Miniver” (1942) and the pro-Soviet “Song of Russia” (1944). Listed separately are the pro-British “Mrs. cartoons, were eventually refined and renamed Tom and Jerry.īingen’s best analyses come when he sidesteps the chronology to juxtapose related films to achieve greater salience for both, such as examining the divergence between the World War II standard “Battleground” (1949) and the more elegiac “The Red Badge of Courage” (1951). The stars of “Puss Gets the Boot” (1940), a cat-and-mouse animated short designed to compete with Disney and Warner Bros.
The fourth, “Love Finds Andy Hardy” (1938), may have been the best. The highly profitable Andy Hardy series of 15 films over 10 years starring Mickey Rooney was a grandfather of the TV sitcom. At the other end of the box office spectrum that year, the hit “Grand Hotel” (1932) popularized the “all-star cast.” “Freaks” (1932) was a proto-cult film, so unsettling with its cast of real-life human oddities that it cratered financially. However, leading lady Nina Mae McKinney’s star-turn landed her the first five-year contract for any Black actor. Despite being the first big-budget feature with an all-Black cast, “Hallelujah” (1929) succumbs to many of the stereotypes of its day. “White Shadows in the South Seas” (1928), filmed in Tahiti, was a forerunner of expensive location shoots and featured the first audible roar from MGM’s Leo the Lion.
The first “official” MGM production was the bizarre silent feature “He Who Gets Slapped” (1924) in which Lon Chaney plays a disturbed clown whose entire act is… getting slapped. Such dings aside, Bingen’s book offers thoughtful essays sprinkled with fun trivia: Stepfathers don’t get credit for raising children if they’re already out of the house. No” (1962), first of the James Bond films released by United Artists but acquired years later by MGM. That means MGM stalwarts like “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) and “Forbidden Planet” (1956) sit side by side with “Dr. He also counts “films” as theatrical releases, television productions, cartoons and documentaries financed, distributed or later acquired by MGM throughout its corporate history. He writes as if any milestone in MGM’s journey - success or failure, trendsetter or swan song - is transformative given MGM’s starring role in Hollywood history. Bingen doesn’t limit himself to the “real” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer productions created by or inside the legendary Culver City studio ruled by moguls like Louis B. The qualifications for getting on the list are surprisingly squishy. The title of film historian Steven Bingen’s new book is reminiscent of B-movie trailers of the 1950s that breathlessly hype “The Most Important Picture of the Year!” But like many of those overripe flicks, “The 50 MGM Films that Transformed Hollywood” can be entertaining, too. “The 50 MGM Films that Transformed Hollywood: Triumphs, Blockbusters, and Fiascos,” by Steven Bingen (Lyons Press)
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