Plot Intro
The film is essentially a whistle-stop biopic of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr (William Powell), from his struggles as a manager of sideshow entertainers, through to the creation of his infamous musical revues known as Ziegfeld’s Follies; from his first marriage to singer Anna Held (Luise Rainer), to his second marriage to Billie
Doug says...
Florenz Ziegfeld is a legend, albeit one that people aren’t particularly aware of these days. Ziegfeld’s Follies was a series of stage shows dripping with opulence, grandeur and showgirls all posing prettily with masses of silk curtains wafting everywhere, based on the famous Parisienne Folies Bergere. This film not only sets out to tell the story of Ziegfeld’s rise to fame, but also to display the acts of the Follies themselves, capturing the excessive sets and costumes on celluloid forever. Do they succeed? Well, yes - to an extent.
It’s the acts themselves that make this film stand out. Without them, it’s the general story of the wheeler-dealer Ziegfeld who uses his charm and wit to convince various people to lend him money, their talents and their theatres. He appears to be a marketing genius, getting women’s hearts pumping by asking them to touch his weightlifter act’s biceps, and creating rumours that one of his stars bathes daily in milk. It’s a tribute to how people are often far more interested in the details around an act than in the act itself.
I particularly liked how we got to see a few actual Ziegfeldians appear - the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz Ray Bolger actually began his career in the Follies and appears as himself here, doing some nifty splits and acrobatics, while (perhaps most interestingly for all musical theatre fans), Fannie Brice - a comedienne and stage performer) plays herself performing on stage and being hired by Ziegfeld. Brice herself went on to be the subject of a pretty well known musical called Funny Girl, starring none other than Barbra Streisand. All we need is for the Barbra Streisand musical to kick off and we have ourselves the making of a wormhole.
It’s worth noting that no bank account was spared in the making of this film. One scene - an onstage Follies song - A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody - features hundreds of performers, a wedding-cake-tier style staging, and according to Wikipedia, a cost of several million dollars for one scene alone. It’s nothing if not spectacular.
But that’s the thing. This is the first film I’ve seen where I’ve cheated and Wikipedia-ed to find out when the bloody thing would end. It’s three hours and it feels like five. And while there’s some good performances (Luise Rainer is particularly noticeable as Ziegfeld’s impassioned first wife and Lisa Kudrow lookalike Virginia Bruce has a lot of fun as the drunkard chorus girl Audrey), it drags. Spectacular? Without a doubt. In need of quicker editing? Desperately.
Highlight
The Ziegfeld Follies scenes, where we get to see these spectacular stage pieces in full Golden-Age glory, are spectacular.
Lowlight
The Ziegfeld Follies scenes. Once you’ve seen two, you don’t really need the next seventy four. They also add a very unneeded hour or so onto the running time.
Mark
5/10
According to Wikipedia (yeah, I know), The Great Ziegfeld was a colossal hit in 1936. It cost $2 million to make, a phenomenal number at the time. So large, in fact, that the original production company, Universal, had to sell the rights to MGM before it all became too much for them. In the end, it earned over $4 million, which works out to a roughly $40 million profit in today’s money. However, Wikipedia then goes on to point out that critical revisions of the film have found it to be not as wonderful as audiences of the 1930’s apparently believed.
And this is a pretty fair assessment. Ziegfeld is spectacular, there’s no denying that. Masses of extras, costumes that would make a drag queen gasp, and musical numbers so extravagant that they look like Eurovision has vomited violently on them. All of these make this film a treat for the eyes, even if it’s still in black and white. It’s also worth noting that we’ve now reached a point in our Oscars journey where production values are much more slick and smooth, and acting styles more naturalistic- gone are the rusty, patchwork, over-acting of The Broadway Melody and Cimarron.
The trouble with these huge musical set pieces is that they don’t advance the plot. There’s none at all during a ponderous first hour (in which several over-written dialogue scenes could have done with some ruthless editing- preferably with a scythe), and then several in quick succession, which grinds the plot to a sudden halt in place of pure visuals. Not only does this make for a stodgy, stop-and-go structure, but it also draws attention to the fact that these wonderful re-enactments of Ziegfeld’s Follies are entirely style and absolutely no substance. The first big one, involving a wedding-cake structure and a full one-take sweeping shot of it, is magnificent. The next seven are lovely but they get old very quickly when you realise that they’re just taking up time.
Also, we really need to discuss Luise Rainer. She acts like she’s been injected with full-sugar Coca Cola mixed with Speed. Arms, facial expressions and tears are thrown about liberally. True, this is the character she is playing, but I was struggling to decide whether I liked it or not. Like the musical numbers, on the one hand it’s a delightful contrast to the vacuous dialogue that opens the film. On the other, I felt nothing for it. It’s fun, it’s impressive, but where hard-hitting, nuanced emotions should be apparent, all I saw was a big black hole. Luise Rainer may have won the Oscar for Best Actress for this (and, if the Oscar was based solely on enthusiasm, she might as well be MADE into a statuette rather than merely win one), but she ain’t no Meryl Streep.
I didn’t outrightly hate The Great Ziegfeld. It could be delightfully decadent and it made me want to go to a real Ziegfeld Follies show to witness the scale of it with my own eyes. This proves why it was such a big hit at the time. With the Great Depression still fresh in the heads of its audience, fictional opulence and decor would be the perfect escapism. Trouble is, with colourful epics such as Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz just around the corner, and The Sound of Music, Oliver!, Moulin Rouge and Chicago contributing to the musical genre over the next century, it’s no surprise that Ziegfeld has become overshadowed.
Highlight
The “wedding cake” set during one of the Follies. The director wisely allows the visuals to do the work, and just films the whole thing in one, steady camera shot. I defy anyone not to be impressed.
Lowlight
The opening hour. Far too much dialogue and too much time on characters and plot points that are barely explored again. Yawns-ville.
Mark
4/10
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