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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, 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: 176
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1936-04-08

Product Features
Flo Ziegfeld's midway attraction isn't drawing flies. "How's business, Ziggy?" a rival taunts. This winner of three Academy Awards 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: 19

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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

Powell as Ziggy is Great!, 2010-01-28
Great cast, great movie. You'll recognize many of the actors from the Thin Man series. Powell made a lot of movies with the same group of people and this movie is one of their best. Wonderful staging, great reproductions of the Ziegfeld Follies and (dare I say it) great characterizations. A keeper.
(I had this on tape from TCM and wanted the DVD.)

A grand spectacle, an MGM classic and film history, 2009-08-20
THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936)

What a spectacle this film is! I had seen clips of certain scenes before when watching bios on MGM or in things like THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT, but I finally sat down and watched it tonight and it was excellent. I'm not a huge fan of "musical" themed films. I'm downright picky actually. But the production in this film is really something to see.

It's not just mind boggling production and great music either, even though the film has plenty of great Irving Berlin music in it. There are some great performances by Powell as Florenz Ziegfeld, Luise Rainer as Anna Held, his first wife (common law wife in real life) and Myrna Loy as second wife Billie Burke. Frank Morgan is also fun in this as the longtime friend, competitor and financial backer of Powells "Ziegfeld". Powell is really good and I'd have to rate this as one of his best films.

The film is a fictionalized, glamorous account of Ziegfelds life. It shows Ziegfeld as a small time carnival barker and stage manager who rises to become the master showman of the Broadway stage. There are bits of historical accuracy thrown in such as Anna Helds "milk baths" that Ziegfeld publicized to great effect and which makes for a funny scene in the film between Powell and Rainer. It also shows the constant ups and downs of his financial situation and how he was wiped out in the stock market crash of 1929. But the real treat in this film is the outrageous spectacle of the production number that we see at the end of the first half of the film. It's one of the most amazing technical achievements in both production and camera work that I've seen.

The film won the Best Picture Oscar as well as Best Actress (Rainer) and Best Dance Direction. The real Billie Burke was a technical advisor on the film and for her efforts was rewarded by Louie B. Mayer with a seven year contract at MGM where she would go on to do some of her better known film roles like Wizard of Oz and Topper. Other fun performances worth mentioning are Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger playing themselves. The movie runs just over the three hour mark (this includes the overture and intermission music), but it is pretty fast paced and engrossing with really great visual eye candy. And just for laughs you can try to find former first lady Pat Nixon who plays one of the many uncredited "Ziegfeld Girls".

Go with the Flo, 2009-10-09
MGM's magnificent musical biopic THE GREAT ZIEGFELD won three Oscars, including Best Picture and Actress (Ranier). Seymour Felix also garnered a statuette for his staging of "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody."

With a running time of well-over three hours (including an intermission), this movie was a unique entertainment event for Americans who had recently passed through the Great Depression's darkest days.

Ziegfeld regular Ray Bolger's dance cameo marks his first appearance in a sound film. Fanny Brice also performs, but missing are the real Will Rogers (who died in a plane crash a year earlier) and Eddie Cantor. They're portrayed by mimics, plus W.C. Fields has no representation here at all. These are however minor quibbles.

The story episodically covers Florenz Ziegfeld's life from 1893, when he was a World's Fair carnival barker, until just after his financial ruin in the October '29 stock market crash, an event that forced the closing of Ziegfeld's popular musical, WHOOPIE! A troubled marriage to Anna Held (Ranier) is chronicled. In the last third of the story, Flo (Powell) marries Billie Burke (Loy), a union that proves a blessing for the aging showman when those lean years do come.

Before we reach sadder days however, we're treated to lavish and historically accurate costumes, huge production numbers, beautiful girls and especially many talented performers who recreate a sparkling facet of early 20th Century Show Biz. For fans of epic MGM musicals, this granddaddy of them all is a must see, as it is for anyone interested in all-out cinematic extravagance on a scale that perhaps only the Great Ziegfeld himself could have imagined or brought to realization.

