Part of the Encore Film Book Classics series, this is a reprint of the original text to The Great Hollywood Musical Pictures by James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts. This richly comprehensive volume covers some 340 of the great-and not so great but fun-musicals Hollywood has produced over the decades. The movies discussed in detail range from The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) to such lavish Busby Berkeley offerings (e.g., Footlight Parade, 1933), the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy operettas (e.g., Rose Marie, 1936), the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers pairings (e.g., Carefree, 1938), the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland entertainments (e.g., Girl Crazy, 1943), the Elvis Presley's trend-setting big-screen offerings (e.g., Jailhouse Rock, 1957), the impressive song-and-dance opuses of Barbra Streisand (e.g., Funny Girl, 1968), and such later genre entries as Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978), Body Rock (1984), Dirty Dancing (1987), La Bamba (1987), and School Daze (1988). Each entry contains detailed cast/characters and technical credits, a discussion of the film, and review quotes. This is an entertaining and valuable reference work and movie guide for both film fans and cinema historians. It also is an excellent sourcebook to many of the genre entries now available for viewing on television, the Internet, and DVDs.