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Staring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
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Product Details
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790745190
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0790745194
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2004-02-03
Running Time: 185
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1936-04-08

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Editorial Review
Description
Flo Ziegfeld's midway attraction isn't drawing flies. "How's business, Ziggy?" a rival taunts. This winner of 3 Academy Awards(R) including Best Picture provides the career-chronicling answer. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s business was good (with Broadway's legendary Follies and more), bad (including times the showman could scarcely rub two nickels together) and rarely lacking optimistic excess. Year: 1936 Director: Robert Z. Leonard Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer

Amazon.com
Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Great Ziegfeld stars William Powell in a biopic "suggested by romances and incidents in the life of America's greatest showman, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr." With admirable accuracy, the film follows Ziegfeld's career from small-time sideshow barker to creator of the famous Ziegfeld Follies, the collection of singing, dancing, and comedy vaudeville acts that launched the careers of such luminaries as Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger, and Harriet Hoctor, all of whom play themselves in the film. In the title role, Powell offers a believable combination of ambition and hucksterism, and his Thin Man costar Myrna Loy makes a late appearance as his second wife, but it's large-eyed Luise Rainer who has the showier role (and won an Oscar) as Ziegfeld's first big star and first wife. The musical numbers, however, don't hold up quite as well as the plot, and the film is overlong at 185 minutes. It's fascinating, though, to see the vintage stars performing, and the eight-minute spectacle "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" is an eye-popper, with an elaborate revolving set supporting a large cast singing and dancing to the Irving Berlin tune while throwing in some Puccini, Strauss, Leoncavallo, and Gershwin for good measure. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

they don't make 'em like they used to, 2008-05-09
THE GREAT ZIEGFELD was another big one for MGM, a biopic extravaganza in which the life of Florenz Ziegfeld was used as a sounding board for a variety of ever more spectacular musical numbers. Along the way, there are brief respites for some guest stars (Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice - her line, "For Ziegfeld, I gotta be an urchin... even in burlesque, I was middle-class", is priceless), and mind-numbing musical numbers (how were those supposed to be done live on stage?), tied to a story of Ziegfeld's life and loves. This was not only a box office smash, it was also a big award magnet, winning the Academy Award as Best Picture as well as the award for Best Actress for Luise Rainer's portrayal of Anna Held. Now: this is an example of the height of frivolity, because Anna Held was a great sex symbol in her day (the turn-of-the-century equivalent of Brigitte Bardot in the 1950s) and the waif-like Luise Rainer is anything but... But does it matter? Rainer gets to do a celebrated smiling-through-tears telephone act (impressive enough for her to win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, which paved the way for the inevitable Oscar), and Myrna Loy shows up as Billie Burke (Mrs. Ziegfeld Number Two), though this caused the real Billie Burke no end of distress (she couldn't see why she shouldn't play herself). "A pretty girl/Is like a melody/That haunts you night and day..." And in its way, this movie, lumbering and overblown and fabricated as it is, remains a memorable example of MGM engineering. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

"Ziegfeld" Merely Good, 2008-04-13
I'd be a little kinder to this film if it hadn't won the Best Picture Oscar. Adding insult to injury is that "Dodsworth" didn't win. The debits here are overlength, superficial storytelling, skindeep biographical study, and generally weak production numbers. To it's credit the film contains strong performances by William Powell, Luise Rainer, Myrna Loy, and Frank Morgan. Good cameos by Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger. The production does have stunning direction and costume design. "The Great Ziegfeld" is not a bad picture but it barely transcends curio status.

Oh This is Gold!, 2008-12-01
The Great Ziegfeld is the example of the Golden Age in Hollywood. This is a masterpiece. Oh my God! "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is far beyond borders... It is exquisit to see this kind of numbers.. I am really proud to have seen this marvelous, glorious film. This is pure gold!!!.. A too much deserved Oscar for Best picture of 1936. MGM proved to be "Champion In Musical Pictures".. But I am really amazed by this all star cast movie.. I can only say Oh My God!!

