Two years after the success of THE JAZZ SINGER (1927), Warner Bros. released this all-talking, all-singing, all-star revue to capitalize on the popularity of sound pictures. THE SHOW OF SHOWS (1929) features a wide variety of acts from a roster of famous stars of stage and screen. There are lots of songs and lots of mass choreography, but also comedic bits and a dramatic scene.The movie is quite a spectacle, though nowadays its value is mostly as a curiosity for hardcore film buffs. The songs generally aren't that great and the performances aren't always polished, though everybody seems to be having fun. Much of the cast is made up of largely forgotten stars of the late silent/early sound era that most modern viewers wouldn't recognize. But it's a real treat for film historians.I'm a big fan of old movies and classic Hollywood, and many of the featured stars are obscure even to me. Most of the stars are identified at some point in the film, though countless others are mixed into scenes with little fanfare. Without identification I was able to spot Myrna Loy, Ben Turpin, Chester Morris, Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Barrymore, and Monte Blue. And I'm familiar, to varying degrees, with people like Frank Fay, Winnie Lightner, Louise Fazenda, Dolores Costello, Noah Beery, and Tully Marshall.Frank Fay emcees the proceedings, tying the various acts together and introducing the stars. His verbal comedy shtick is a good fit for talkies and he does a pretty good job.An early highlight is Winnie Lightner's upbeat comedy song "Ping Pongo". Louise Fazenda, Fay, Lloyd Hamilton, and Beatrice Lillie do a recitation sketch that's pretty funny, though it stretches a little too long. There's a number featuring notable screen villains as pirate versions of themselves (singing pirates, naturally). Another features several pairs of movie star sisters, including Loretta Young and Sally Blane, who look freakishly alike. Lightner also sings "Singin' in the Bathtub", a tune I know from old Looney Tunes cartoons. John Barrymore hams it up with a Shakespeare soliloquy as Richard III.I was surprised and delighted halfway through to see an exotic number in two-strip Technicolor. Apparently most of the film was shot in color, but the surviving print is in black & white with the exception of this segment.It's great seeing so many Hollywood personalities doing fun little acts and musical numbers. Everybody seems to be having a good time, putting on a big show. Some names and faces are more recognizable than others, but the film is a fascinating glimpse at the stable of Warner Bros. talent at this transitional point in cinema history.A musical spectacular from the infancy of the sound era, THE SHOW OF SHOWS is literally presented as a stage production, with fairly static cameras and sometimes clunky framing. Sometimes the closed stage curtain fills the top three-quarters of the frame while a chorus line dances along the bottom edge. In one song voices drop out of range of the microphone as the singers move across the stage. Some of the extended crowd choreography gets tiresome, but the comedy is good for a few laughs. And it's always fun trying to identify the stars in the ensemble scenes.6/10 for entertainment value, but 7/10 as a historical curiosity.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to peep through the (heavy) curtains of Time and physically drop into any previous year to properly sample the air, the people, the entertainment, the booze - or the lack of it. I'm afraid that's what we need to be able to do to fully understand this now, because watching often blurry incomprehensible 2D images through gauze requires some patience.It's 1929, Warner Brothers wanted to produce a revue talking picture starring most of its contracted players, a collection of comedy items, singing and dancing numbers linked by Frank Fay, who for the most part was rather Fey. The hodge-podge he introduced ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, however all worthy of watching now to us archaeologists – when his turn eventually came to sing he was unsurprisingly cringeworthy too. There's almost endless impenetrable comic patter to get through but many good songs lie within, and for the most part with excellent orchestrations from Louis Silvers conducting the always sharp Vitaphone Orchestra. Winnie Lightner, fresh from Goldiggers Of Broadway belted out Ping Pongo and Singing In The Bathtub and these are definitely the highlights – she was allowed to be a highlight, sadly everyone else is shadowy and now of the shadows. The Technicolor section for Li-Po-Li sung by Nick Lucas and danced to by the not so inscrutable Myrna Loy was lost, found, restored – it's completely charming for the supposedly Oriental set as well as for the idiotic song lyrics. The big finale goes on for too long, but as with everything else in here is absolutely fascinating, even in the surviving black & white prints. John Barrymore played Richard III from a scene from Shakespeare's Henry VI, apparently this was well received in 1929…The film itself was not so well received in 1929 in that it only recovered less than twice its cost – it was expected to do better. It has me glued to the TV every time I put it on, but do you enjoy time travel as much as I do?

Show of Shows, The (1929) ** (out of 4) Frank Fay plays "host" to Warner's version of the all-star revue, which every major studio was doing when sound came into play and they wanted to show off the "talent" that they owned. As with the other studio revue films, this one here is deadly dull, boring and poorly made but it's still historically important and interesting considering all the talent gathered in one film. Such famous faces you'll see include: John Barrymore, Loretta Young, Richard Barthelmess, Noah Beery, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dolores Costello, Myrna Loy, Lloyd Hamilton, Chester Morris, Nick Lucas, Ann Sothern, Alice White and Rin Tin Tin among others. THE SHOW OF SHOWS isn't a good movie and there's no way around that but when you look at the number of stars you still will want to sit through the extremely long 128-minute running time. There's really no logic to how or why the acts do what they do as one second you might be in the middle of a dance sequence then you'll jump to a comedy bit and then it will be a singing session and then it just keeps jumping around. It's clear these things were just shot over a period of time and then thrown together for release but from what I've read a few other known stars had their scenes deleted so apparently this ran even longer. The majority of the songs are quite forgettable but there were a couple dance sequences, which managed to be very good. One happens towards the start and the women are pretty much in a square but then break off into other shapes. Another happens towards the middle of the picture as a group of dancers are wearing dresses that are black on one side and white on the other. The acts that just show off the famous faces are usually poorly written and it appears that most of the actors really aren't giving it their all but I'm guessing they could have been more worried making sure their voices were OK. The bit with Chester Morris, one of my favorites, is pretty forgettable as an example. Some of the highlights include a terrific John Barrymore doing a scene from Richard III and there's a 2-strip Technicolor sequence where Rin Tin Tin introduces (!?!) Loy in a Chinese skit. Film buffs will want to sit through this thing just to see the various stars but those new to the old days of Hollywood might want to watch some of the classics first before going back to these revue flicks.

An amazing Moulin Rouge style film, with great songs and cameos from Myrna Loy and Beatrice Lillie. Amazing songs, including "Singing in the Bathtub", A good old-fashioned film, vaudeville at its best. It is well produced, and if they had added a storyline, it would have detracted from the entertainment. However, this film is impossible to find on video