"The great Ziegfeld" is a wonderful golden age film. It's 3 hours long, but that only bothers me if the film is not absolutely great, which this one is. This film was made in 1935 and it's based on the life of Florenz Zeigfeld. We see the story of his life from his beginnings at the 1893 Chicago fair to his falling days after the 1929 market crash. The Zeidfeld name got started with the Zeigfeld follies, which started in 1907 and ran annually until 1931. Zeigfeld also helped start the birth of the great musicals which began on stage at the very start of the 20th century and eventually led to the great musical films of the 30s and 40s. Ziegfeld's musical stage numbers were wonderful.His beginnings at the 1893 fair, while constantly battling with his rival Jack Billings (how's business, Ziggy?), he discovered Sandow the strong man (I like how women would faint after feeling Sandow's muscles). His career took off from there. He then met Anna Held, who began performing for him. Zeidfeld and Anna had a love/hate relationship, the love part led to their marriage. The marriage turned stormy when Zeidfeld was always around his beautiful showgirls. Those showgirls were beautiful and their dance routines were wonderful with the spectacular sets, the girls's dazzling costumes, and the beautiful old time music. The shows also included the great Fanny Brice (Helga in "Everybody sing") and ol' rubber legged Ray Bolger (scarecrow in "Wizard of oz" and blacksmith in "Harvey girls", always showing his unique rubber legged dancing). My very favorite part of the film was Dennis Morgan singing "A pretty girl is like a melody" while I see this enormous mountain spiral staircase with many beautiful girls in different gorgeous attires. This whole scene almost felt like looking into heaven. The beautiful spiral stairway, the beautiful angel-like girls, the dark stary background sky, the slow ascending movement up the stairway with the beautiful heavenly girls on them, the beautiful heavenly music, and the most glamorous angel girl on top. This scene was ethereal. Then add the fact that most of those people there are most likely dead now in 2016, which makes watching it seem even more like entering heaven, since those girls on the stairs really are angels in heaven now and no longer on this earth today. I'd like to believe that that stairway, or something like it, really is heaven right above us right now. My second favorite song and number was the beautiful song "you're really looking beautiful tonight" with some gorgeous, beautiful girls in some wonderful dresses. There's just something about girls and music from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Something wonderful.During the latter parts of Ziegfeld's life, he married Billy Burke (Myrna Loy). I'm not sure why Burke didn't play herself here, like Bulger and Brice. This film came out one year before both Burke and Brice starred together in "Everybody sing". Anyway, Loy was terrific with her emotions and her famous telephone scene with Anna Held. Anna's reactions were absolutely tearjerking. Amazing. The very latter parts of Ziegfeld's life are sad. He loses almost everything in the stock market crash. He became washed up, old, and there's a very poignant scene in a barber shop where Zeigfeld overhears the other men in there verbally bashing him, not knowing he's in there. In the last scene, Ziegfeld is sitting in his chair wishing, dreaming, wondering where it had all gone. We see pictures of beautiful Zeigfeld girls above his head. We're not sure if he's wishing the future, or picturing his past dreaming of what once was, and sadly would most likely never be again.

The film to take home Oscar's top prize for 1936, was Robert Z. Leonard's The Great Ziegfeld. The better-get-comfortable nearly 3 hour biopic tells the story of the roller coaster career of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. From humble beginnings as a sideshow barker, Flo, as he is often called, believes he is destined for greatness. The Great Ziegfeld brings together the iconic team of William Powell and Myrna Loy, in their fourth of 14 films together, each of which, including this one, proves to be a treat.Continuously losing audiences to his carnival neighbor, Jack Billings (Frank Morgan), Florenz hatches a plan to fill the tents with his audience, and steal Jack's girlfriend in the process. After finally tasting success at his carnival shows, Flo decides he wants bigger and better successes. He transitions to putting on extravagant shows with hundreds of beautiful dancing and singing girls. Ziegfeld changes the game by seeking out beautiful, yet everyday women, to glorify the American girl. His plan eventually catches on and he enjoys several successes. Being a poor money manager, and consistently purchasing lavish gifts for his actresses, Flo is often broke and left with only the option of asking Jack Billings for loans. Flo is always given the loans because he is sure to put on a grand show, in the process of procuring the money however, Flo always manages to take something from Jack personally. A constant philanderer, always moving on to the next attraction, didn't sit well with the first main attraction he married, French singing sensation Anna Held (Luise Rainer); she would eventually seek divorce. When his pitch to feature not just one leading lady but dozens upon dozens of women finally caught on with Jack Billings and the producer he was working for, Flo managed 24 years of extravagance with Ziegfeld's Follies. Still never learning how to manage his money, this time being responsible for a wife, singer and actress Billie Burke (Myrna Loy) and a daughter, Ziegfeld appears to be washed up. Guaranteeing one more revival, and promising to have 4 shows successfully showing at the same time, Ziegfeld pulls it off and invests his show's money in the stock market. As the stock market begins to act peculiarly, Ziegfeld finds himself in a familiar situation of being broke again, forcing Billie to work to support them. Alone and dejected, Jack Billings pays a visit to Flo, hoping to lift his spirits with empty promises, for he too was left penniless after the stock market crash. Feeling like a failure and full of worry, Flo becomes ill and is left only to reminisce on the successes of yesterday in his apartment, illuminated by the Ziegfeld theatre sign across the street.As a fan of The Thin Man series, it is always a joy to see William Powell and Myrna Loy together on-screen. Both acted beautifully, and exuded great on-screen chemistry audiences have grown to expect from them. The Great Ziegfeld proved to be a Wizard of Oz reunion of sorts bringing back together Frank Morgan (Oz and others) and Ray Bolger (Scarecrow) which was enjoyable. Frank Morgan always commands the roles he plays, even if he is supposed to be cowering and weak, as was sometimes the case in this film. Luise Rainer also played her role majestically, very believably learning about American culture for the first time, while trying to hold on to her French upbringing. The best part of Rainer's acting in this film was that she played the part of a star plucked out of France, to be not initially well-received by American audiences flawlessly. We can see the longing in her eyes to go back to the status she enjoyed in France, yet remain in America due to her love of Flo.You'll definitely want to make sure you're settled in for this film. The Great Ziegfeld comes in at 4 minutes south of 3 hours and it definitely feels like it's that long. The pacing is not a problem at all in this film–it is paced very well; what the audience does experience is the feeling like we are seeing the entire music number being highlighted on-screen. Ten of Ziegfeld's pieces are acted on-screen to show his improvement and increasing extravagance as he moved along in his career; these pieces perhaps could have been shortened without losing their purpose for the film. Despite its length, it is one of the better films of its sort, especially considering it was made in pacing purgatory of the mid 1930's. There was some excellent camera work utilized in the film. For instance, one instance in which Ziegfeld was going broke again, all the marque lights of his shows that were then playing went dim and their signature music stopped. This technique proved an excellent way to bring the audience into the mindset of Ziegfeld watching his master work come to failure. Director Robert Z. Leonard also employs a beautiful compilation of overlays near the end of the film; he shows the disconsolate Ziegfeld in the background while numbers from his best shows grace the screen, all backlit by the Ziegfeld Theatre sign across the street of the producer's apartment. A stroke of directorial genius, I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to achieve that scene in 1936.I would recommend this film to any fans of William Powell. He was splendid in this picture, and I cannot imagine anyone else in the role. This film is also a must-see for fans of the exaggerated numbers of Broadway in the early 1900's. It seems as though the Academy got it right in 1936.

