Of course, I’m talking about Leo the Lion. Originally Goldwyn’s logo, Leo took over as MGM’s onscreen representative (while Louis B. Mayer ran the shop in Culver City, Calif.). Played by several real lions over the years (though he’s currently roaring for Amazon as a CGI facsimile — boo!), Leo’s history is truly fascinating and worth investigating.
Perhaps the studio’s biggest star was hired on April 17, 1924, as part of the merger between Marcus Loew’s Metro Pictures, Sam Goldwyn’s Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. For the past 100 years, he’s appeared in the MGM logo and roared at the beginning of (almost) every MGM movie.
In its heyday, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) claimed to have “more stars than there are in heaven.” Some of those stars included Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Norma Shearer, the Marx Brothers, Jean Harlow, and Miss “I vant to be alone” herself, Greta Garbo — all of whom heaven would eventually reclaim.
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As a musical-loving kid, I looked forward to seeing the MGM logo on my TV screen. Warner Bros. was known for gangster movies and Looney Tunes, while MGM was the home of the movie musical. The studio’s first movie musical, 1929′s “The Broadway Melody,” was also the first film with sound to win the Oscar for best picture.
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Conversely, Leo is happy to see me whenever I appear in Las Vegas, because I’m usually giving the MGM casino companies all my money. Since MGM has endured numerous bankruptcies in its storied tenure, it’s only fair they get to bankrupt me.
All kidding aside, here’s a list of notable MGM movies in honor of the studio’s 100th anniversary. And before you ask, “Gone With the Wind” is not on this list. That’s a story for another notebook. Instead, I’ll start with another 1939 movie credited to director Victor Fleming.
Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Judy Garland, and Bert Lahr in “The Wizard of Oz.” Everett Collection
‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939)
This classic needs no explanation. It’s Judy Garland’s Dorothy singing “Over the Rainbow” before embarking on a murderous adventure in Oz with two strange men, a dog, and a lion with a Toni permanent. Funny story: I didn’t know this movie turned Technicolor in Oz until I was 14 years old. That’s because we had a black-and-white TV. (On Max)
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Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in “An American in Paris.” FLS REUTER
‘An American in Paris’ (1951) / ‘Singin’ In the Rain’ (1952)
Gershwin and Gene Kelly be damned! “An American In Paris” is a bougie bore that ends with an interminable ballet that puts me to sleep every time. You want a great Alan Jay Lerner-Vincente Minnelli collaboration starring Leslie Caron and set in Paris that also won best picture? Go to Tubi and try 1958′s plum-nasty, extremely dated Maurice Chevalier vehicle, “Gigi.”
Donald O’Connor (left) and Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain.” AP
Or better yet, ditch those guys and get drenched with Kelly in perhaps the greatest movie musical ever made. “Singin’ in the Rain” also has Debbie Reynolds wishing us a good morning and Donald O’Connor makin’ us laugh. You can’t go wrong. (”Singin’” available on Max, “Paris” on AppleTV+)
A scene from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” MGM
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)
An NYU student recently asked me to name a movie everyone loves but I can’t stand. I said “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It’s considered a classic sci-fi film, and as a former techie, I should adore a movie where the computer is killing people. But I still hate it, primarily because I believe I’m required to love it. So, every 10 years, I rewatch Stanley Kubrick’s movie just to see if my opinion will change; it never does. That’s the definition of insanity. (On Max)
‘Spaceballs’ (1987)
Here’s a space movie I can get with, a parody of the good “Star Wars” trilogy directed and co-written by Mel Brooks. He also appears as Yogurt, the Yoda-like oracle in charge of the movie’s merchandising. The one-liners are infinitely quotable, and the corny, obvious jokes are still funny as hell. May the Schwartz be with you. (On AppleTV+)
Charlton Heston in “Ben Hur.”
‘Ben-Hur’ (1959) / ’North by Northwest’ (1959)
One of MGM’s earliest successes was the 1925 version of “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ,” which cost an ungodly amount of money and also hauled in a sinful amount of money at the box office. Lightning struck twice when William Wyler remade it as a queer-coded action movie starring Chuck Heston. The Academy Awards weren’t around in 1925, so this version made up for it by winning 11 Oscars, a record that has been tied (“Titanic”) but not beaten. (On Tubi, MGM+)
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Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in “North by Northwest.” Film Forum
MGM put out a different type of spectacle that same year with Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Cary Grant-Eva Marie Saint romp, one of the director’s best and most enjoyable pictures. “North By Northwest” is notable for being the one Hitch film where the entire plot is the MacGuffin, and for its explicitly gay villain played by Martin Landau. (On Tubi, WatchTCM)
‘Strange Brew’ (1983)
This one’s for my fellow SCTV fans. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, a.k.a. Bob and Doug McKenzie, take their parody of Canadian television shows and their love of beer to the big screen. It’s terribly silly — Leo the Lion shows up too drunk to roar in the MGM logo — but it’s a lot of fun for you hosers, eh? (On Tubi, AppleTV+)
Richard Roundtree in “Shaft.” MGM
‘Shaft’ (1971)
One of the movies in the Holy Trinity of Blaxploitation (along with “Coffy” and “Super Fly”), this neo-noir introduced John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) to audiences. They responded with a high enough box-office turnout that the film saved MGM from bankruptcy. With its unforgettable Oscar-winning theme song and its time capsule of Harlem and Greenwich Village in 1971, “Shaft” helped usher in the era that inspired my book “Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema.” (On Prime Video)
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‘Network’ (1976)
Paddy Chayefsky’s scathing satire of television was so eerily prescient when it first came out that it plays more like a documentary now. Peter Finch deservedly won a posthumous best actor Oscar for his role as Howard Beale, the first man killed for having low Nielsen ratings. This bitter pill of a movie explains a lot about how America got to where we are now, post-Election Day. (On AppleTV+)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.