Herb Kane
Screenwriter
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The Great Ziegfeld
Studio: Warner Brothers
Year: 1936
Rated: Not Rated
Film Length: 185 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Academy
Audio: DD Mono
Color/B&W: B&W
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish
MSRP: $19.98
Package: Snap Case
The Feature:
Warner Brothers is kicking off the month of February with seven Academy Award winning films. The titles included on the February 3rd release date are: Grand Hotel, Mutiny On The Bounty (1935 version), Mrs. Miniver, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Gaslight (both 1940 and 1944 versions), The Great Ziegfeld and My Fair Lady (as a Special Edition two disc set). It has been a great couple of months for fans of classics and I’m hoping the trend continues.
The Great Ziegfeld is a biographical film based on the renowned Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. which follows his tumultuous climb from carny barker to the legendary showman responsible for what would be the pinnacle of his career, “The Ziegfeld Follies”. The film was made on a budget of approximately two million dollars but eventually yielded a return of forty million dollars. William Powell was chosen to play the suave and charismatic role of Flo “Ziggy” Ziegfeld. Powell was initially loaned to Universal for the film but when costs began to soar, Universal sold the rights to MGM. Powell then went on to make My Man Godfrey for Universal that same year.
The film begins with a five minute overture. Then, in an opening which curiously resembles the marquee credits in My Man Godfrey, the film starts by featuring Ziegfeld and his one man strong-man show featuring “Sandow”, the strongest man in the world during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Across from him at the Expo, is his life long adversarial partner, Jack Billings (played by Frank Morgan). The competition between them eventually forms a lifelong partnership and friendship.
With the strong man show – barbell routine flailing, a chance encounter with a star struck woman, yearning to “touch” Sandow’s muscles, gives Ziggy the idea to allow his customers to feel Sandow’s biceps. As corny as it sounds, it’s just what is needed to infuse life back into the show and is somewhat of the turning point for success which would have Ziggy never looking back.
Ziggy’s father runs the most prestigious music academy in Chicago and initially he doesn’t have his father’s blessing to go into show business. But he presses on and eventually wins over his father’s feelings of disapproval. The likeable Ziggy was said to be “able to sell snake oil to anyone”. Using those traits, he learns of an upcoming star in France and beats his rival Jack to the race. Though penniless, he’s able to persuade the young and beautiful singer, Anna Held (played by Louise Rainer) to join him in the U.S. and promised her a life of stardom and wealth. She agrees and shortly after the two are married. Ironically, Ziggy eventually makes good on all of his promises.
Ziggy’s latest show idea is an extremely lavish production which he would call the “Ziegfeld Follies”. Even though many of his shows were successful, he was an extremely impulsive and extravagant man who had very little money left to fund the enormously expensive production. He would find himself back at Jack’s doorstep beseeching his old friend Jack for partnership and financial backing. Jack, who was no fool, knew the show would go on to become highly successful and profitable, agrees to Ziggy’s request immediately. Thus, what would go on to become one of the most popular shows on Broadway known as “The Ziegfeld Follies” began in 1907.
During the film, we see much of the “Follies” show itself including many of the musical sequences as well as many of the incredibly exquisite choreographed dance scenes. After the entr’acte, which starts at 87:28, the film then resumes again at 88:36 and takes us to the legendary performance of Ray Bolger (an incredible tap dance scene which was probably responsible for Bolger’s entry into show business). Another treat is the "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" act. At a cost of over $200K at the time, it was one of the most expensive individual scenes ever filmed at the time and was completed in one single consecutive shoot after only the second or third take.
Throughout his career, Ziggy was always surrounded by young and beautiful women which eventually led to a number of transgressions and the end of his marriage to Anna. Ziggy finds love again when he is then introduced to a beautiful young lady by the name of Billie Burke (played by Myrna Loy who’d work with William Powell again that year playing the infamous Nora Charles in After The Thin Man – the 2nd installment of the legendary series) and they would eventually go on to marry.
Though the success of the “Follies” show was undeniable, Ziggy wanted to go back to producing smaller and simpler shows. After overhearing four men in a barbershop proclaiming their thoughts of Ziegfeld being all washed up, he sets out to prove them wrong and brings four smaller but successful productions to the stage. Unfortunately, all of his shows would close with the crash of the stock market and the advent of the Great Depression. His inability to manage his money led to all of his shows being mortgaged and the crash literally wiped him out. With his health deteriorating, Ziggy would go on to die penniless in 1932.
