A large-scale musical biography, going for sentimentalism more than accuracy. Incredible talent by Ray Bolger and others; Fanny Brice steals the picture in a memorable performance. Attractive models, talented chorus girls and guys, and dancers of all sorts populate this spectacular film in big production numbers. And Frank Morgan is delightful in an upbeat, fun performance.The two lines spoken in the restaurant about cheese and coffee are quick and funny. There is some good writing in the script. The women involved with Ziegfeld's personal life are captured in essence, not in specifics; since many of them were alive at the time this film was made they couldn't be portrayed in any detail that could get the film makers sued for defamation. Luise Rainer is very miscast as a French musical entertainer, but she does try to capture the general essence of her character's offstage circumstances. Ms. Rainer got an award for her hard-drama portrayal here, but why the heck do you need a gut-wrenching dramatic style in a musical movie portraying a music hall entertainer? Great actress, dramatic performance, wrong role. After all, she isn't portraying the life story of Sarah Bernhardt here. Extravagantly mounted and staged musical productions are highlights over the sentimental biography. The biography is totally dependent on William Powell's immense charm. To me the biographical parts of this film are shallow and more of a tribute to Powell than to Ziegfeld, while the musical parts are clearly Ziegfeld.

Knowing several people, on and outside of IMDb, who consider The Great Ziegfeld one of the weakest Best Picture winners, that didn't stop me from seeing it anyway. To me though, while it's not flawless and not the best film of the year it was still incredibly well-made and entertaining stuff and from personal view it is nowhere near one of the worst Best Picture winners.The Great Ziegfeld agreed is overlong with a draggy and at times uneventful first half and half an hour could easily have been trimmed. And more could have done with the relationship between Ziegfeld and Billie Burke which appeared late in the film and didn't feel developed enough, almost like an afterthought.However, The Great Ziegfeld is very lavishly mounted, with photography that's both beautiful and clever, sumptuous costume design and some of the most handsomely gorgeous sets of any 30s musical. Other pleasures are the marvellous and very well-staged(without being too overblown) songs with A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody being an absolute show-stopper, a script peppered with humour and heart and the mostly poignant story. Standout scenes were Fanny Brice's charming My Man, Ray Bolger's witty dancing to My Follies Girl, Luise Rainer's heart-breaking telephone(justifiably famous) and especially A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody with its clever photography and perhaps one of the best uses of a staircase in a film. The direction is adept and the performances are great, with William Powell suave personified and especially Luise Rainer who is the epitome of charm and grace, capable of a good range of emotions as seen in the telephone scene. Fanny Brice, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger are all memorable, while Myrna Loy is underused she's hardly wasted either.Overall, a well-made, entertaining and very good film and well worth the look. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The nominees for the 1937 Best Picture Oscar included some of the greatest movies ever made: Dodsworth, A Tale of Two Cities, The Story of Louis Pasteur, and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Libeled Lady, San Francisco, and Romeo and Juliet (with Norma Schearer) were unequal but often good as well. And yet, the winner of that year's Best Picture award was The Great Ziegfeld, an undistinguished melodrama. Yes, in the middle, when they reproduce a Ziegfeld show, there are some impressive staged numbers, of which the best is definitely "A Pretty Girl is like a Melody," which just keeps building and building. But the rest of this movie is a long and undistinguished melodrama. How did it win the Oscar? And how, oh how, did Louise Rainer get the Oscar for Best Actress??? That I truly do not understand. Her very artificial performance pales into obscurity against some of the other nominees, like Irene Dunne in "Theodora Goes Wild," or Carole Lombard in "My Man Godfey" - or Ruth Chatterton in "Dodsworth." If you can catch the musical numbers and skip the rest, you'll get the uneven best this movie has to offer, and miss what is largely not worth bothering with.

"The Great Ziegfeld", an autobiography of the eponymous Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., was a great success in its time. At almost three hours long, the film illustrates pretty much the man's entire career, from the 1893 World's Fair until his death in 1932. Chronicling his relationship with various acts and his creative use of marketing to win over rival Jack Billings (Frank Morgan), we also watch his romantic interest in Anna Held (Luise Rainer) develop, whom was initially an act he signed on. After the two of them marry, in 1907, his most famous and successful production, "The Ziegfeld Follies", begins.One of the themes in Ziegfeld's life is his need for more shows, more success, more glitter and glam. This is both his crowning glory and his downfall, as it leads to his great successes, but also to his eventual end. He is always looking for more acts, more girls to fall in love with, more audiences to impress. By 1913, Anna has decided to file for divorce. Always the playboy, Ziegfeld soon marries another actress, Billie Burke (Myrna Loy), and they have a daughter. As times change and live stage shows become less popular. Ziegfeld is forced to borrow, then partner with his former rival. Various scenes are unnecessary (especially those of the early years in his career, as he tries to begin a relationship with Anna Held (Luise Rainer)), as well as the numerous lavish dance and song numbers, which are entertaining at first, but all blend together as one by the end of the film. The real life man is best known for "The Ziegfeld Follies," also the best produced aspect of the film. About thirty minutes of footage from this production are illustrated. Other notable scenes include Ziegfeld facing bankruptcy during The Great Depression, eliciting an emotional moment for the audience. The dramatized version of his death in the closing scene is also notably representative of the man's entire life and career, although obviously unreal. Ziegfeld hallucinates his "glory days", his last words being, "More steps. Higher! Higher! Higher!". Entertaining at times, but much too long, this film accurately describes an iconic man. The problem is that with his real-life wife overlooking production, the accurate characterization was missing the flaws every man has. The result is a film that seems all to much like fiction.