HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Great Ziegfeld'' is a 1936 American musical
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...
directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke. The film, shot at
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
studios in
Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...
in the fall of 1935, is a fictionalized and sanitized tribute to
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also p ...
and a cinematic adaptation of Broadway's Ziegfeld Follies, with highly elaborate costumes, dances and sets. Many of the performers of the theatrical Ziegfeld Follies were cast in the film as themselves, including
Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedienne, illustrated song model, singer, and theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. ...
and Harriet Hoctor, and the real Billie Burke acted as a supervisor for the film. The "
A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which became the theme song of the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The first verse and refrain are considered part of the Great American Songbook and are often covered as a ...
" set alone was reported to have cost US$220,000 (US$ in dollars), featuring a towering rotating volute of diameter with 175 spiral steps, weighing 100 tons. The music to the film was provided by Walter Donaldson, Irving Berlin, and lyricist Harold Adamson, with choreographed scenes. The extravagant costumes were designed by
Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the mai ...
, taking some 250 tailors and seamstresses six months to prepare them using of silver sequins and of white ostrich plumes. Over a thousand people were employed in the production of the film, which required 16 reels of film after the cutting. One of the biggest successes in film in the 1930s and the pride of MGM at the time, it was acclaimed as the greatest musical biography to be made in Hollywood and still remains a standard in musical film making. It won three
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, including Best Picture for producer Hunt Stromberg, Best Actress for Luise Rainer, and Best Dance Direction for Seymour Felix, and was nominated for four others. MGM made two more ''Ziegfeld'' films – one titled ''
Ziegfeld Girl Ziegfeld Girls were the chorus girls and showgirls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical Broadway revue spectaculars known as the '' Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), in New York City, which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris. Desc ...
'' (1941), starring
James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality ...
,
Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner, which recycled some footage from ''The Great Ziegfeld'', and in 1946, '' Ziegfeld Follies'' by Vincente Minnelli. In 1951, the studio produced a Technicolor remake of '' Show Boat'', which Ziegfeld had presented as a stage musical.