As for this installment of the WB Academy Award releases, The Great Ziegfeld was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won Best Picture, Best Dance Direction and Louise Rainer won Best Actress In A Leading Role. It should also be mentioned that Louise Rainer won the Best Actress statue in the following year for The Good Earth and was the only actress to win consecutive Academy Awards in the same category until Katharine Hepburn won for Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (in ’68) and The Lion In Winter (in ’69). Spencer Tracy had done it in 1937 & ‘38 for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. Of course, the last set of back to back wins in the category was by Tom Hanks in ’93 & ’94 for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.
Video:
Taking into account the age of this film, I have to say that I was pretty impressed with this transfer. Let me start with the better than average black levels. They were rich and the grayscale level was affording of a nice contrast. Shadow detail was also better than average. Those who are familiar with the recent release of the ’32 Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (and for those looking for a gauge) will appreciate similarities in these transfers although I’d pick this as being slightly better. To qualify that, I was most impressed with the level of image detail on this disc. It certainly has its soft moments, but imagery was very detailed at times.
The grain level was moderate as were traces of film dirt and dust. However, what does have to be mentioned with this particular film is the amount of scratches. I was quite surprised particularly during the first part (up to and including the first half). There were many more scratches than I anticipated.
I also noticed infrequent instances of light shimmer and instability although never was it bothersome. I was also concerned with the single disc containing upwards of 3.5 hours worth of information, but there were no issues regarding compression, nor were there any haloing issues.
Consideration has to be given due to the film’s age… thankfully not much! A super job..!!
Audio:
Not a lot to say in terms of the DD Mono track that’s offered as the original track. Unfortunately, I did detect more hiss than I like – very slight. But on the upside that’s usually a case where the track hasn’t been tampered with, thus left in its original state. Probably a point worth mentioning is that my speaker system is comprised of electrostats so I’m a little more susceptible to such hiss.
There is a ton of music throughout this film and I am pleased to say, this track doesn’t disappoint. Dialogue is always intelligible and never hampered by the music or competing with it.
During some of the crescendos, the track does become slightly thin but never to a point of becoming fatiguing.
A DD Mono track that does what is expected of it. Very nice.
Special Features:
The disc boasts two special features. The first;
[*] Ziegfeld On Film. This is a short documentary of the legendary showman with appearances from family members including his daughter Patricia as well as Louise Rainer who seems to be as sharp as a tack. Discussed is the history of Ziegfeld and his business from his one man shows to the Follies. There is also an interesting (but brief) interview from Rainer and how she felt about show business and Louis B. Mayer, which ultimately resulted in her leaving the business. She also discusses her preparation of the infamous scene where she speaks with Ziggy on the telephone congratulating him on his new marriage and she describes how that scene was written by Jean Cocteau. Also included is footage of actual Follies audition clips. It’s interesting to hear that Patricia implies (diplomatically) that the film wasn’t necessarily as “factual” as possible. Interesting but brief. Duration: 13:23 Minutes.
[*] The other feature included is New York Hails The Great Ziegfeld. This is a vintage movie premiere newsreel which focuses on many of the various marquee lights as well as brief cameos and comments from some of the celebrities who attended. It seemed as though the audio portion for the first minute or so of this feature is missing and I had nothing but a clicking sound until the audio actually kicked in… at least that was the case with my review copy. Duration: 4:03 Minutes.
Final Thoughts:
I am a huge fan of William Powell and all of his works. This somewhat sad yet glittery biography of the man who reinvented Broadway exceeds three hours in length, yet with Powell’s charisma and some outstanding performances from the likes of Rainer, Loy and Morgan, made it seem as though I wanted to question the films duration on the spec sheet.
This is yet another example of the presentation exceeding my expectations. For a film that’s almost seventy years old, I was mightily impressed. Sure, it has a few hiccups and, I would be almost skeptical of a seventy year old film that didn’t. Though the extras aren’t plentiful, they are interesting. I believe fans of this film will be truly delighted as I was.
Highly Recommended…!!
Release Date: February 3rd, 2004