Antonius Block As this film clocks in at three full hours, one reviewer likened it to a "huge, lumbering, Paleozoic beast with a heart", and it's a great analogy. It's a chronicle of the career of showman and theater producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr, and the highlights are the musical numbers and showy costumes by Adrian in the middle third of the movie which are truly over-the-top. They're also apparently true to the extravagance of his Ziegfeld Follies, which ran on Broadway from 1907 to 1931. The number ""A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" is particularly stunning, with the camera going up a lavish, revolving spiral staircase adorned with beautiful men and women, dancers, and performances of classical music along the way. Google it and be suitably impressed for eight minutes. I also liked seeing the tap dance routine from Ray Bolger (the scarecrow from 'The Wizard of Oz'), featuring a few splits that would undoubtedly be quite painful to the average man.Of the cast, William Powell delivers a nice performance in the title role, capturing both the taste and generosity of Ziegfeld, and his relationship with his rival (played by Frank Morgan) is touching. The two of them imbue this biography with class, and through sheer force of will in the production, one can see why the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I have to say though, it had too much detail, and for me the first and third hours were too long. Myrna Loy doesn't even make her appearance as Billie Burke until the 2:10 point or so, and her part is rather modest. Luise Rainer plays his first wife, the performer Anna Held, and turns in a mediocre performance, so it's harder to understand her Oscar. Lastly, the film lacks an edge. Ziegfeld was a notorious womanizer, and while that's alluded to, it's all pretty innocent, lacking a certain zest, authenticity, or both. Emotions in general are all muted and glossed over, making us aware of the movie being a theatrical production of its own. You can certainly do worse, but I would only recommend the film with reservations.

kijii I first saw this 3-hour movie on the big screen in the late 70s, and was happy to see it on a large screen. It won three impressive Oscars in 1936: Best Picture, Best Actress (Luise Rainer), and Best Dance Direction. It was also nominated for three more Oscars: Best Director (Robert Z Leonard), Best Writing (Original Story), Best Art Direction, and Best Film Editing. Luise Rainer won her first of two consecutive Oscars here and was the first performer ever to do this: her second Oscar was for The Good Earth (1937).Here, MGM paired William Powell with Myrna Loy in part of the 13 movies they made together in the 30s and 40s: Manhattan Melodrama (1934); The Thin Man (1934); Evelyn Prenice (1934); The Great Ziegfeld (1936); Libeled Lady (1936); After the Thin Man (1936); Double Wedding (1937); Another Thin Man (1939); I Love You Again (1940); Love Crazy (1941); Shadow of the Thin Man (1941); The Thin Man Goes Home (1945); and Song of the Thin Man (1947). Although The Great Ziegfeld is only a fairly routine biopic of Flo Ziegfeld from the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 until his death in 1932, the movie is spectacular for his sets, decoration and starring cast, including appearances by some of his own stars: Fanny Brice, Harriet Hoctor, and Ray Bolger. One wonders why Eddie Cantor (played by Buddy Doyle) did not appear as himself in this movie. Will Rodgers (played by A.A. Trimble) had died in that small plane crash in 1935 before this movie was made. To our great fortune, this movie was made fairly soon after Ziegfeld's death when there were people who could still remember the Ziegfeld Follies with their lavish stairs, songs, and above all, his beautiful girls!! This movie is in black and white, but one can get an idea of what it might have been like in color from watching Funny Girl (1968).The movie opens with Flo Ziegfeld (William Powell) and his friend/rival Jack Billings (Frank Morgan) competing with each for attention to their respective attractions at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Ziegie's big attraction is Sandow the Strongman (Nat Pendleton) while Billings was a belly dancer, Little Egypt. Later, while in Europe, Ziegfeld bests Billings out of signing the French singer Anna Held (Luise Rainer) to a contract and then marries her. Later, after starting the Follies and having trouble with one of its stars, Audrey Dane (Virginia Bruce), Anna oversees the troublesome Audry kissing Flo while drunk and mistakes her drunken kiss for a real kiss. Anna then files for divorce. Flo's second wife is Billie Burke (played by Myrna Loy) to whom he is married for the rest of his life. Zeigfeld goes on to produce and promote several shows and reviews on Broadway, often with other people's money. Near the end of the movie, while overhearing four men in a barbershop saying that "Zeigfeld is all washed up," he promises to make four Broadway successes within a year and have them all playing at the same time. After making good on his bet, he hires private investigators to find the four original men and gives them all box ticket seats to all of his four plays. The four musical successes all played on Broadway at the same time—The Three Musketeers, Showboat, Rio Rita, and Whopee!

SnoopyStyle During the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, sideshow barker Flo Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell) struggles to promote strong man Eugen Sandow. He beats his rival Billings by smart marketing on Sandow. It's the start of his long career of promoting vaudeville acts as he gains success and loses big over and over again. His first wife is French star Anna Held (Luise Rainer) who he signed stealing away from Billings. She gains publicity with Flo sending 20 gallons of milk for a fictional beauty treatment everyday. His next star is the alcoholic Audrey Dane who breaks up his marriage. Borrowing from Billings again, he produces a new show with Broadway star Billie Burke (Myrna Loy) and later marrying her and having daughter Patricia.This is a long giant Hollywood extravaganza to proclaim its love of Ziegfeld. It has all the lavish production that such a thing entails. It can get long-winded at 3 hours but it's not a small life. In fact, it fits the man to have a long big production. It does bring out the up and down life of a vaudeville hustler and the old idea that bigger is always better. It's the perfect big production for the producer who loves big production. William Powell does a fine impresario of hucksterism and imagine making.

carleeee Sex appeal and charm sells, as Ziegfeld is well aware. Combining his love for pretty girls and his drive for showbiz, Ziegfeld forms song- and-dance reviews and later debuts the Ziegfeld Follies. His charm and way with the ladies saw him never short of a star and always finding a generous backer since he was nearly always broke. The painful performer dressed as a minstrel singing "If You Knew Susie" which was even less PC than a Mac. Some decent snacks would come in handy to get you through the first hour of this three-hour journey as the film does rather drag on in places and can be hard to follow; don't give up on it as some of the song-and-dance numbers are well worth waiting for especially 'A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody' performed by Dennis Morgan (dubbed by Allan Jones) with the cast on a huge spiral staircase. The women over-act regularly; cross Lucy Ricardo with Marcel Marceau and you have the overly-expressive and hyper-dramatic Anna Held (played by Luise Rainer who amazingly won an Oscar for this). Unfortunately this blocked my ability to sympathise with her character and she began to just annoy me! Three actors play themselves in this film, including the tap-dancing Ray Bolger who danced his way down the Yellow Brick Road just two years later, which shows how highly-esteemed the real-life Ziegfeld was at that time. I didn't hate it, the film had plenty of fun and sparkle especially in the stage numbers but the storyline was like watching someone with a stutter, I politely let it go on while on the inside thinking "spit it out and get to the point"!