Plot

The son of a highly respected music professor, Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr. yearns to make his mark in show business. He begins by promoting
Eugen Sandow Eugen Sandow (born Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, ; 2 April 1867 – 14 October 1925) was a German bodybuilder and showman from Prussia. Born in Königsberg, Sandow became interested in bodybuilding at the age of ten during a visit to Italy. After a ...
, the "world's strongest man", at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, overcoming the competition of rival Jack Billings and his popular attraction, belly dancer Little Egypt, with savvy marketing (allowing women to feel Sandow's muscles). Ziegfeld returns to his father and young Mary Lou at the
Chicago Musical College Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. History Founding Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution ...
, and departs to San Francisco, where he and Sandow are deemed frauds for putting on a show in which Sandow faces a lion who falls asleep as soon as it is let out of the cage. Flo travels to England on an ocean liner, where he runs into Billings again who is laughing at a newspaper article denouncing him as a fraud. Flo discovers that Billings is on his way to sign a contract with beautiful French star Anna Held. Despite losing all his money gambling at Monte Carlo, Flo charms Anna into signing with him instead, pretending that he doesn't know Billings. Anna twice almost sends him away for his rudeness and for being broke, before revealing that she appreciates his honesty. Ziegfeld promises to give her "more publicity than she ever dreams of" and to feature her alongside America's most prominent theatrical performers. At first, Anna's performance at the Herald Square Theatre is not a success. However, Flo manages to generate publicity by sending 20 gallons of milk to Anna every day for a fictitious milk bath beauty treatment, then refusing to pay the bill. The newspaper stories soon bring the curious to pack his theater, and Ziegfeld introduces eight new performers to back her. Audience members comment on how the milk must make her skin beautiful and the show is a major success. Flo sends Anna flowers and jewelry and a note saying "you were magnificent my wife", and she agrees to marry him, flaunting her new diamonds to her fellow performers. However, one success is not enough for the showman. He has an idea for an entirely new kind of show featuring a bevy of blondes and brunettes, one that will "glorify" the American girl. The new show, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'', an opulent production filled with beautiful women and highly extravagant costumes and sets, is a smash hit, and is followed by more versions of the Follies. Ziegfeld tries to make a star out of Audrey Dane, who is plagued with alcoholism, and he lures
Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedienne, illustrated song model, singer, and theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. ...
from
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
, showering both with lavish gifts. He gives stagehand
Ray Bolger Raymond Wallace Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian and stage performer (particularly musical theatre) who started in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in ...
his break as well. Mary Lou, now a young woman, visits Ziegfeld, who doesn't recognize her initially, and hires her as a dancer. The new production upsets Anna, who realizes that Flo's world does not revolve around just her, and she becomes envious of the attention he pays to Audrey. She divorces him after walking in on Flo and a drunk Audrey at the wrong moment. Audrey walks out on Flo and the show after an angry confrontation. Broke, Flo borrows money from Billings for a third time for the new show. Flo meets the red-headed Broadway star Billie Burke and soon marries her. When she hears the news, a heartbroken Anna telephones Flo and pretends to be glad for him. Flo and Billie eventually have a daughter named
Patricia Patricia is a female given name of Latin origin. Derived from the Latin word '' patrician'', meaning "noble"; it is the feminine form of the masculine given name Patrick. The name Patricia was the second most common female name in the United Stat ...
. Flo's new shows are a success, but after a while, the public's taste changes, and people begin to wonder if the times have not passed him by. After a string of negative reviews in the press, Flo overhears three men in a barber's shop saying that he'll "never produce another hit". Stung, he vows to have ''four'' hits on Broadway at the same time. He achieves his goal, with the hits '' Show Boat'' (1927), '' Rio Rita'' (1927), '' Whoopee!'' (1928), and ''
The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' (french: Les Trois Mousquetaires, links=no, ) is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight f ...
'', and invests over $1 million (US$ in dollars) of his earnings in the stock market. However, the stock market crash of 1929 bankrupts him, forcing Billie to return to the stage. Shaken by the reversal of his financial fortunes and the growing popularity of movies over live stage shows, he becomes seriously ill. Billings pays him a friendly visit, and the two men agree to become partners in a new, even grander production of ''The Ziegfeld Follies''. But the reality is that both men are broke and Ziegfeld realizes this. In the final scene in his apartment overlooking the Ziegfeld Theatre, in a half-delirium, he recalls scenes from several of his hits, exclaiming, "I've got to have more steps, higher, higher", before dying in his chair.


Cast

* William Powell as
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also p ...
* Myrna Loy as Billie Burke * Luise Rainer as Anna Held * Frank Morgan as Jack Billings * Fannie Brice as Herself * Virginia Bruce as Audrey Dane * Reginald Owen as Sampson *
Ray Bolger Raymond Wallace Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian and stage performer (particularly musical theatre) who started in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in ...
as Himself * Ernest Cossart as Sidney * Joseph Cawthorn as Dr. Ziegfeld * Nat Pendleton as Sandow * Harriet Hoctor as Herself * Jean Chatburn as Mary Lou * Robert Greig as Butler * Herman Bing as Costumer * Charles Judels as Pierre * Marcelle Corday as Marie * Raymond Walburn as Sage * A. A. Trimble as Will Rogers * Buddy Doyle as Eddie Cantor * Mae Questel as Rosie (uncredited) * William Demarest as
Gene Buck Edward Eugene Buck (August 7, 1885 – February 24, 1957) was an American illustrator of sheet music, musical theater lyricist, and president of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Early career Buck was born in De ...
(uncredited) * Edwin Maxwell as
Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced '' Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter productio ...
(uncredited) * Charles Trowbridge as
Julian Mitchell Charles Julian Humphrey Mitchell, FRSL (born 1 May 1935) is an English playwright, screenwriter and occasional novelist. He is best known as the writer of the play and film '' Another Country'', and as a screenwriter for TV, producing many orig ...
(uncredited) Ziegfeld Girls (uncredited) *Wanda Allen *Lynn Bailey *Monica Bannister *Bonnie Bannon *
Lynn Bari Lynn Bari (born Marjorie Schuyler Fisher, December 18, 1919 – November 20, 1989) was a film actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in roughly 150 films for 20th Century Fox, from the early 1930s through the 1940s. ...
*Sheila Browning *Edna Callahan *Diane Cook *Pauline Craig *Hester Dean * Susan Fleming * Virginia Grey *Mary Halsey *Jeanne Hart *Patricia Havens-Monteagle * Marcia Healy *Mary Lange *Toni Lanier ( Toni Mannix) *Margaret Lyman *Frances MacInerney *Julie Mooney *Pearlie Norton *Carlita Orr *Claire Owen *Wanda Perry *Evelyn Randolph * Pat Ryan *Georgia Spence *Venetia Varden *Dolly Verner