A Best Picture decision that hasn't held up over time, 2007-12-28
This movie is worthwhile viewing for any fan of classic cinema or William Powell, but over 70 years later it's hard to see why this film won Best Picture of 1936 and a film like "Dodsworth" lost. Today it does seem overly long on musical numbers that could have been cut and short on storyline. There are probably several reasons that the picture could have been better and wasn't, the primary reason being that at the time the film was made Ziegfeld had only been dead four years and was thus still fondly and recently remembered. Also, according to the little featurette that comes with the DVD, Ziegfeld's widow Billie Burke was heavily involved in the making of the film and wouldn't allow anything in it to besmirch his memory. Finally, the production code had just begun to be sternly enforced in 1934, making a true accounting of Ziegfeld's personal life pretty much impossible. As a result Ziegfeld is portrayed as just the unluckiest of fellows who is always being wrongly perceived as a ladies' man just because his business involves large numbers of chorines. In fact, Ziegfeld cheated on both wives incessantly, and Ziegfeld never even formally married Anna Held to begin with - instead they had a common law marriage according to the statutes of New York. However, none of these other factors can account for the complete lack of chemistry between Powell (Ziegfeld) and Loy (Billie Burke) in the film. Considering how the two had already been in several movies together by the time this film was made, and that they never failed to sparkle on screen together in the other movies, there must have been either a complete lack of direction or over-direction to wind up with the rather wooden performance that results whenever the two are in scenes together.

This movie would probably warrant only about three stars if it wasn't for William Powell's performance. Marvelous as always, he was at least allowed to portray Ziegfeld as the cagey trickster and gambler with tremendous class that he was, and he absolutely makes the film. I can't think of any other actor of that time period who could have done as good a job. As far as video quality, I was surprised at the scratchiness of the video portion of the transfer. There are numerous artifacts in the video that can be quite distracting at times, and at other points the video looks nearly perfect. There are only two extras features. One is a featurette lasting under ten minutes on the film and Ziegfeld's life with Luise Ranier, Ziegfeld's daughter, and others. The other feature is an unedited movietone newsreel of the grand opening of the film with short greetings from Harpo Marx, Ed Sullivan, and other celebrities.

This new DVD release of "The Great Ziegfeld" is just being done for the sake of repackaging. If you are satisfied with the last release and its packaging there is nothing new about this release that should cause you to double dip.

A Best Picture decision that hasn't held up over time, 2007-06-24
This movie is worthwhile viewing for any fan of classic cinema or William Powell, but over 70 years later it's hard to see why this film won Best Picture of 1936 and a film like "Dodsworth" lost. Today it does seem overly long on musical numbers that could have been cut and short on storyline. There are probably several reasons that the picture could have been better and wasn't, the primary reason being that at the time the film was made Ziegfeld had only been dead four years and was thus still fondly and recently remembered. Also, according to the little featurette that comes with the DVD, Ziegfeld's widow Billie Burke was heavily involved in the making of the film and wouldn't allow anything in it to besmirch his memory. Finally, the production code had just begun to be sternly enforced in 1934, making a true accounting of Ziegfeld's personal life pretty much impossible. As a result Ziegfeld is portrayed as just the unluckiest of fellows who is always being wrongly perceived as a ladies' man just because his business involves large numbers of chorines. In fact, Ziegfeld cheated on both wives incessantly, and Ziegfeld never even formally married Anna Held to begin with - instead they had a common law marriage according to the statutes of New York. However, none of these other factors can account for the complete lack of chemistry between Powell (Ziegfeld) and Loy (Billie Burke) in the film. Considering how the two had already been in several movies together by the time this film was made, and that they never failed to sparkle on screen together in the other movies, there must have been either a complete lack of direction or over-direction to wind up with the rather wooden performance that results whenever the two are in scenes together.

This movie would probably warrant only about three stars if it wasn't for William Powell's performance. Marvelous as always, he was at least allowed to portray Ziegfeld as the cagey trickster and gambler with tremendous class that he was, and he absolutely makes the film. I can't think of any other actor of that time period who could have done as good a job. As far as video quality, I was surprised at the scratchiness of the video portion of the transfer. There are numerous artifacts in the video that can be quite distracting at times, and at other points the video looks nearly perfect. There are only two extras features. One is a featurette lasting under ten minutes on the film and Ziegfeld's life with Luise Ranier, Ziegfeld's daughter, and others. The other feature is an unedited movietone newsreel of the grand opening of the film with short greetings from Harpo Marx, Ed Sullivan, and other celebrities.

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