The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

• Year: 1936
• Released: 23 Sep 1936
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Won 3 Oscars. 4 wins & 5 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027698/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_ziegfeld
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Passed
• Genre: Drama, Musical
• Runtime: 176 min
• Writer: William Anthony McGuire
• Director: Robert Z. Leonard
• Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
• Keywords: biography, producer, broadway,

	6.6/10
	69/100
	72% – Critics
	50% – Audience

The Great Ziegfeld Storyline

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was born to an upper-middle class family in the late 19th century. From his father he inherited taste in classical music, and his mother taste in fashion and genteel manners. Dr. Ziegfeld had hoped that his son will takeover the family music reservoir, but after the success of his show in the 1893 World Fair, Flo Ziegfeld was determined to become a showman.Learning from his mistakes in the World Fair, Flo combined attraction with sex appeal and took Sandow the Strong Man on a successful nation-wide tour. After he and Sandow parted ways, Flo was on his way to Europe in search of new talent. He ran into best friend Billings during the crossing.Billings and Flo were both show producers and extremely competitive with each other. Sensing that Billings was in London to sign up a mysterious new talent, the conniving Flo found out who the girl was and put his womanising tricks to their best use. He convinced French singing sensation Anna Held to sign with him instead even though he was down to his last 50 cents.Always living lavishly on borrowed money, Flo managed to built some connections and got enough money to put on the show, but other than commenting on Anna’s exceptional beauty, her singing received little attention from the American audience, especially the women. A master publist, Flo had 20 gallons of milk sent to Anna’s apartment everyday and purposedly refused to pay the bill. The creditor sued him and Anna’s alleged beauty secret – her milk baths – made headlines. Anna Held became household synonyms for what’s beautiful and fashionable, Flo’s accountant stopped seeing red in the books.By 1907, Flo and Anna had been married for some time and Flo found it boring to feature only one girl in a show. He wanted to produce a show featuring girls, lots of girls; and the stage would be so big that even the audience in the last row would be able to see the performance. Flo sold the idea to Billings, Billings sold it to famous producer Erlanger; and so began 24 years of the Zigfeld Follies.Flo’s endless affairs, especially the one with Follies star Audrey Dane, eventually ruined his marriage and Anna divorced him. He later fell in love with stage actress Billie Burke, they got married and had a daughter named Patricia.Flo’s extravagant lifestyle and debt began to catch up on him. In 1929, Billie sold all of her jewelry to finance Flo’s new shows. He made a Zigfeld-style comeback with four hit shows running simoutaneously on Boardway. But Flo’s glory was short-lived, the stock market crash ruined everyone and Flo lost everything.An old and beaten Flo became seriously ill and Billie had to work to support him. After a visit from old friend Billings, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. died his apartment, located right across the street from the Ziegfeld Theatre sign.

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The Great Ziegfeld Movie Reviews

“I’m the funniest kind of a fellow. I love ALL the girls.”

MGM’s epic biopic of theatrical producer Florenz Ziegfeld, starring William Powell in the title role. As with most Hollywood biopics, liberties are taken with the facts. Since this was made in the Golden Age of Hollywood, the intention is to portray Mr. Ziegfeld in the best possible light. If it were made today, the opposite would be true and all his faults would be emphasized (probably to the point of slander). I’ll leave it to you to decide which is the better approach. Anyway, the movie covers Ziegfeld’s rise as a Barnum-esque showman to becoming one of Broadway’s most successful producers with his Ziegfeld Follies show. Along the way he attracts many women and marries two of them (Luise Rainer, Myrna Loy).

It’s a spectacle made in the grand Old Hollywood fashion, heavy on melodrama and lavish musical numbers. Powell is fine in the lead. I have no idea how closely he “gets” Ziegfeld here, as he seems very much like William Powell’s usual screen persona to me. He would reprise his role as Ziegfeld a decade later in 1946’s Ziegfeld Follies (also from MGM). Luise Rainer is terrific in her Oscar-winning role as Ziegfeld’s first wife, Anna. Myrna Loy is a little miscast as Billie Burke but it’s hard to argue against any opportunity to see Powell and Loy on screen together. The rest of the cast includes solid supporting players Frank Morgan, Virginia Bruce, Ray Bolger, Reginald Owen, and Nat Pendleton. A. A. Trimble does a spot-on impersonation of Will Rogers.

It is a bit overlong. The first half could have done with some trimming. Still, a fine cast keeps things interesting and those musical numbers are dynamite. Dennis Morgan’s “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” number is one of the highlights. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards with three wins, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Rainer. Its award wins are the subject of debate for some today, who argue it is one of the least-deserving Best Picture winners. That’s kind of laughable when you think about it, as the Best Picture Oscar rarely goes to the most deserving film. That was true then and is even more true today, in my opinion. It’s definitely something you’ll want to try out if you are a fan of classic Hollywood and all its glitz and glamour. They don’t make ’em like this anymore.

Damn Good for a Film Biography of a Theatrical Giant

I suspect that had Dashiell Hammett never written a successful comic pot boiler detective story called THE THIN MAN, William Powell’s best remembered role would be as Florenz Ziegfeld in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD. Here he captured that brilliant showman’s vision and drive with just the right degree of sophistication. I can’t think of few others – maybe Robert Montgomery, but I sadly doubt it (he seems too young) – who could have done as first rate a job.

