Cummings spent most of his career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; his uncle, Louis B. Mayer initially hired him in the 1920s as an office boy and expected him to work his way up through the ranks.
Other credits included Easy to Wed, It Happened in Brooklyn, Three Little Words, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Interrupted Melody, and The Teahouse of the August Moon.
Cummings followed this with another musical with Powell, Broadway Melody of 1938 (1938), best remembered for featuring Judy Garland singing "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)".
Cummings made Two Girls on Broadway (1940) a musical with Lana Turner and George Murphy, produced at short notice with available talent in order to fill a gap.
[9] Cummings amde two films with Powell and Red Skelton, Ship Ahoy (1942) and I Dood It (1943), both very popular, plus the comedy Go West (1940) with the Marx Brothers.
After the musical Broadway Rhythm (1944) with George Murphy, Cummings made Bathing Beauty (1944), the starring debut of Esther Williams, alongside Skelton.
[11] Other musicals Cummings made around this time included It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) with Frank Sinatra; Three Little Words (1950) a biopc with Skelton Fred Astaire, that introduced Debbie Reynolds; Two Weeks with Love (1950), with Powell, Montalban and Renolds; and Lovely to Look At (1952), with Skelton, Keel and Kathryn Grayson.
There was also The Stratton Story (1949) a biopic with James Stewart and June Allyson, which was a huge hit;[13] Excuse My Dust (1951), a comedy with Red Skelton; and Sombrero (1953), with Montalban.
Cummings produced Kiss Me Kate (1953), based on the Cole Porter musical, starring Keel and Grayson, and featuring a young Bob Fosse.
Then he made two films directed by Stanley Donen, Give a Girl a Break (1953), starring Marge and Gower Champion, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), with Keel and Jane Powell.
[4] Howard Keel wrote in his memoirs "Donen did a good job directing Seven Brides, but the real hero and brains behind it was Jack Cummings.
"[15] Donen later said making the film was "a nightmare because it was a terrible struggle from the beginning of the picture until the end" in part because he clashed with Cummings.
[16] Cummings made some popular non-musicals: The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), a drama with Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson; Many Rivers to Cross (1955) a Western with Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker, co starring Russ Tamblyn and Jeff Richards from Seven Brides; and Interrupted Melody (1955), a biopic of Marjorie Lawrence starring Parker and Glenn Ford.
[20] His films for Fox included The Blue Angel (1959), an unsuccessful remake of the 1930 film, starring May Britt and Curt Jurgens; Can-Can (1960), an adaptation of the Broadway hit, with Frank Sinatra; Bachelor Flat (1961), a Frank Tashlin comedy with Terry Thomas; and The Second Time Around (1961), a comedy with Debbie Reynolds.
[24] In July 1961 Cummings returned to MGM signing a deal with head of production Sol Siegel to make eight features over four years through his own company.
His projects included a sequel to Seven Brides, The Widow to be made in Mexico, The Will Adams Story and Dragon Tree.