Ziegfeld on Film July 31, 2006
Posted by derek in : Reviews, Musical , trackbackMGM made three tributes to Broadway’s greatest showman.
The first and best was probably The Great Ziegfeld (1936) with a great performance from William Powell holding it together. A Best Picture winner in its day this film has its moments : the Pretty Girl Is Like Melody number is stupendous, also You Never Looked So Beautiful Before must have cost a fortune in ostrich feathers. A few of the other big numbers are a bit boring though particularly when compared with say Busby Berkeley, the worst one is about the circus which features Harriet Hoctor, a not very exciting dancer who appeared to little effect in a few Thirties musicals.
Its great to see a few performers who actually worked for Ziegfeld : Fanny Brice singing My Man (which they ruin by cutting away) and Ray Bolger but its a pity they had to draft in a lookalike for Eddie Cantor. The rest of it is pretty standard showbiz biopic stuff that would have been much better if it had been subjected to the editor’s scissors. Frank Morgan is of course Frank Morgan (did he play any other part in any of his movies !) and Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for chewing the scenery. (3 stars out of 5)
Five years later MGM treated us to Ziegfeld Girl (1941) in which the great showman doesn’t appear. Another rather overlong film which steals a few choice musical numbers from the original : more dramatic this one with Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Judy Garland. Judy is in pretty good form. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
Then we had Ziegfeld Follies (1945) in preparation for years, a sort of 20 year anniversary film for MGM : really a plotless revue film presented by Powell from heaven. The best stuff had Fred Astaire dancing with Lucille Bremer to This Heart of Mine and with Gene Kelly in The Babbitt and the Bromide. (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
Ziggy was portrayed in a few other films including The Jolson Story (1946) and Funny Girl (1968) : here looking rather old and distinguished in the form of Walter Pidgeon opposite Barbra Striesand’s Fanny Brice.
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?