It is really rare for a theatrical presence to maintain himself or herself decades or centuries after their death. Prior to the invention of motion pictures it was impossible (except for the late 19th Century crowd, starting with Edwin Booth, Sir Henry Irving, and Ellen Terry – they had some phonograph recordings) for actors to preserve their personas. Photo stills helped but did not leave much. Occasionally one would “accomplish” something for good or ill that people would recall (i.e., John Wilkes Booth), but that was a rarity. Movies changed that by allowing the audience to stretch from the contemporaries to the future ones. There are actual movies of Flo Ziegfeld at work on Broadway. Unfortunately he did not look like Bill Powell (Flo was somewhat fat), but those surviving newsreels showed his energy with his casts and productions. Powell got that side of him right.

THE GREAT ZIEGFELD traces the showman from his start as the publicity manager of Eugene Sandow (Nat Pendleton) from the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 to his rise as a major Broadway impresario from 1900 until 1930. Only the Great Depression destroyed Ziegfeld’s career (he lost most of his fortune in the crash). Significantly his fall is showed by the lights of his four currently big shows (including SHOWBOAT, RIO RITA, and THE THREE MUSKETEERS) all fading out one after another. It not only destroyed his career, but it helped kill the poor fellow (he died in 1932). But by that point his historical reputation was established by his series of spectacular Broadway “Follies” shows with the likes of Ed Wynn, Fanny Brice, W.C.Fields, Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Walter Catlett, Leon Erroll as the comic leads, and music by such composers as Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, Irving Berlin, and even the Gershwins. But better was Ziegfeld’s use of women – his “Glorifying the American Girl” reviews did precisely that, affecting taste in theater spectacles and taste in what beauty in women should be.

He had his rivals as pointed out in other reviews here. Among them were the Shuberts, possibly the most successful in the long run (but only because there were several of them, and they did not go bankrupt). Earl Carroll did produce his “Vanities”, and George White did do the “Scandals”, but in retrospect (for all the talent they brought to their shows) these were pale imitations. In Carroll’s case he skirted the level of decency by suggesting his chorus girls were naked in some of the sketches. Ziegfeld was no saint but he knew what was acceptable behavior in theatrical production on stage.

This film had a good cast. Besides Powell, the women in his life (Anna Held, his chorus girl girlfriend, and Billie Burke) are played well by Louise Rainer, Virginia Bruce, and Powell’s movie “wife” Myrna Loy. Rainer (as the betrayed Anna) got her first “Oscar” for this role, most likely for the emotional “telephone” scene. Her part is actually a substantial one, but due to the size of this film it has always been seen as a short supporting bit. This is a trifle unfair. Virginia Bruce brings a nice calculating eye to her performance, undermining the Ziegfeld – Held relationship, but slowly losing the showman due to her increasing alcoholism. Loy was really lucky. Once she got the role she contacted the living and active Billie Burke and had discussions about how to accurately portray the second Mrs. Ziegfeld. She wisely does not try to imitate Billie’s familiar syrupy upper register voice.

Frank Morgan appears as a friendly rival or Ziegfeld’s, both in business and in the boudoir. One likes him as one usually likes Morgan’s comic characters. My favorite performance is that of Fanny Brice playing herself. The film was made the year after the death of Will Rogers so that he was not around (he possibly could have been borrowed). Fields was out – Ziegfeld had had plenty of trouble with that curmudgeon on Broadway, and MGM probably knew that Fields would have demanded equal billing to Powell. Wynn was mostly still on Broadway. One does wish Catlett and Erroll might have been used. But we have Fanny in her glory, culminating in her singing her most famous number – “My Man”. That alone is worth watching the film for. As for the showcase production number on the spiraling tower, it is quite impressive (I doubt if Ziegfeld could have put it on the stage of his New Amsterdam Theater), but I agree that the dubbing of Dennis Morgan’s voice by Allan Jones is totally inexplicable to this day.

Incredibly well made and entertaining, not without its flaws but well worth the look

Knowing several people, on and outside of IMDb, who consider The Great Ziegfeld one of the weakest Best Picture winners, that didn’t stop me from seeing it anyway. To me though, while it’s not flawless and not the best film of the year it was still incredibly well-made and entertaining stuff and from personal view it is nowhere near one of the worst Best Picture winners.

The Great Ziegfeld agreed is overlong with a draggy and at times uneventful first half and half an hour could easily have been trimmed. And more could have done with the relationship between Ziegfeld and Billie Burke which appeared late in the film and didn’t feel developed enough, almost like an afterthought.

However, The Great Ziegfeld is very lavishly mounted, with photography that’s both beautiful and clever, sumptuous costume design and some of the most handsomely gorgeous sets of any 30s musical. Other pleasures are the marvellous and very well-staged(without being too overblown) songs with A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody being an absolute show-stopper, a script peppered with humour and heart and the mostly poignant story. Standout scenes were Fanny Brice’s charming My Man, Ray Bolger’s witty dancing to My Follies Girl, Luise Rainer’s heart-breaking telephone(justifiably famous) and especially A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody with its clever photography and perhaps one of the best uses of a staircase in a film. The direction is adept and the performances are great, with William Powell suave personified and especially Luise Rainer who is the epitome of charm and grace, capable of a good range of emotions as seen in the telephone scene. Fanny Brice, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger are all memorable, while Myrna Loy is underused she’s hardly wasted either.

Overall, a well-made, entertaining and very good film and well worth the look. 8/10 Bethany Cox