in seventy-five years or so, what we consider entertainment will hold little or no interest to mass audiences. If you are familiar at all with who the people are (Jack Benny, Joan Crawford, Cliff Edwards, Buster Keaton, etc.), the film is worth seeing. All of these people were one of a kind, not to be replicated by big name performers of today (great stars in their own right, but sorry, folks, they just don't have the class!). Just to see Joan Crawford as a young and beautiful woman is worth watching the film!Technically, of course, the movie is what it says it is--a revue--intended to show audiences that their favorite silent stars can function in the new medium of sound. That purpose fulfilled (more or less), the film now might seem to have no point. The passage of time and the loss of context have made some of the humor corny (a term, by the way, from that period). The editing is clumsy (we have learned from their mistakes), but the personages themselves, and some of the song and dance, are better than anything we have today, and could not be duplicated. I'd rather watch this than anything on the screen now.