TRIVIA: You probably won't find them, but the future Mrs. Richard Nixon (nee Pat Ryan) and Mrs. Harpo Marx (Susan Fleming) appear here as Ziegfeld Girls. Also, Vivian Vance (of I LOVE LUCY fame) is an audience member in one scene. Songwriter Jerome Kern cameos as himself.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(7.0) The Great Ziegfeld (1936) - William Powell/Luise Ranier/Myrna Loy/Frank Morgan/Fannie Brice/Ray Bolger/Virginia Bruce/Reginald Owen/Nat Pendleton/Herman Bing (uncredited: Buddy Clark/Mickey Daniels/William Demarest/Sarah Edwards/Susan Fleming/Virginia Grey/Jerome Kern/Dennis Morgan/Pat Nixon/Charles Trowbridge/Vivian Vance)

A movie that deserved an Oscar!, 2009-05-07
If you like musicals, you will love watching "The Great Ziegfeld". This movie has everything and it is awe inspiring to watch. William Powell plays Ziegfeld and he gives the showman a great tribute. Fannie Brice has a small part but it shows her as her silly self. The music in this movie, the Overture and the Intermission and throughout the film is wonderful and exciting. Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz), does a fantastic supporting role. Luise Rainer has many special qualities about her as an actress, and she won an Oscar for her performance. There are many inspiring showpieces in this movie. One of the best is a spiral cake with girls dressed in long flowing gowns and men dressed in tuxedos. As the camera rises to the top of the cake there is a beautiful girl who looks like a queen with stars in the background. A fashion show with girls dressed in rich apparel with extravagant designed hats and one girl with a white cottonball-like plume taller than she is on her side. Ray Bolger sings and walks across small steps at a high level with girls all around him. Will Rogers and Eddie Cantor have bit parts. One awesome scene begins with balloons on ribbons which come out into the audience. Another fantastic scene is a row of various kinds of dogs on the stage and girls dance around them. One scene is of the inside of homes and these homes are on rolling platforms, 5 of them in a row. Girls asleep in beds wake up and make their beds and then the camera shows them dancing on these platforms as they move in and out, seperately, from one another. Fantastic! The end of the movie is sad as the Stock Market crash of 1929 has come and Ziegfeld loses all his stocks and is broke. He has 4 shows that he has ready but they have to be shut down because of a lack of money. Ziegfeld misses Louise Rainer alot, which adds to his depression. When he hears that he has lost all of his stocks and money it is the final blow. Before he dies he sees the shows that he has made as they come to his remembrance. He then looks up and says words about steps, and he says, "I must go higher. Higher." Then he passes away, thus ending the movie. This film shows Hollywood at it's finest. It is a film that you HAVE to buy and see it for yourself. You'll be glad you did!

The Great Ziegfeld...Great musical; Great bio pic; Great historical articfact, 2009-07-19
Ziegfeld's second wife, Billie Burke, chose William Powell to play Ziegfeld. Billie Burke, most familiar to modern audiences as Glinda, The Good Witch of the North (The Wizard of Oz (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition)), is played here by Myrna Loy. As anyone who has seen Powell and Loy together in The Complete Thin Man Collection (The Thin Man / After the Thin Man / Another Thin Man / Shadow of the Thin Man / The Thin Man Goes Home / Song of the Thin Man / Alias Nick and Nora) can attest, these two have terrific screen chemistry.

Luise Rainer won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Anna Held, Ziegfeld's common law wife and the star of his early Broadway productions. The film is very coy in its treatment of the Ziegfeld-Held relationship. One minute he's trying to manufacture publicity to introduce the French singer to American audiences, the next moment he's sending her massive jewels with notes referring to her as his wife. (Which she makes her maid read aloud twice and repeats herself..."my wife.") Audiences of 1936 probably knew the back story. It was quite the scandal in its day.

A special mention should be given to Virginia Bruce in the supporting role of Audrey Dane. Dane is not a historical character; she is a composite of the women with whom the philandering Ziegfeld dallied. As such, she is marvelously juicy character who says she would sell her soul for jeweled baubles and stardom; she brings contraband champagne backstage during performances; she makes inappropriate speeches during curtain calls; and ultimately causes the break up of Ziggy's first marriage. Bruce, who had actually been a Ziegfeld Girl on Broadway, does a fine job with the singing and dancing, and she's electric in the hard edged backstage sequences.

Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice play themselves. Just...WOW!!

The most impressive musical number, "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" (with a generous helping of "Rhapsody in Blue") will knock your socks off. The costumes range from frothy 18th century ball gowns to eerie art deco bird women. They threw everything but the kitchen sink into this number, and somehow managed to pull it off! It could not be recreated today without CGI.

The DVD does have some problems. The film is about three hours long and, although cleaned up, is not in the best shape. It's a film that cries out for a commentary, but there is none. Perhaps in 2011 they will see fit to give us a Deluxe 75th anniversary edition with the treatment this classic deserves. However, between musicals having fallen into general disfavor and diminished audience attention spans, don't hold your breath.

Anyone interested in classic film and/or American musicals owes it to themselves to see this. While it gives us an extended bio of one of Broadway's most successful producers, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., it is an amazing piece of American cultural history in itself

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