Gallery of the cast


Production

Ziegfeld's widow, Billie Burke, was keen to pay off Ziegfeld's debts without filing for bankruptcy, and sold the rights to a biopic of him to
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
in late 1933. As a result, the film went into the pre-production phase in January 1934. In the early stages of script development, Burke was listed as coauthor with Macguire. Macguire had initially proposed the biographical film to them in the form of a "filmusical entertainment" set in a "theatrical tradition" and William Powell was cast as Ziegfeld. However, by February 1935, Macguire had fallen into disagreement with Universal over financial problems at the studio, and the entire production, including some already constructed sets and musical arrangements, was sold to MGM for US$300,000 (US$ in dollars). As part of the deal however, Universal retained the services of Powell for the classic screwball comedy '' My Man Godfrey'', which was released the same year as ''The Great Ziegfeld''. The film was shot at MGM Studios in Culver City, California mostly in the latter half of 1935 under a budget of US$1,500,000 (US$ in dollars), produced by Hunt Stromberg. The cost exceeded US$2 million (US$ in dollars) by the end of the production in early 1936, exorbitant for the period, and it was MGM's most expensive film to date after '' Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ'' (1925). The principal cinematography was shot by
Oliver T. Marsh Oliver T. Marsh (January 30, 1892 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States – May 5, 1941 in Hollywood, California, United States) was a prolific Hollywood cinematographer. He worked on over eighty films just for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer alone. Mar ...
, and
George J. Folsey George Joseph Folsey, A.S.C., was an American cinematographer who worked on 162 films between 1919 and his retirement in 1976. Biography Born in Brooklyn, Folsey was hired by Jesse Louis Lasky to work as an office boy in his newly formed Jess ...
and
Karl Freund Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. (January 16, 1890 – May 3, 1969) was an Austrian cinematographer and film director best known for photographing ''Metropolis'' (1927), '' Dracula'' (1931), and television's '' I Love Lucy'' (1951-1957). Freund was an in ...
were brought in to shoot the Ziegfeld Roof numbers. Ray June shot the "Melody" number and Merritt B. Gerstad is credited for the Hoctor Ballet. In the advertising for the film, MGM boasted of the film's ostentatious nature, bragging that it was "SO BIG that only MGM could handle it", with its "countless beauties, trained lions, ponies, dogs and other animals". Busby Berkeley, who had led
Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
to become the leading producer of musicals in Hollywood in the 1930s, was a major influence on the producers which had "glamorous, excessive 1930s cinematic musical numbers". The film also came at a time when producers had begun seeing the economic and cultural importance of the cinematic medium in comparison to theater. ''Variety'' notes that the film producers were likely very concerned with the presentation of the film after production was wrapped up, and that the long length of the film at 176 minutes was understandable in that they probably "wanted to preserve as much footage as possible". William S. Gray was responsible for the editing of the film. Over a thousand people were employed in the production, and ''The Great Ziegfeld'' required 16 reels of film after the cutting. By coincidence, Universal's 1936 film version of the Ziegfeld musical "Show Boat", the most faithful of all the film versions of the stage production, was filmed at the same time as ''The Great Ziegfeld'' and released in the same year.


