The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Florenz Ziegfeld, a cheap sideshow entertainer, is in constant rivalry with his slightly more successful neighbor Billings, and steals his girlfriend to boot. This pattern is repeated throughout the rest of their lives.   Ziegfeld makes and loses many fortunes putting on the most extravagant productions aptly named "Ziegfeld Follies" where he glorifies the beauty of women.  

I really enjoyed this movie!  It was everything Broadway Melody should've been.  The acting was great, sets were fantastic, the costumes were extravagant, and the singing was great!  Frank Morgan, the guy who played the Wizard in Wizard Of Oz, is Flo's best frenemy who is constantly hiding his women from the affections from Mr. Ziegfeld, who can charm the pants off of any lady!  I loved their relationship.  AND Fanny Brice was in this movie as herself.  Fanny got her start in the Ziegfeld Follies making her way up from the Jewish slums.  This comic act later had her own movie, one of my personal favorites, "Funny Girl" starring Barbra Streisand.  Fanny's fifteen minutes in "The Great Ziegfeld" is fantastic.  She is a goof ball who marches to the beat of her own drum.  This part is a bit bittersweet when Ziegfeld makes it very clear that he didn't hire Fanny for her average looks but for her captivating voice and comic relief.  This leaves the brittle Fanny in tears but motivates her to a jaw-dropping performance.  The levels directors go to get a stellar performance.  In fact, this movie had great female performances including two adorably gifted little girls.  This is my favorite movie yet!  

Well this was a surprise... combining the best parts of Grand Hotel and succeeding where The Broadway Melody only attempted, The Great Ziegfeld was a fantastic example of a period film, a musical and a biopic. Featuring performances at turns powerful and hilarious by William Powell, Frank Morgan and Myrna Loy amongst others, Ziegfeld combines compelling drama with sets, costumes and music that are state of the art even by today's standards. The story was one that really drew you in and I was very interested in seeing what happened next, and there was rarely a dull moment in the film's three hour running time. My only small gripe is that perhaps less time could have been spent showing the lavish stage productions and more time could have been spent showing interesting story developments that were breezed past by showing a newspaper headline on screen... but then the productions were so impressive that I didn't really want less of that either. While Ziegfeld  perhaps did not have the narrative and dramatic scope of Western Front, Cimarron or Cavalcade, the sheer spectacle and technical ambition combined with the best elements described about prior Best Picture winners makes The Great Ziegfeld my favorite best picture winner also. Let it never be said that Katie and I cannot agree :)


Myrna Loy, who was born in Radersburg, MT (pretty close to us!) and received second billing for this film, does not actually appear on screen until 2 hours and 15 minutes into the movie.

Fanny Brice: If I can give Belasco four dollars for silk stockings made of cotton, I can give Ziegfeld a little more for a mink coat made of skunk.