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Trivia Jack Haley, Jr. Envisioned the film as an evenly distributed anthology, with all of the major Hollywood studios equally represented. When obtaining the rights to many of the clips became a financial and/or political impossibility, he was forced to substantially reimagine the project.

This explains why, for example, Haley devoted an entire section to MGM when that studio's output had been amply covered in That's Entertainment! Advantages and disadvantages of ehr. (1974) and its 1976 sequel.

In particular, Fred Astaire's section was noticeably uninspired, as inaccessible footage from Paramount's Let's Dance (1950) and Funny Face (1957) resulted in scraping the bottom of Astaire's barrel at MGM (specifically 'I Left My Hat in Haiti' and 'A Shine on Your Shoes'). In the end, Haley admitted, footage was dictated by necessity: Because Vera-Ellen's sublime pas de deux with Donald O'Connor from Call Me Madam (1953) could not be included, she was wedged into the Astaire section, which explains the inclusion of the otherwise pedestrian 'Thinking of You' from Three Little Words (1950). Similarly, when the MGM sequence was pared down to a brief, three-minute montage, a way had to be found to showcase Ann Miller, Tommy Rall and Cyd Charisse elsewhere, which led to the awkward addition of 'Tom, Dick or Harry' from Kiss Me Kate (1953) and 'Red Blues' from Silk Stockings (1957) to the Broadway section -- both indifferent, insubstantial numbers that only technically originated as theater pieces, as neither was presented as a dance number on stage. Some stalwarts, such as Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Leslie Caron, Marge and Gower Champion and Gene Nelson, could not effectively be reassigned and were relegated to appearing only as snippets in one of the film's two montage sequences. Those who love dance of any kind and classic film will be thrilled with That's Dancing! Some segments are too short and some of the narration I agree is obtrusive(especially for the 42nd Street number)- there could have been much less of the talking over scenes- and not always necessary(the opinion on break-dancing, went on for a little too long and it did ramble a bit). The hosting is mixed, Gene Kelly is very engaging and informative and while he's not always easy to understand Mikhail Baryshnikov also says things of good value but didn't get a huge amount out of Liza Minelli.

That's Dancing! Is still splendid stuff though, it's skilfully filmed and the editing of the footage is done slickly and not awkwardly. The music of course is outstanding and of good variety, good that it showed more than one style or genre rather than just one without skimming the surface, and the dancing even better, especially in the Busby Berkeley, Nicholas Brothers, Flashdance, West Side Story and Fred and Ginger numbers.

The scenes featured feature some deserved classics like Pick Yourself Up, Night and Day, Forty-Second Street(pretty much anything with Busby Berkeley's involvement in fact), Broadway Rhythm and If Only I Had a Brain/We're Off to See the Wizard(in an extended scene cut from the film), as well as the ballet sequence from The Red Shoes and the scene from Yankee Doodle Dandy. And of all the stars featured the ones that stood out were Fred and Ginger(obviously, it would be a crime really to miss them out), Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, Shirley Temple and Bojangles Robinson, Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller and the Nicholas Brothers tap-dance(the Wizard of Oz extended cut scene was charming though if too long, you can understand why it was cut). In conclusion, a very good documentary with the best stuff splendid. 8/10 Bethany Cox.