Screenplay

The screenplay by
William Anthony McGuire William Anthony McGuire (July 9, 1881 – September 16, 1940) was an American playwright, theatre director, and producer and screenwriter, including ''The Kid From Spain'' (1932) starring Eddie Cantor. McGuire earned an Oscar nomination for the ...
was a "novelty" to many audiences who were familiar with the theatrical Broadway shows of the follies. The script, although fictionalized with embellishments needed for the motion picture, did show some accuracies in the life of Ziegfeld. Frank S. Nugent of ''The New York Times'' said of the script: "What William Anthony McGuire has attempted in his screen play, and with general success, is to encompass not merely the fantastic personal history of Ziegfeld but the cross-sectional story of the development of the Follies, the Midnight Frolic on the New Amsterdam Roof and the other theatrical enterprises floated under the Glorifier's aegis during a span of about forty years. The two biographies—of the man and of his creations—are, naturally, inseparable; but both have been told with such wealth of detail and circumstance (real and imaginative) that even the three-hour film narrative is fragmentary and, in some places, confused." Although it has some accuracies, ''The Great Ziegfeld'' takes many key liberties with Ziegfeld's life and the history of the ''Follies'', resulting in many inaccuracies. The earlier scenes with Sandow, the milk bath advertising scenario, and many other sequences including several of the dramatic ups and downs of the film were fictional.
George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
's '' Rhapsody in Blue'' was never featured in the ''Follies'', and the number "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" was written for the 1919 ''Follies'', not the first edition of the revue, as shown in the film. Ray Bolger was never cast in a "Follies" show, and although she was born in the U.S, Billie Burke grew up in England and spoke with a Mid-Atlantic accent throughout her life; Loy who portrays her clearly has an American accent in the film. In the film, the last few lines of the song " Ol' Man River" (from ''Show Boat'') are sung by what sounds like a tenor, while the song was intended for bass Paul Robeson and sung in the original production by bass-baritone Jules Bledsoe. Further, the screenplay also gives the impression that the successful original production of '' Show Boat'', which Ziegfeld produced, closed because of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. In fact ''Show Boat'' ended its original 1927 run in the spring of 1929 and the stock market crash did not occur until October of that year. It was the 1932 revival of the show (also produced by Ziegfeld shortly before his death), not the original production, that was affected by the Depression. In real life, Ziegfeld did not die in his room at the Hotel Warwick (not mentioned) which stood in front of the Ziegfeld Theatre; he actually died in Los Angeles and had not even spent his last years in New York. However, McGuire did capture a number of Ziegfeld's traits, such as sending telegrams to people even in close proximity, his belief that elephants were a symbol of good luck, his exquisite taste in costumes and design, and perfectionism over his productions, especially lighting and rostrum pedestaling. McGuire's script, now in the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, is dated September 21, 1935, probably the date when it was finalized.


Casting

Initially, the main cast proposed for the film included Marilyn Miller, Gilda Gray, Ann Pennington, and Leon Errol. Featured in the film are William Powell as Ziegfeld, Myrna Loy as Billie Burke, Luise Rainer as Anna Held, Nat Pendleton as Eugen Sandow, and Frank Morgan. Powell admitted to being "amazed" with the film after viewing it and was very grateful at having had the privilege to portray Ziegfeld, considering it to be a very important moment in his career. He said "After seeing this film I can see that most of the characters I have played before were contrived. They had no 'folks', as the character of Ziegfeld had in this picture. Their father was a pen and their mother was a bottle of ink. Here was a character with flesh, blood and sinews. I felt for the first time in my acting career I had tried the full measure of a man, regardless of my shortcomings in playing him." Many of the performers of the earlier Broadway version of the Ziegfeld Follies were cast in the film as themselves, including
Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedienne, illustrated song model, singer, and theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. ...
and Harriet Hoctor, the ballet dancer and contortionist. ''The Great Ziegfeld'' marked Rainer's second Hollywood film role after '' Escapade'' (also with Powell). Fanny Brice appears as a comedian in the abridged song sequence "My Man" and played an effective version of herself in addition to her routine comic role as the funny girl. Nat Pendleton, a freestyle wrestler who had won the silver medal at the
1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...
in Antwerp and had appeared alongside Powell in '' The Thin Man'' (1934), was cast as the circus strongman Eugen Sandow. Billie Burke objected to her role being cast with another actress (Myrna Loy) since she was also an actress under contract to the studio and could play herself, but the producers concluded that at that point she was not a big enough star to play herself in ''The Great Ziegfeld''. However, according to Emily W. Leider, Burke was not keen on playing her younger self and says that Billie Burke's biographer stated that Miriam Hopkins would have been her first choice to play her part, not Loy. Burke herself worked as technical consultant, and although she did not object to Marilyn Miller performing a number, she was influential in the studio's refusal to give her the higher billing and salary she had demanded, which led to Miller walking away from the film. Both Miller and
Lillian Lorraine Lillian Lorraine (born Ealallean De Jacques; 1892/1894 – April 17, 1955) was an American stage and screen actress of the 1910s and 1920s, best known for her beauty and for being perhaps the most famous Ziegfeld Girl in the Broadway revues ...
threatened legal action if their names were so much as mentioned in the film. Thus Miller's character was renamed Sally Manners, and Lorraine's character was renamed Audrey Dane (played by Virginia Bruce). In real life, Ziegfeld reportedly was obsessed with Miller, and was involved in numerous sex scandals. In 1922, Miller had given an interview in which she accused him of "making love to chorus girls" and sending her a diamond ring as "big as her hand"; this essence of Ziegfeld's character is captured in the film. Incidentally, Miller died from toxicity complications after surgery just before the release of the film on April 7, 1936, which led one reviewer writing in ''Liberty'' to denounce an urban legend which had arisen surrounding the timing of her death, writing "It's not true that Marilyn Miller died of a broken heart at not getting the lead in this." Another myth surrounding her untimely death at the age of 37 is that she had contracted syphilis. Frank Morgan, a stage and film character actor, played the role of promoter Billings in the film.
Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner, December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame. According to one obi ...
, in an uncredited role, performs in "
A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which became the theme song of the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The first verse and refrain are considered part of the Great American Songbook and are often covered as a ...
" (dubbed by Allan Jones). Pat Ryan, the future Pat Nixon, wife of
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
and First Lady of the United States, was an extra in the film. Will Rogers was to appear in the film, but he was killed in a plane crash in August 1935. He was played by stand-in A.A. Trimble.


