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Here's Looking At You, Warner Bros.: The History of the Warner Bros. Studios

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This documentary presents the story of Warner Brothers in a somewhat nonlinear fashion. While going through the history of the brothers and the studio in a chronological order, it periodically interrupts the historical flow to bring us clips from and stories about more current stars and films. The four brothers who founded the studio (Albert [Abe], Sam, Harry, and Jack) really had a classic rags to riches story, building this studio from the ground up, and continued to fund it and push on with the business even when things weren't going so good because they so believed that they would eventually make it and stay on top. All of their hard effort wound up paying off in a big way, since they created the Vitaphone recording technology that introduced the public to the first practicable films that had sound. In addition to teaching the movies to talk, they also had a huge roster of stars over the years, people such as John Barrymore, Rin-Tin-Tin, John Wayne, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Lauren Bacall, James Dean, Olivia de Havilland, Ruby Keeler, Natalie Wood, Jane Fonda, and Edward G. Robinson. It's pointed out that they gave some of these actors a chance to really shine, and that at a studio like MGM or Paramount people like Cagney, Bogart, or Robinson wouldn't have even been considered because they didn't have the typical looks or voices of leading men. They also let a few actors who later became big stars get away, such as Clark Gable and Lana Turner. WB proved that it was just as good as a bigger-name studio like MGM by producing so many great films and having so many great stars over the years, as well as how they became synonymous with gangster films and musicals (particularly by Busby Berkeley) in the Thirties, not to mention the Looney Toons. Among the cartoon clips are ones showing the early incarnations of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, looking nothing like they do today. Among the many films with clips shown are 'The Maltese Falcon,' 'To Have and Have Not,' 'Casablanca,' 'Woodstock,' 'The Shining,' 'Batman,' 'Superman,' 'The Jazz Singer,' 'Don Juan,' '42nd Street,' 'Jezebel,' 'Driving Miss Daisy,' 'The Adventures of Robin Hood,' 'Little Caeser,' 'I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang,' and 'The Public Enemy.' Other highlights of the documentary include bloopers (among them a hilarious one in which Porky Pig uses an off-color phrase) and screen tests, both of their stars and some of the ones who got away. Overall, It's a very good look at the history and behind-the-scenes goings-on of one of the best-known American motion picture studios, and loaded with interesting facts, trivia, and rare film clips.

The made-for-TV special, HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, WARNER BROS. (1991) is a superb two-hour (108 minutes, if you subtract commericials) retrospective that features "more stars than there are in heaven" (to borrow a phrase from MGM).

Besides the expected classic movie highlights, there's clips from the silent era studio, excerpts of rare star interviews, and screen tests of Lana Turner, Orson Welles, a soft-spoken Marlon Brando, Paul Newman with James Dean (East of Eden). There's also footage of an off-key Ruby Keeler.

Hosted by Clint Eastwood, with segments headed by Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn and Barbra Streisand.

Here's who appears in this tribute to one of the all-time great studios:

Humphrey Bogart
Marlon Brando
James Cagney
Chevy Chase
Bette Davis
Clint Eastwood
Clark Gable
Goldie Hawn
Audrey Hepburn
Ruby Keeler
George Lucas
Paul Newman
Robert Redford
Steven Spielberg
Barbra Streisand
Elizabeth Taylor
Lana Turner
Albert Warner (studio co-founder)
Harry M. Warner
Jack L. Warner
Sam Warner
John Wayne
Orson Welles
Natalie Wood
Richard D. Zanuck