Twenty Years After (1944) User Reviews

China Anniversary

[boblipton · 6/10 · 26 January 2014]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offers us a one-reeler celebrating the 20th anniversary of its founding -- its consolidation, actually, since it combined the three mid-sized studios in its name. After seeing a couple of minor employees who, we are to believe, came to work at MGM that year, we are told some of the exciting things going on in 1924 --foremost of them Calvin Coolidge as President -- a brief look at a couple of hits of 1925, and then a look at the current studio.

It's not too shoddy a reason to boast a bit and MGM takes it, along with a list of their current and hopeful stars. One of the studio's slogans was "More Stars Than There Are in Heaven" and with profits at an all-time high -- the profits from MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS alone was enough to keep the whole place open for a year, everyone was feeling good about the future.

Eventual U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 21 February 2017]

. . . is one of the 1,055 blue star Active Duty U.S. Servicemembers fighting Hitler and Tojo during World War Two, at the time MGM's Studio front office tally was filmed for this Den of the Roaring Lion 20th anniversary "puff piece" in 1944. By this juncture in the War, four MGM Studio personnel had earned Gold Stars by getting Killed in Action. The second most interesting bit of trivia connected to TWENTY YEARS AFTER is now little trace of the studio's Magnum Opus--GONE WITH THE WIN--shows up here five years after ITS release. None of the 39 Actors being touted as MGM's "Stars of Today" played any of the six lead characters of GWTW (i.e., Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia DeHavilland, Leslie Howard, Butterfly McQueen, and Hattie McDaniel are all M.I.A., as are any of the other Black faces appearing IN FRONT of the camera for MGM in the 1940s). Many 1930s MGM stars ARE listed, including Hepburn & Tracy, Garland & Rooney, Powell & Loy, as well as Kelly & Astaire.

A Flavorful Teaser

[dougdoepke · 2 November 2017]

If you don't mind cameo scenes shooting by faster than bullets, this 9-minutes is loaded. It's supposed to be 20-years of studio activity from 1924-1944, but we really only get glimpses of the first and last years. We do get a slick review of lush MGM productions from 1924, (Ben Hur, The Big Parade, et al.). However, the 30's are skipped over and we go directly to 1944, and the studio's cavalcade of stars plus features from that war year. (And did I see correctly, or is that a Code-defying young couple cuddling on the same bed! And what movie, pray tell, was that?) But most impressively, we get an aerial view of MGM's massive production facilities spread out like a city. And a big one. Wow!

Basically, the 9-minutes amounts to a studio promo. Nonetheless, it's still a nostalgic sprint across a Hollywood album of familiar faces and features. So old film fans, it's a short that remains flavorful despite the dispatch.