brendangcarroll Even though I am not a fan of this turkey, I decided to watch it again the other evening to see if it had improved.I remember so well, how disappointed and short-changed I had felt when I first saw this, about 50 years ago. Having seen and enjoyed THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, I was looking forward to seeing MGM provide some even more spectacular musical numbers for this supposed sequel.How wrong I was! I have never been impressed by the YOU STEPPED OUT OF A DREAM number, though I love Tony Martin's rendition of the song. He is referred to as a tenor by several people in this film, but he was actually a high baritone with a fabulous voice and was one of the great song stylists of the era.But Berkeley's staging of this number is so uninventive and the final, long-awaited pull-back, reveals one of the dullest sets ever built ( oh, that ugly staircase - come on MGM, surely you can do better than that?) it is a total let-down.On the plus side, Judy is bright and bursting with talent, Hedy looks her most divine and the supporting cast is full of old favourites (Eve Arden, Edward Everett Horton, Charles Winninger, Rose Hobart and a young but surprisingly good, Dan Dailey) with only the 20 year old Lana Turner totally out of her depth with the demanding role of a chorus girl sliding into alcoholism, prostitution and ruin.However, what really made me feel cheated 50 years ago - and still does today - was the cheapskate, cost-cutting rehash of the best musical numbers from the earlier THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936) standing in as the cut-price grand finale.When I first saw the film, I kept with it for over two hours because I felt sure MGM was surely saving the best until last, for an eye popping finale. I was not amused to then spot all the clips rehashed from the earlier film, to say nothing of the lame mix of new footage with Judy Garland dressed and bewigged to resemble Virginia Bruce, before dissolving to the original footage of the MELODY number, but with a new soundtrack using YOU STEPPED OUT OF A DREAM. Surely nobody was fooled back in 1941? As others have commented, maybe the money ran out or L B Mayer said that enough had been spent so corners must be cut. The other more likely explanation is that none of the production team - or Mr Berkeley - could come up with anything that could top the sheer amazing lavishness of the earlier "Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" number, so they resorted to this re-edited reprise instead.In fact, when one thinks about it, nobody else has ever come up with anything to top that incredible number, in the 80 years since it was filmed (at the then staggering cost of %250,000 - almost $5 million in today's money, for a number lasting just 15 minutes) So, what we get here are 132 minutes of soapy melodrama, a few good musical moments (mostly Judy's) and some over the top costumes. And by the way, I do not agree with other reviewers here that filming this in Technicolor would have improved matters.I doubt I shall ever sit through it all again.

TheLittleSongbird As somebody who loves musicals and would see the likes of James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner in anything, checking out 'Ziegfeld Girl' was definitely something that held my interest in viewing.'Ziegfeld Girl' is a decent if uneven film, after viewing it. It is less than great but a long way from a disaster. Where 'Ziegfeld Girl' particularly falls down is in the paper thin and preposterous story that is often little more than an excuse to string along the musical numbers and such and the very over the top melodrama that belongs in a leaden and out of date soap opera.Love Stewart to bits, in fact he is one of my favourite actors but somehow this role didn't seem right for him and Stewart just seems too amiable and clean cut for a character that is somewhat more than that. Lamarr is breath taking in beauty but has little to do and looks lost for some of the film. Tony Martin sings beautifully but is pretty mannered and wooden.However, the production values are very pleasing on the eye, it isn't Technicolor (and one at times can't help thinking that 'Ziegfeld Girl' could have been even better with it) but still beautifully photographed and the costumes are just splendid. The musical numbers are lovely and full of energy, with the ones making the most impression being "You Stepped Out of a Dream", "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" and "Minnie from Trinidad". The choreography is graceful and exuberant, particularly in "Minnie from Trinidad".Judy Garland steals the show here in a role that suits her like a glove. Lana Turner has the meatiest role and performs the heck out of it, emoting believably while resisting temptation to overdo it. Nice to see Charles Winninger and Edward Everett Horton.All in all, not great but with much to enjoy. 6/10 Bethany Cox

tavm Having previously watched this film in the early part of this century, I have to admit right away that when I just saw this again right now that I forgot much of what happened in it other than Judy Garland's numbers and her story as well as Lana Turner's. Both of them give fine performances about rising to fame in the Ziegfeld Follies while Hedy Lamarr was okay with what she did here though her story isn't given as much attention which was just as well. Top-billed Jimmy Stewart was also good as Ms. Turner's on-and-off boyfriend who ends up doing something illegal in order to be in the same social strata as her. Oh, and I loved that number Charles Winninger and Al Shean did near the end in which they did a song complete with funny jokes. Mr. Shean, by the way, was a relative of the Marx Brothers. So on that note, I highly recommend Ziegfeld Girl. P.S. The reason I reviewed this just now was because since I've been commenting on the Our Gang series-and individual films outside of that featuring at least one player from there-in chronological order, this was next on the list as Jackie Cooper here played Ms. Turner's brother and Judy's boyfriend. He did okay with what he had here. Oh, and Stewart joined the military after completing this. When he returned to Hollywood five years later, his next film would be my all-time favorite, It's a Wonderful Life...