Costumes

The extravagant costumes, which even Ziegfeld initially considered too flamboyant, were designed by
Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the mai ...
, who had worked with many of the greatest actresses of the period, including
Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic ch ...
,
Norma Shearer Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O' ...
, Jeanette MacDonald, Jean Harlow,
Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
and
Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
, and later designed for films such as ''
Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
'' (1938), '' The Women'' (1939), and '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). Howard Gutner documents that due to MGM's wealth and the high budget, Adrian indulged in "sheer lavishness" in making the costumes, surpassing anything he had done previously. It took 250 tailors and seamstresses six months to sew the costumes that Adrian had designed for the film, using of silver sequins and of white ostrich plumes. The costumes worn by women in the film are diverse, varying from "puffy hooped skirts to catlike leotards" to "layers of tulle and chiffron", with the men mostly wearing black tuxedos.


Mise en scène and music

Leonard, a film director who specialized in melodrama and musicals, anchored the music for the film, working with Walter Donaldson, Irving Berlin, and lyricist Harold Adamson. The extravagant dances and ensemble sequences were choreographed by Seymour Felix and Harold Adamson, including the song sequence of "
A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which became the theme song of the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The first verse and refrain are considered part of the Great American Songbook and are often covered as a ...
" (it was Irving Berlin's 13th annual edition in 1919). The "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" set, known as the "Wedding Cake", involved several weeks of shooting time and was reported to have cost US$220,000 (US$ in dollars). As many as 180 performers were involved in the scenes which included singers, dancers and musicians. The sequence starts with Stanley Morner (soon to be known as
Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner, December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame. According to one obi ...
) alone in front of the curtain, apparently singing “A Pretty Girl…” Apparently because, although he was an excellent singer “the song had previously been recorded by Allan Jones, another M-G-M contract player, and the studio apparently decided not to re-record the number.” After he sings the entire first verse and refrain, the front curtain begins to pull away and the stage begins to rotate, revealing people in 18th century costumes. The chorus continues to sing as the stage rotates through excerpts from romantic musical history, eventually reaching “'' Rhapsody in Blue''” and an elaborate dance number. Then Morgan re-appears, standing among a crowd of pretty girls who are seated on the stairs. As he finishes the song, Virginia Bruce is revealed seated atop the tower, wearing a voluminous gown that spills over the edge. She faces front as the tower continues to turn. The camera pulls back to show the entire structure, and the satin curtain descends, enclosing each level in turn until the stage curtain closes. The curtains, made of rayon silk, measured . Sheldon Hall and Stephen Neale note the theatrical sense that the cinematographers achieved through shooting the sequence in virtually a single take. They mention that "the camera traverses an enormous platform set contained within a curtained proscenium (also enormous)", and that the "set itself revolves to meet the camera, rather than the camera entering the space of the set." Linda Mizejewski, author of a book on the Ziegfeld girls, argues that the Pretty Girl sequence is more than just about being showy; it is symbolic of womanhood which "powerfully visualizes women as the raw material for male aesthetic vision and design". In the film she believes that womanhood is defined by the "young, white, blond and slender" female, which in the sequence are "delineated as the fluffy, artificial tiers of costuming and staging". The Harriet Hoctor ballet music was scored by Con Conrad to lyrics written by Herb Magidson. The circus ballet was an adaptation from the old Ziegfeld stage shows. ''Variety'' called the Hoctor ballet "in itself intricate with its