Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Stewart, Stanley Donen, Judy Garland, Esther Williams, Jean Harlow
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 122 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302453208
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,128 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leo roars the loudest, and eats hungrily too, November 30, 2000

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When the Lion Roars: Part Two - The Lion Reigns Supreme [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Part 2 of the Ted Turner documentary on the history of MGM studios spans the years 1936 to 1946. This decade begins with the recovery from the death of head of production Irving Thalberg and ends with the studio at it's peak after World War 2. The previous era had established the MGM style as one of artifice and glamour, exemplified by costume designer Adrian and art director Cedric Gibbons. However with the passing of Thalberg, changes were necessary for the studio to survive. These would include the letting go of it's established and aging female stars like Garbo, Crawford and Shearer, and replacing them with names like Lana Turner, Greer Garson, Hedy Lamarr, and a reborn and more shrewd Katharine Hepburn. It is said that the death of Jean Harlow symbolises the end of the Thalberg era, and the treatment of Luise Rainer who would win two Oscars for Best Actress then want out of her contract, typifies Mayer's ecomonic management. Rainer provides us with her impression of Mayer when he told her "We made ya, and now we're gonna kill ya!". Mayer turned away from Thalberg's "prestige" literary titles and established family pictures featuring child stars like Mickey Rooney, Freddie Bartholomew and Jackie Coogan. Of the three interviewed Rooney whispers embarassing mush, Batholomew is the most amusing, and Coogan tells of his observation of the way fellow child star Judy Garland was manipulated because of how valuable a property she was thought to be. Even with America's isolationist policy before it's involvement in the war, MGM made contributions to allied propaganda with titles like Mrs Miniver and Bataan; lost Carole Lombard in a war bond selling tour accident; and saw the enlistment of a devastated husband Clark Gable, as well as James Stewart, Robert Taylor and Robert Montgomery. To replace their male stars, poor substitutes Van Johnson, Peter Lawford, Robert Walker and Robert Young were brought in, though we aren't told what Spencer Tracy got up to. The coverage of The Wizard of Oz is mostly on the munchkins and the special effects team, and there is surprisingly little coverage of Gone with the Wind, though perhaps the story behind what would be the greatest box office hit of all time has been covered elsewhere.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leo eats Mayer then dies a slow and painful death, November 19, 2000

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MGM - When the Lion Roars - Pt. 3 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Part 3 of this 3 part Ted Turner Pictures documentary on the MGM studios continues from post World War 2 to the collapse of the studio as a production company in 1969 when Kirk Kerkorian becomes the principal shareholder. This period is troubled by lower profits and no Oscar wins. Louis B Mayer is thought to be neglecting the running of the company in favour of spending his time at the race track and in 1948 Dore Schary is brought in as vice president of production. However Schary's philosophy of producing reality based message pictures clashes with Mayer's preference for wholesome family entertainment. Symptomatic of the collapse of Mayer's reign is the continuing problem of Judy Garland, thought of by Schary as an unreliable liability to the company. She is replaced in Annie Get Your Gun, a project that had been purchased specifically for her, and eventually released from her contract. Mickey Rooney's comments are particularly insulting regarding how only Judy was to blame for her fate, when he had mawkishly cried of his unconditional adoration of her in Part 2. June Allyson sweetly says Judy had too many demands on her and got "lost". In 1951 Mayer is fired after he gives an ultimatum to New York office that either Schary goes or else. The studio produces some of its greatest musicals in Show Boat, On The Town, Singin' in the Rain, and An American in Paris, and introduces Cinemascope in an attempt to battle it's greatest challenge - television. But it becomes a losing battle and soon the roster of stars are let go. In 1956 Schary too is fired as the studio can only make an occasional profit - Blackboard Jungle, Gig, Ben-Hur, and it's creator Mayer dies in 1957 a broken man. Things worsen when the government destroys the studio's monopoly of ownership of their exhibition theatres, MGM continues as a space for hire before Kerkorian buys the company, sells off the back lots (the footage of their destruction is obscene ) and auctions props like Dorothy's ruby red slippers. All that is left for Ted Turner to salvage is MGM's back catalogue.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must-Have" Documentary for any fan of classic films!, July 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: MGM - When the Lion Roars (3 VHS Gift Set) (VHS Tape)

From its creation in 1924 until its demise in the 1960's, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was the greatest movie studio in Hollywood. Under the leadership of movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, MGM quickly became the largest and most profitable movie studio in America, and in the 1930's and 1940's it often earned more money than nearly all of the other movie studios (Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, etc.) combined. This superb documentary, narrated and hosted by the wonderful Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard of Star Trek) takes us from the creation of MGM in the early 1920's to the studio's downfall in the early 1960's. Along the way there are literally hundreds of spectacular clips from some of Hollywood's greatest movies and actors - from great silent film stars such as Buster Keaton and Lillian Gish to 1959's epic "Ben-Hur" with Charlton Heston and Cecil B. DeMille. MGM boasted that it had "more stars than there are in heaven", and with this documentary you can see why - there are clips of Hollywood Legends such as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Jean Harlow, Elizabeth Taylor, and Lionel Barrymore, just to name a few. The film clips include every genre imaginable - from lavish musicals to romantic comedies to war films and drama. But this documentary also looks at the behind-the-scenes aspect of what was the world's largest "movie factory" - showing how films such as "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" were made - and also showing the office politicking and power plays between Louis B. Mayer and his brilliant but sickly executive producer, Irving G. Thalberg. If you enjoy the "golden age" of Hollywood films (especially the 1930's to the 1950's), then you'll find no better documentary about that era than "MGM: When the Lion Roared".