The Great Ziegfeld

In the year where Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is nominated for Best Picture, it loses to The Great Ziegfeld. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Louise Rainer, the film is a musical that does tribute to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. The film is notable for being the first musical to have a cast member win an award (Louise Rainer for Best Actress) and remains the standard for musical production. The final cut took 16 reels of film and the production itself employed more than 1,000 people.

The film begins as Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (Powell), the son of a highly respected music professor, is promoting Eugen Sandow, the world’s strongest man, at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. By allowing women to feel Sandow’s muscles, Ziegfeld is able to overcome his competition and becomes the most popular attraction. When the World’s Fair is over, Ziegfeld returns to his father and his student, Mary Lou at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig before going to San Francisco with Sandow. There, the two are mocked as frauds for a show where Sandow faces a lion that falls asleep as soon as the show begins.

Putting San Francisco behind him, Ziegfeld travels to England where he runs into his friendly rival, Billings who is on his way to sign a contract with French Star, Anna Held (Rainer). Even though he lost all his money at Monte Carlo, Ziegfeld is able to charm Anna into signing with him, despite almost being sent away twice for being rude and broke.  she reveals that she appreciates his honesty and Ziegfeld promises to give her more publicity than she can possibly dream of and to feature her alongside America’s most prominent theatrical performers.

Anna’s first performance is not a success. But Ziegfeld manages to gain publicity by sending 20 gallons of milk to Anna every day for a fake milk bath beauty treatment and refusing to pay for it. The headlines bring the curious to his theatre and Ziegfeld introduces eight new performers to back Anna. Ziegfeld then sends her flowers and jewelry with a note calling her his wife. She agrees to marry him.

Ziegfeld then gets an idea for a new show that will glorify the American girl, featuring a cast of blondes and brunettes. The production is filled with beautiful women and extravagant costumes and sets. It turns out to be a hit and Ziegfeld produces more versions of his “Follies.” He tries to make a star out of alcoholic Audrey Dane (Virginia Bruce) and lures Fanny Brice (as herself) out of vaudeville. Stagehand Ray Bolger (also himself) is given a chance to star as well. Mary Lou, now grown, visits Ziegfeld and is hired as a dancer. Anna becomes envious of the new production as well as the attention given to Audrey. She divorces Ziegfeld after walking in on him and a drunken Audrey at the wrong moment. Audrey then walks out on the show after the confrontation. Broke, Ziegfeld borrows money from Billings and then meets Billie Burke (Loy), who he marries. Anna calls Ziegfeld and pretends to be glad for him. Eventually he and Burke have a daughter named Patricia.

After a while of success, the public’s taste change and Ziegfeld starts to get negative reviews. In a barber’s shop, he hears three men saying he’ll never produce another hit, which causes him to vow four hits on Broadway at the same time. The goal is a success at first, but when he invests over a million in the stock market, he loses it all in the Crash of 1929. This bankrupts him and forces Burke to return to the stage.

With the growing popularity of film over live shows, Ziegfeld is shaken by his reversal of fortune and becomes ill. Billings visits and the two agree to become partners in a new, grander version of The Ziegfeld Follies, but both men are broke and Ziegfeld knows this. The film ends with Ziegfeld his apartment overlooking the Ziegfeld theatre in a delirium, recalling scenes of his hits. He exclaims his continuing mantra of ‘more steps’ before dying.

 

Visuals. This film thrives on its visuals. And they’re really good, but after a while, you kind of get sensory overload and wish the plot would start continuing again. For instance, the picture to the right is a part of one of the performance sequences. Looking at this as a number would certainly be eye-catching and wonderful. But the sequence is about 10-15 minutes long. And there are three of them. Combine that with a three hour long film that just drags on and you see the problem.  

On the other hand, the music of these numbers itself was pretty good and the plot wasn’t bad when it was moving. It’s just that it barely moved.

I’m going to guess this got Best Picture for reminding Hollywood of “the good old days.”

Final Call: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town got robbed. Good music and acting can’t save a film that is unnecessarily long and excessively flamboyant. It fails to avoid the Edge of Dissatisfaction and goes at #5 under All Quiet on the Western Front