Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – MGM – 1944: SONG OF RUSSIA & KISMET

MGM, 1944 is an odd one. First, MGM's effort to help the war, Song of Russia (directed by Gregory Ratoff), prompts us to ask the question, "What were all of these Communist writers doing working for Louis B. Mayer?" And then, William Dieterle's Kismet, starring Ronald Colman as an amoral magician with misguided plans for his daughter's future, proves to have more to recommend it than just the campy set-piece for which Marlene Dietrich painted her legs gold. Despite the box office failure of Kismet, lavish Technicolor fantasy will have more to do with the future of MGM than Popular Front romance, but in any case, the era of Mickey and Judy and family values is over.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      SONG OF RUSSIA [dir. Gregory Ratoff] 0h 39m 18s:      KISMET [dir. William Dieterle]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at [email protected]   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!