weezeralfalfa My title comes from a famous sarcastic quote of Hedy Lamarr on the formula for being glamorous.Unfortunately, she doesn't do a whole lot more in this film, while serving as part of the abundant eye candy. While making this film by day, she was doing much more important things in her spare time. She was working on her premier invention: a frequency-hopping spread spectrum radio-controlled torpedo guidance system, which she hoped would be her most important contribution to the war effort. Unfortunately, the US Navy decided to shelve it until many years later, after her patent rights ran out. It has since become the basis of much of present high tech communication devices! Born Hedwig Kiesler, in Vienna, she was signed by Louis B. Mayer while on route from London to NYC, as she was trying to escape her very controlling older husband and the dark cloud of Nazism. He changed her name to Lamarr in remembrance of the early, but self-destructive, sensational film and dance star of the 'roaring' 20s: Barbara La Marr. Like Hedy, Barbara had frequently been promoted as 'the most beautiful woman in the world'. Mayer hoped to convince the American public that Hedy deserved her European reputation as such. Many swallowed his build up, but I've never been impressed that she is unique. Fortunately, Hedy lacked Barbara's destructive addictions. However, her film career was not all that busy nor distinguished. I only remember her in her much later role as Delilah, and as Clark Gable's extramarital temptation in "Boomtown". Lana Turner's character, as a gorgeous Ziegfeld girl who becomes an alcoholic and ends up on skid row, presumably dying of her abusive addictions soon after the curtain closes, can be thought of as a stand in for Barbara La Marr's life.What a waste to have cast Dan Dailey simply as a tipsy sleazy prize fighter looking to prey upon a down and out Lana! Although signed by MGM in 1940 after an early career in vaudeville and Broadway musicals, he was mostly cast in supporting non-musical roles, even in musicals such as the present film, and often by other studios.It wasn't until after the war, that Fox picked him up and immediately cast him as the lead with Betty Grable in their highest grossing film of the year "Mother Wore Tights" He became Betty's favorite costar, having the most similar background and talents. He also costarred in a number of other musicals in the early 50s without Betty.Charles Winninger, who plays Judy Garland's aging vaudeville father and musical coach, was an even more accomplished ex-vaudeville and Broadway player, of the previous generation. He had played in the real Ziegfeld follies. His most famous Broadway role(and in the '36 film) was 'Cap't Andy' in "Showboat".He most often played humorous/cantankerous old men, sometimes with a bit of his musical talent thrown in, as in this film and in the later Tchnicolor "Broadway Rhythm". You are perhaps most likely to remember him in his humorous role as 'Pop' Frake, with his prize pig, in the 1945 Rogers and Hammerstein musical "State Fair". But, I most like his role in the musical comedy "Pot O'Gold", also released in '41, and also costarring Jimmy Stewart.There are 3 lavish Busby Berkeley-directed musical productions,all of which include a segment of a parade of girls in various bizarrely-ornamented outlandish costumes. These productions, especially, cry out for Technicolor filming. Stingy MGM could have filmed just these production segments in color. Afterall, the first part of "The Wizard of Oz" was filmed in B&W!..Tony Martin has a singing segment in each stage production, and sings even more beautifully than in other films I've seen. ... The long Trinidad-themed production was actually composed of several segments, including a bizarre fashion show, a Spanish dance, and Tony singing, before getting to Judy's best effort at mimicking Fox's new Latin sensation:Carmen Miranda, in her "Minnie from Trinidad" number. She is hoisted up and down by a bevy of men, on a platform supported by a spoke-like cluster of long wooden poles, and backed by many dancers in fancy Trinidad costumes... Large spiral staircases are featured in parts of the 2 other productions, giving the impression of descent from or accent to heaven. In the finale, this illusion is enhanced by a dark starry background. This last scene was recycled from the previous "The Great Ziegfeld" and the spiral structure looks remarkably like the one in the finale of " 'Til the Clouds Roll By", made a few years later.The screenplay is mostly fun in the first half, with Lana and Hedy looking their most ravishing. But Jimmy Stewart, Lana and Dan Dailey often imparted a depressing, sinister, cast to the second half, as Lana's character gradually descends into material greed, alcoholism, skid row, and near death. For a good detailed account of the screen play , I suggest the review entitled "Waiter, a stack of wheats for the lady". On the whole, this is another Judy Garland movie.