Lewis Stone

Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MGM's production genius Irving Thalberg, the film boasted names like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and John and Lionel Barrymore and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. This short documentary takes a look at the making of the classic film.

Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered film content. No longer portrayed as virgins or vamps, the liberated female of the pre-code films had dimensions. Good girls had lovers and babies and held down jobs, while the bad girls were cast in a sympathetic light. And they did it all without apology.

In a deconstruction of classic Hollywood codes, using repetitive single frame images, the re-editing of teenager movies produces an intense Oedipal drama.

Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

In the South Pacific islands, two brothers, one good and one bad, fight over the same girl and over a bag of pearls.

A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king is kidnapped, his followers try to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king's intended bride, the beautiful Princess Flavia.

Small-town gossips rage over the arrival of a mysterious stranger.

An heir of a vast fortune is deeply in debt because he spends faster than his very generous trust fund allows. There is a battle of wills between his selfish spendthrift was and the money manager which is is forced/tricked into appointing.

In 18th-century France, a young man masquerades as an actor to avenge his friend's murder.