maneuverings of six Russian wolfhounds in terp formations", and said that the "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" sequence in the film is a "nifty Berlin tune hichbecomes the fulcrum for one of Frank Skinner's best arrangements as Arthur Lange batons the crescendos into a mad, glittering potpourri of Saint-Saëns and Gershwin, Strauss and Verdi, beautifully blended against the Berlinesque background. It's a scenic flash which makes the auditor wonder 'What can they do to follow that?' meaning in this or future film production." Juan Antonio Ramírez refers to the wedding cake as a "famous spiral column", citing it as one of the best known pieces of mobile architecture in film, but notes that in design the cake was not exclusive to ''The Great Ziegfeld'', explaining that a wedding cake, albeit less flamboyant, had appeared in previous films such as ''
King of Jazz '' King of Jazz'' is a 1930 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code color musical film starring Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. The film title refers to Whiteman's popular cultural appellation. At the time the film was made, "jazz", to the genera ...
'' (1930), '' The Kid from Spain'' (1932), '' Top Hat'' (1935), and '' Follow the Fleet'' (1936). Ramírez describes the film's '' Mise en scène'' as representing "the last word in flashy vulgarity, Surrealist kitsch, or perhaps both at once". ;Selected songs # "Won't You Come and Play With Me" by Anna Held # "It's Delightful to Be Married" by Vincent Scotto–Anna Held # "
If You Knew Susie "If You Knew Susie" is the title of a popular song written by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Meyer. It was published by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. in 1925. In the largely comic song, a man sings that he knows a certain woman named Susie to be much wilde ...
" by Buddy G. DeSylvaJoseph Meyer # " Shine On, Harvest Moon" by
Nora Bayes Nora Bayes (born Rachel Eleonora "Dora" Goldberg; October 3, 1880March 19, 1928) was an American singer and vaudeville performer who was popular internationally between the 1900s and 1920s. She is credited with co-writing the song " Shine On, Ha ...
Jack Norworth John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 – September 1, 1959), known professionally as Jack Norworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer. Biography Norworth is credited as writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wr ...
# "
A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which became the theme song of the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The first verse and refrain are considered part of the Great American Songbook and are often covered as a ...
" by Irving Berlin # "You Gotta Pull Strings" # "She's a Follies Girl" # "You" by Walter DonaldsonHarold Adamson # "You Never Looked So Beautiful" by Walter Donaldson-Harold Adamson # "Yiddle on Your Fiddle" by Irving Berlin # "Mon homme" ("My Man") by
Maurice Yvain Maurice Yvain (12 February 1891 – 27 July 1965) was a French composer noted for his operettas of the 1920s and 1930s. Some of which were written for Mistinguett, at one time the best-paid female entertainer in the world. In the 1930s and 1940s, ...
, Jacques Charles
Albert Willemetz Albert Willemetz (14 February 1887 – 7 October 1964) was a French librettist. Career Albert Willemetz was a prolific lyricist. He invented a new type of musical, with a humorous and "sexy" style. He was the author of more than 3000 songs, inc ...
# "Queen of the Jungle" by Walter Donaldson-Harold Adamson # "Harriet Hoctor Ballet" (also known as "A Circus Must Be Different in a Ziegfeld Show") by Con ConradHerb Magidson Finale: # "March of the Musketeers" from "
The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' (french: Les Trois Mousquetaires, links=no, ) is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight f ...
" ( Rudolf Friml) # "Ol’ Man River" from "Showboat" (Jerome Kern) # "Making Whoopee" from " Whoopee!" ( Walter DonaldsonGus Kahn) # "Rio Rita" ( Harry Tierney
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...
) #
Look for the Silver Lining "Look for the Silver Lining" is a 1919 popular song with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by B.G. DeSylva. Background The song was written in 1919 for the unsuccessful musical ''Zip, Goes a Million''. In 1920, it was publishedSuskin, Steven ...
" from "Sally" (
Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in ove ...
)


