Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Songs by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz
Produced by Arthur Freed
Early movie musicals were usually of the 'backstage' variety; the musical numbers were justified as being part of a show that the characters in the film were putting on. Later musicals tried to integrate the musical numbers into the plot; characters in the 'real life' plot would burst into song and dance. This movie follows both patterns; some of the production numbers occur in the 'real life' part of the film, while others are part of a Broadway show. Consider how the movie juggles the different levels of reality: "the world is a stage, and the stage is a world of entertainment."
Consider the use of parody in this film: the parody of Mickey Spillane hardboiled detective novels and films in the climactic "Girl Hunt" sequence, but also the parodies of other genres in other production numbers, and even the parody of the 'backstage' musical genre itself. The film is extravagant in the way it crosses genres and moods, and reduces the plot, and the demands of logical continuity, to the barest minimum.