5 Movies with Incredible All-Star Casts

            Watching movies with all-star casts is a great way to introduce yourself to a whole bunch of stars while only watching one film. Especially if you’re new to classic film, or looking to learn about more actors, these movies help broaden your knowledge - and more often than not, are incredibly entertaining! Here’s five movies with (in my opinion) some of the best all-star casts.

5. Roberta (1935)

                   

Stars:

Irene Dunne

Fred Astaire

Ginger Rogers

Randolph Scott

            A musical comedy set in a French fashion house, Roberta reads like a summary of 1930s film: Singing! Dancing! Romance! Secret identities! Fashion shows! Slightly ridiculous foreign accents!

            Actress and singer Irene Dunne, as talented as she is underrated, sings two beautiful songs including "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Fred and Ginger, here second- and third-billed but stealing the show as usual, dance and sing and provide comedic relief. Randolph Scott, in the earlier days of his long movie career, plays sidekick to Fred and romantic interest to Irene. Try and spot another upcoming star, Lucille Ball, as a model during the fashion show scene. 


4. Wife vs. Secretary (1936)

Stars:

Clark Gable

Jean Harlow

Myrna Loy

Jimmy Stewart

             The Gable-Harlow-Loy combination was a huge success-maker for MGM in the 30s. Throw in William Powell and there were even more hit films with any mix of the stars. Wife vs. Secretary uses the three and adds a young Jimmy Stewart in one of his earliest roles.

            Gable and Loy play a (very convincing) happily married couple with every sign of staying that way. Harlow plays Gable's pretty and helpful secretary, and as he signs a secretive business deal for his magazine company, he relies on her more and more - to the distress of his wife. Jimmy Stewart plays Harlow's boyfriend, who doesn't understand why she'd rather be a "career girl" than settle down and marry him. I'll leave you to figure out the ending.

 

3. On the Town (1949)

Stars: 

Gene Kelly

Frank Sinatra

Betty Garrett

Ann Miller

Vera-Ellen

            On The Town is a splashy MGM musical set in New York which tracks the 24-hour shore leave of three Navy sailors (Kelly, Sinatra, and Jules Munshin.) They're determined to make the most of their time in the Big Apple, which of course involves meeting three girls (Garrett, Miller, and Vera-Ellen) who also happen to dance and sing!

           All the stars have a song or dance that spotlights them, from Frank Sinatra's "You're Awful" to Vera-Ellen's "Miss Turnstiles Ballet." The three sailors sing the iconic "New York, New York" number, and everybody sings "On the Town" and "You Can Count on Me." You can sure count on On The Town to be fun to watch. 


2. Stage Door (1937)

Stars:

Ginger Rogers

Katharine Hepburn

Adolphe Menjou

Gail Patrick

Constance Collier

Lucille Ball

Ann Miller 

            Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn were paired for the first and (sadly) only time in Stage Door, a drama about aspiring actresses living in an NYC boarding house. Rogers plays a wisecracking dancer looking for work, while Hepburn is a wealthy, snooty society girl who dreams of being in thea-ah-tah. Basically, they play themselves!

            Adolphe Menjou plays a big-time producer, Constance Collier is an aging acting coach, and Gail Patrick plays a snobby brat. Lucille Ball has a bit part as one of the boarding-house girls and Ann Miller (at the ripe old age of fourteen) gets to dance with Ginger Rogers. All in all, Stage Door is a sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-heartbreaking, always enjoyable film.

 

1. The Women (1939)

Stars:

Norma Shearer

Joan Crawford

Rosalind Russell

Mary Boland

Paulette Goddard

Joan Fontaine 

Virginia Weidler

            A wonderfully witty look at high society, The Women includes a renowned cast of stars that were among the best actresses of their time. The entire cast (over 130 speaking roles!) was female, as well as the props such as portraits, and even the animals!  There are so many hilarious quotes from The Women, as well as incredible costumes that are highlighted in a Technicolor fashion show sequence.

            The film centers around a society lady (Norma Shearer) whose husband is having an affair with a perfume-counter girl (Joan Crawford.) She finds out about the affair after it makes its way around the gossip circles, which include her "friend" (Rosalind Russell.) In order to provide the best life for her daughter (Virginia Weidler), she decides to divorce her husband. Every actress in this film was spectacular, and the combination of talent made it all the better.


            I hope you enjoyed this look at five of my favorite all-star films! What are your favorites, and how many have you seen?


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