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.

This is one of those films that I remember watching on television when I was a kid...half a century ago...and the movie still glitters now over 70 years after it was made. This is a true classic.That's not to say it's a perfect movie. My major objection is Luise Rainier's portrayal of Anna Held. How this performance won the Academy Award, I just don't know. I guess I'll just attribute it to tastes of a different era that we, today, can't quite comprehend. In reading a few articles about the film, I discovered that Rainer's performance has been reexamined by critics and often found today to be a key example of overacting. I couldn't agree more. Perhaps it was her overacting in this film that made the locusts attack her in her follow-up movie, "The Good Earth". Perhaps there is karma, after all. And, the movie is 186 minutes long (depending on the cut). But, there is a reason for that. MGM made a logical decision -- to make it a real biography, but also to make it a musical that highlighted the type of production numbers that Ziegfeld is so famous for. So while either could have made a 90 minute movie, together they make a 3 hour movie. It's fine, just be prepared to perhaps watch the film in two sittings.The cast, for its time, was very strong. William Powell felt this was his finest performance, and he was probably correct, although many remember him more for his acting in the Thin Man series. But I have always most associated him with his role here as Florenz Ziegfeld. The death scene here is one that I never forgot after many, many years. Quite impressive and poignant.Powell's partner in the Thin Man series -- Myrna Loy -- plays Billie Burke here (the Good Witch in "The Wizard Of Oz") who married Ziegfeld later in his life. They had completed the first of the Thin Man films 2 years before this film, and did more Thin Man films after this. Their chemistry is rightfully legendary. The surprising thing is that, although she gets second billing, Loy does not appear until 2 hours and 15 minutes into the movie! One of my all-time favorite actors has a major role here -- Frank Morgan as a friendly Ziegfeld rival. In most films, Frank Morgan plays Frank Morgan, and here is no exception. But his performance only adds to the luster of the production. He has one of the main parts here that were not based on an actual person, but the part seems to signify that, despite his craftiness, Ziegfeld was well-regarded by associates.Several performers portray themselves -- Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger, for example (although, apparently Bolger never actually performed in a Ziegfeld production). The big disappointment is that although Brice sings a couple of numbers, just a couple of bars into "My Man", the scene dissolves! Major mistake by the director! Nat Pendleton plays Eugen Sandow, and the Sandow sub-plot here pretty much follows real life. In fact, if you read the Wikipedia bio about Ziegfeld in advance, you'll find that the film somewhat accurately follows Ziefeld's life...in broad strokes.I doubt you'll find her, but Pat Nixon -- as in Mrs. Richard Nixon -- is a Ziegfeld Girl in the film, though she was not credited.While Luise Rainier's role is annoying, and the movie is long, it's still a very worthwhile journey to take. This was one of MGM's top films of the 1930s, and it still deserves the "classic" status it earned all those years ago. Sit back and savor great film-making.P.S. You'll notice that in a few scenes, the film stock is quite degraded (scratchy looking). My guess is that the DVD started with the 176 minute roadshow version print, which was missing 9 minutes that was in the original version, and that those 9 minutes were found in the original version of the film, but were not in pristine condition. Don't worry, it's not a problem for those few minutes of somewhat degraded film quality...it's still very enjoyable, but you will notice it.