The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Main Crew

  • Richard Day

    Canadian Richard Day (1896-1972) was one of the great Hollywood art directors, and one of the few to work steadily as a freelancer for much of his career. He won seven Oscars and was nominated a further thirteen times. Day worked with Erich Von Stroheim on a number of his best silent films, and developed a commitment to realism in design that set him apart from many of his peers.

    For a period after 1929 Day worked in partnership with Cedric Gibbons at Metro, including designing most of the settings for The Hollywood Revue of 1929.

    By the end of his career Day had worked on well over 300 films and with most of the leading directors, including Ford, Hawks, Vidor, Lang, Wellman and Preminger, and with Jean Renoir on Swamp Water (1941). 

  • Joe Rapf

    Joseph Jefferson Rapf (1883-1939) was a younger brother of Harry Rapf. He apparently worked on costume design for The Hollywood Revue of 1929.

  • Erté

    Romain de Tirtoff (1892-1990) was a Russian-born French exponent of Art Deco in many forms, including clothing, interior decoration and jewellery. He also worked in the theatre, designing costumes and sets for, for example, the Folies Bergère in Paris and George White’s Scandals on Broadway. 

    Erté first worked for MGM in 1924-25, designing gowns and costumes for The Mystic and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (both 1925). He continued in films, mostly in costume design, throughout the 1920s, culminating in costumes and sets for The Hollywood Revue of 1929. See, for example, the art deco arch in the opening number.

    Erté was still working at the age of 95, two years before his death. 

  • John M Nickolaus

    John M Nickolaus (1881-1963) was one of the cinematographers on The Hollywood Revue of 1929 but, like his colleagues Irving G Ries and Max Fabian, spent most of his time at MGM working on special optical effects. It was here that he made his contribution to The Wizard of Oz.

  • Irving G Ries

    Irving Guy Ries (1890-1963) was a successful silent cinematographer from a young age, who worked onThe Hollywood Revue of 1929 and then helped to establish MGM’s optical effects department.

    It was here that he made his major contribution to some of MGM’s best musicals. Ries provided special effects on Anchors Aweigh (Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry), The Barkeleys of Broadway (dancing shoes), An American in Paris, The Belle of New York (Fred Astaire walking in the sky), Singin’ in the Rain, Dangerous When Wet, Give a Girl a Break, It’s Always Fair Weather and Invitation to the Dance. 

    None of which is as interesting as the fact that, when he travelled to Germany in 1915, his passport was copied by the authorities and later used by German spy Paul Hensel. When Hensel was executed by firing squad in the UK later that year, it was under the name Irving G Ries.

  • Max Fabian

    Maksymilian Fabian (1891-1969) worked as one of the cinematographers on The Hollywood Revue of 1929, but spent most of his MGM career in the visual effects department, where he specialized in miniatures. It was here that he contributed to the special effects work in The Wizard of Oz.

  • Harry Rapf

    Harry Rapf (1880-1949) joined MGM on its formation in 1924 and worked as one of the studio’s three production supervisors, under the direction of Irving Thalberg. His son Maurice claimed that Thalberg and his father disliked each other, but then Rapf seemed to struggle to be liked by anyone, especially writers. He is also credited with more Goldwynisms than Sam Goldwyn himself: “I woke up last night with a terrific idea for a movie–but I didn’t like it”. Nonetheless, he was one of the powerful inner circle at Metro. 

    Rapf did some uncredited work on The Broadway Melody and The Hollywood Revue of 1929, but his first credit on a feature musical was Broadway to Hollywood; it might have been The March of Time if it had not been abandoned. He was uncredited again on Hollywood Party and Student Tour, and next produced Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry and Everybody Sing. 

    Let Freedom Ring followed, and then Rapf inflicted The Ice Follies of 1939 on Joan Crawford, whom he had brought to Hollywood years earlier and had a relationship with. 

    Rapf’s final musical effort was on Swing Fever, uncredited.    

  • Robert E Hopkins

    We may never know how many screenplays Robert E Hopkins (1886-1966) contributed to if Thomas Schatz’s description of him prowling the Culver City lot providing one-liners as required is accurate. We certainly know he contributed to The Hollywood Revue of 1929, Chasing Rainbows, Children of Pleasure (uncredited), Love in the Rough and The Cuban Love Song. 

    Nineteen-thirty-six was a year of extremes. He got an Academy Award nomination for providing the story for San Francisco, and wrote without credit for Hollywood Party. Such was the life of a contract writer at MGM.

  • Christy Cabanne

    William Christy Cabanne (1888-1950) became a stage actor, and subsequently director, in 1908. In 1912, he and Raoul Walsh took a film crew to Mexico to film the revolution taking place, producing a film released as Life of Villa. He then worked alongside D W Griffith at the Biograph Company.

    After that, Cabanne always worked as a freelancer, directing silent and talking pictures for many studios. Metro assigned him to The Hollywood Revue of 1929, but found his work unexciting and brought in Charles Reisner to finish the picture. It has been estimated that Cabanne was responsible for about half the finished film, but he received no credit.

  • Charles F Reisner

    Charles Francis Reisner (1887-1962) was an actor and director who might best be described with the word ‘competent’. Yet he managed, in both careers, to be associated with some very impressive projects. Reisner acted with Chaplin in A Dog’s Life (1918), The Kid (1921) and The Pilgrim (1923), and also worked for him as a gag writer. And he was the named director on Keaton’s masterpiece, Steamboat Bill Jr (1928). In fact, it was Reisner who came up with the original story idea, and who was literally on his knees praying while Keaton performed the stunt where the house fell down around him.

    Reisner’s career at MGM was less prestigious, though he was considered a capable pair of hands. This is why he was brought in to rescue The Hollywood Revue of 1929 when Christy Cabanne’s work was judged to be lacking by Irving Thalberg. 

    From there Reisner moved straight on to directing Chasing Rainbows, to which he also contributed dialogue. He then directed Love in the Rough and was working on The March of time when it was abandoned. His next completed musical was Flying High.

    Reisner did uncredited writing for Hollywood Party and was one of its eight directors. He directed Student Tour, then took a break from musicals after a busy couple of years. He returned in 1941 to direct The Big Store, the last and least of the Marx Brothers’ films for Metro.

    In 1943 Reisner made Swing Fever, and ended his career in MGM musicals with Meet the People.

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