Aftermath

Farida Mazar filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers shortly before her death, claiming that they "presented Little Egypt as a lewd character". 14 witnesses who had seen the act at the 1893 Chicago World Fair supported this, although the lawsuit was dropped after Mahzar died from a heart attack. Burke caused much controversy and upset among many of Ziegfeld's friends and colleagues when she sold the rights to a production on Broadway, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'', also starring Fanny Brice, at the time the film was released in 1936, due to the fact that the show was produced by the Shubert brothers, whom Ziegfeld detested. Worse still for his associates, was that the show was a bigger success than Ziegfeld's last production of the Follies in 1931. The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' under Vincente Minnelli initially was performed in December 1935 before making its Broadway debut on January 30, 1936. It was performed in Boston and Philadelphia until the production was postponed after Brice collapsed on stage with exhaustion. When it reopened on Broadway in September 1936, five months after the release of the film, it was retitled ''The New Ziegfeld Follies of 1936–1937'', and was revamped considerably, with changes to the show's humor. In 1941,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
produced a sequel titled ''
Ziegfeld Girl Ziegfeld Girls were the chorus girls and showgirls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical Broadway revue spectaculars known as the '' Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), in New York City, which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris. Desc ...
'', starring
James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality ...
,
Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner, which recycled some film from ''The Great Ziegfeld''. In 1946, MGM made another sequel, '' Ziegfeld Follies'', directed by Vincente Minnelli, director of the stage show.


Reception


Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned a then-massive $3,089,000 in the US and Canada and $1,584,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $822,000. It was the 5th most popular film at the British box office in 1935–36.


Critical response at the time of release

The film, which premiered in Los Angeles at the Carthay Circle Theatre, was the first musical film in history for which one of its cast members won an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
. Luise Rainer received the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Anna Held, Ziegfeld's first wife. The film, the pride of MGM at a time when
Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
and RKO Pictures were the leading studios in Hollywood for musical production, was a major commercial and critical success and one of the most successful films of the 1930s, grossing US$4,673,000 (US$ in dollars) worldwide at the box office. It was acclaimed upon release as the greatest musical biography to be made in Hollywood and still remains a standard in musical film making. At just over three hours, ''The Great Ziegfeld'' was also the longest talking film of the time. ( D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'' and ''Intolerance'', both silent films, had each run over three hours.) TCM has acclaimed the "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" sequence as one of "the most famous musical numbers ever filmed". Thomas S. Hischak has said that the film has rarely been topped for pure showmanship and glamor, and ''Variety'' considered it an "outstanding picture", a "symbol of a tradition of show business". ''Variety'' praised the performances of the cast, remarking that as Ziegfeld, William Powell "endows the impersonation with all the qualities of a great entrepreneur and sentimentalist without sacrificing the shades and moods called for" and noting that Luise Rainer is "tops of the femmes with her vivacious Anna Held". Stanley Green cited ''The Great Ziegfeld'' as "the first of a number of elaborate show-business screen biographies". Otis Ferguson, writing for ''New Republic'' magazine, remarked that the "musical numbers seem as irresistible as Ziegfeld himself". The ''New York American'' said that the film is "pretty nearly everything such an extravaganza should be", with "romance and reality, song and dance, gaiety and beauty, pathos and bathos". ''Time'' qualified it as "Pretentious, packed with hokum and as richly sentimental as an Irving Berlin lyric, it is, as such, top-notch entertainment." A reviewer for the ''Spokane Chronicle'' praised the film for its superb acting, writing that " venthe great producer iegfeldwould have been unable to produce scenes of magnitude and splendor that are given as part of the picture telling his life." Frank S. Nugent of ''The New York Times'' was also highly praising of the film, noting that it had "more stars than there are in the heavens" and remarking that "the picture achieves its best moments in the larger sequences devoted to the Girls — ballet, chorus and show. At least one of these spectacular numbers, filmed to the music of Irving Berlin's "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody", with overtones of "Rhapsody in Blue", never has been equaled on the musical comedy stage or screen." John Mosher of ''The New Yorker'' called it "the most lavish display the screen has had to offer" with chorus numbers that were "gigantic and effective", though he found the romance to be "peculiarly average screen-story stuff." Both ''The New York Times'' and ''Film Daily'' rated the film in the "Ten Best" of the year. However, not all critics were as enthusiastic about the film; Graham Greene of the British ''Spectator'' called it a "huge inflated gas-blown object" and criticized its length, comparing it to the feat of a flagpole sitter. A number of critics, although praising the film in general, felt that Myrna Loy, who appears rather late on in the film, gave a lackluster performance as Billie Burke. Nugent said that "Miss Loy is a stately Bille Burke, and somewhat lacking, we fear, in Miss Burke's effervescence and gaiety", and Cecilia Agner thought she came across as "stilted, like her rigidly waxed and set blonde wig". Harrison Carroll] of the ''Los Angeles Herald-Express'', however, sympathized with the difficulty of her role in portraying a prominent living actress, confessing that he was pleased that Loy did not attempt to imitate Burke's mannerisms. Emily W. Leider believes that any of her character flaws were due to a "mushy" script, rather than her performance as an actress.


