Best musical ever. Thanks MGM.

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2012)

This movie was recently chosen by British critics as the best musical ever made, and not by accident. The song and dance numbers are elaborately staged and full of energy, the production design is gorgeous and everything looks colorful and lit up brightly in classic MGM fashion with lots of high key lighting effects. No detail was spared and no expense either, on costumes, set pieces. It just looks phenomenal.
Also - rare for a musical comedy - the plot is actually worthy of being followed. So many musicals have just enough plot to string the audience along between songs, but this one has a clever, funny story line that plunges briskly ahead, tracking the ups and downs of the coming of sound to the movies. It could have been done as a comedy without the songs and still been a great movie, and how many musicals can say that?
More than anything, though, the musical numbers actually fit into the emotional background of the story. Yes, cast members start singing or jigging and music appears from no discernible source - pretty standard for the era - but the numbers are a joyous expression of friendship, a means to express ideas, to mock, to revel in the moment. So many musicals have to contrive reasons to put in song and dance numbers, and sometimes don't even bother with logic and just throw them in anyway. Here, no musical number fails to fit logically or character-wise.
This movie is a triumph. Watch it once a year forever.