Hollywood Hollywood

This was Fred Astaire's final dance performance on film.

During the clip from Baciami kate! (1953), Gene Kelly identifies the choreographer as Hermes Pan. But the clip shown, "From This Moment On", was actually choreographed by Bob Fosse, one of the dancers.

The opening credits introduce not only hosts Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, but mention all the other performers from the clips before the movie's title card; all are done in different styles: names drawn in the sand, scrolls, inside a book, tiles spelled out on satin, inside a file cabinet, typed on stationery, branding iron, the 'Rank Organisation' gong, etc.

The original release print ran 133 minutes and contained a handful of sequences that were ultimately shorn from the general release print. In the first section, you can see Astaire and Kelly rotating enormous photos of each song that appears in that section. One of them is "You Stepped Out of a Dream" from Ziegfeld Girl (1941), which originally appeared between "La Chica Choca" and "I Wanna Be a Dancin' Man." In the Great Songwriters section, "Lonesome Polecat" from Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) originally appeared between "All of You" and "The Lady is a Tramp." In the 'Shubert Alley' sequence, Astaire and Kelly dance among a series of marquee song titles that eventually appear in the section. Among them are "Concerto in F" from An American In Paris (1951) which originally appeared between "Triplets" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (in fact, due to hasty editing, Oscar Levant's final "Bravo!" can still be heard over the first image of Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien on all VHS and laserdisc editions; it was edited out of the DVD and Blu-ray issues). Fred Astaire's "Drum Crazy" from Easter Parade (1948) was also slated for this sequence (replaced by "Steppin' Out With My Baby"), as was "The Stanley Steamer" from Summer Holiday (1948), which was to have capped the entire section (it was ultimately replaced by Gene Kelly's "I Got Rhythm").

Featured in MGM/UA Home Video Laserdisc Sampler (1990)