This is the very first of the all-star, no-plot revues that proliferated during 1929 and 1930. Just about every star at Metro is featured, and there are many fun sequences to be savored in this film. The most famous one is probably the Joan Crawford segment, where she sings and dances to "Gotta Feeling For You". Her singing is passable, and her dancing is, well, "energetic". Marion Davies seems quite nervous in her "Tommy Atkins On Parade" number, but Bessie Love is pretty good in her wild acrobatics. Marie Dressler is fun, as always, and you can glimpse Carla Laemmle as the pearl in the oyster during "Tableau Of Jewels", which opens the second half. John Gilbert's speaking voice dosen't sound nearly as bad as had been rumored, even when considering the antiquity of the recording. The "Singin' In The Rain" number is fun, and offers a good contrast to the more famous one in the film of the same name. There are some special effects and two-color Technicolor that must have wowed the audiences back then, and it's been said that during the premiere, the theater put a gallon or so of orange-scented perfume into the ventilators during the "Orange Blossom Time" finale. In all, this film is well worth a look if you are into early sound films of historical value.

All-star talent show of MGM silent stars, many of which in their first talkie. They sing, they dance, they do comedy bits. Most of it is a poor representation of the talent of those involved. Still, I found something quaintly charming and entertaining about it. It's certainly interesting from a film history perspective. Yes, it suffers from the crudeness of sound filmmaking in these early days but I try not to hold that against it too severely.Two of the more entertaining parts were Buster Keaton's sketch and "Singin' in the Rain." But I must admit my personal favorite was the "Lon Chaney's Gonna Get You if You Don't Watch Out" number. The worst was probably Marion Davies. For as much as people bash Joan Crawford's dance routine in this, Marion Davies was a million times worse. She sang off key and did what was supposed to be dancing. Just dreadful. As for Joan, the song she did was fine I thought but yes the dancing was a little goofy looking. The flapper dances were generally graceless to begin with but this was especially silly to watch. The other segment that gets talked about a lot is the "Romeo & Juliet" part with Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, and Lionel Barrymore. This was one of the few parts of the movie done in early Technicolor. I actually don't think this was a bad segment. The part where they do Romeo & Juliet updated for modern language was amusing.Overall, it's not great but it's way better than a lot of the critiques I've read have given it credit for. If you're a film buff you should see it. Everybody else, check it out if you are already familiar with early sound films and aren't going to harp on its technical failings. If you don't have the patience for that then just avoid it and save yourself the headache.

Hollywood Revue of 1929, The (1929) ** (out of 4) Film buffs might eat up the chance at seeing some of MGM's biggest stars but even lovers of cinema will have a hard time taking this film in one long (116-minutes) dose. What we basically have here is a major studio wanting to show off their major talent and in some cases having this major talent look extremely bad by doing stuff we normally wouldn't expect to see them doing. Case in point, Joan Crawford who has to sing and let's just be kind and say that this wasn't her calling in life or at least one the day this scene was filmed. Jack Benny, John Gilbert, Conrad Nagel, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Bessie Love, Marion Davies, Marie Dressler, Norma Shearer and Lionel Barrymore are among the A-list talent that show up here and the end results are mixed at best. A prime example of this would be Gilbert and Shearer doing a scene from Romeo and Juliet, which is followed by them talking and having fun "out of character" when Barrymore comes up to them with a few comments. On one hand, the acting in the R&J scene is pretty bad as neither actor appears to be taking it too seriously. The "out of character" stuff is mildly entertaining but what really makes this scene special is the fact that it was shot in 2-strip Technicolor. Most of the vaudeville like acts are poorly directed and executed and this includes the Laurel and Hardy bit, which comes off pretty badly without a single laugh to be found. The majority of the stars just show up for brief bits and none of them are all that memorable unless they're of the embarrassing kid (like Crawford). The biggest problem is that the film has a very slow pacing and it doesn't help that the thing runs nearly two hours and apparently it was even longer but many of these segments are now lost. So, on one hand it's rather nice seeing all of these legends but one can only wish that the film was better than it is. It's very hard to get through the entire thing and in the end this here is certainly for film buffs only.

Marion Davies' dance was fun and good. If she was more an actress than dancer, I still feel she did a great job here.Benny marvelous. Hardy a little too cruel to Laurel; it was their schtick but a little too heartless in my book. Love and Page awesome. Green tutu ballet dancers at end just marvelous. Romeo and Juliet color scene just wonderful. I liked the "modern" interpretation at the end of their scene, and couldn't quite catch the pig-Latin.By the way, Love and Page were both WAMPAS Baby Stars, so that in itself was a hoped-for prediction of their future success. I also enjoyed them, and Charles King, too, in "Broadway Melody".Keaton fabulous. Nagel debonair, of course. Dressler hilarious and excellent. Moran perfect comedic timing. The miniaturization of Bessie Love was fascinating, and how she arose in size was very good for that era of cinematography.Joan Crawford just wonderful. IRL she had been a flapper and dancer, so this part was perfect. We get a treat of watching her before she got into those later parts of mean mommy dearest and hard-working floozy.This movie was fun. I enjoyed the three guys routine of Gus, Ike and Charlie, as well as the three ladies routine of Marie, Bess and Polly. I also liked it when this group of six later performed together.This movie was just perfect. Just consider the era, the dance themes and technology of that time period. The Roaring 20s decade was coming to an end. The Stock Market Crash and Great Depression were rearing their ugly heads, and additional song and dance "stupid-nothing" movies (as alluded to by other posters, not me) would soon be appearing. These slap-happy movies would continue on through the Great Depression and ensuing World War Two. WWII musical movies would make it look like the war was just a faraway fantasy, while stateside singing and dancing escapist movies were the rage.Slow production numbers while the stars were setting up their acts got a little on my nerves. This is my only painful critique about this movie.I still loved the movie, and would see it again.15/10.