Critical re-evaluation

Although the film is still viewed as a symbol of glamour and excess during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, today the film has more of a mixed reception, with many critics believing that the film relies too heavily on its (now-dated) extravagance and is also too long; Christopher Null stated that ''The Great Ziegfeld'' is a "textbook case of how a film can lose its appeal over the years". Since its release the film has been criticized in particular for being unnecessarily lengthy and its overacting (particularly by Rainer), and is occasionally cited as a "prime example of the Academy's fallibility" in a year when other critically acclaimed pictures such as '' Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' were released, which some argue was more deserving of Best Picture.
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
reports a 72% approval rating based on 67 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.1/10. The site's consensus reads: "This biopic is undeniably stylish, but loses points for excessive length, an overreliance on clichés, and historical inaccuracies". Emily W. Leider claims the film to be "more remarkable for its "legs and tinsel" extravagance than for its excellence." David Parkinson of ''Empire'' gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and concluded that it "Drags in places and doesn't even try for a true-to-life portrait of the great theatre entrepreneur but it's shiny and big spectacle with impressive choreography." Dave Kehr of the ''Chicago Reader'' called it "amazingly dull, even with William Powell in the lead and guest appearances by the likes of Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice." Emanuel Levy gave it a C grade and stated that it was "overlong and overblown but ultimately mediocre as a musical movie and as a biopic of the legendary showman." James Berardinelli awarded it 2.5 out of 4 stars and stated that "although some of the production's technical aspects remain impressive, the dramatic elements come across as trite and many of the musical numbers are dated", but said that it was a "reasonably competent – albeit "airbrushed" – presentation of the main character's life."


Accolades

The seven
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nominations were announced on February 7, 1937, and on March 4, 1937, ''The Great Ziegfeld'' won three Oscars at the 9th Academy Awards for 1936: Although he was not nominated for an Academy Award for his performance, Powell did receive the Screen Actor's Guild award for Best Actor in a tie with C. Aubrey Smith who was in '' Little Lord Fauntleroy''. In addition, the Guild's Best Actress was given to Luise Rainer.


References

Notes Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* * * * *
''The Great Ziegfeld''
at Virtual History {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Ziegfeld, The 1936 films 1930s biographical drama films 1930s musical drama films American biographical drama films American black-and-white films American musical drama films Best Picture Academy Award winners Biographical films about entertainers Films about musical theatre Films directed by Robert Z. Leonard Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award-winning performance Films set in Chicago Films set in New York City Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films set in the 1890s Films set in the 1910s Films set in the 1920s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Musical films based on actual events Ziegfeld Follies Cultural depictions of Will Rogers Films scored by Arthur Lange 1936 drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films