Ziegfeld Follies
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Movie Reviews of Ziegfeld Follies
Movie Review: Ziegfeld Follies
Summary: 5 Stars
If Florenz Ziegfeld had made movies, he could not have made a better job than this fabulous M.G.M. musical. Great stars, fantastic production numbers make this a classic. You might have guessed, I loved every magical second. Pete JohnsonMovie Review: Zegfeld Follies
Summary: 5 Stars
Loaded with Tons of Talent - Why don't they make great Musicals, and Comedy scetches like this anymore..Thank you Hollywood for a great Movie.
Movie Review: The Vulgarity Is Endearing And Astaire, Horne And Garland Are Great
Summary: 4 Stars
Watching this MGM review musical is a little like being a graduate student on an archeology dig. You'll find a lot to sift through, and one or two things you find still look very good.
The overwhelming impression the film leaves is the lush vulgarity of the MGM style. I don't think there's a subtle color, costume or set in the place. There are acres of pastel gauze curtains hanging from the sky, crystal chandeliers that float, pink ostrich feathers that wrap around, stick up, hang down and envelop, glitter stuck on anything that moves or doesn't move, sunsets so colorful that no human could possibly have seen them in real life, gowns which are extravagantly bizarre. Everything blares out that this is the best quality money can buy, and we (MGM) have a lot of money. In a way, it's endearing.
While a number of the acts, especially the comedy numbers, are dated, three or four of the dances still hold up well. It's probably no coincidence that most of them feature Fred Astaire.
"This Heart of Mine," danced by Astaire and Lucille Bremer, to a song by Harry Warren and Arthur Freed, is a glamorous, over-the-top tale of a gentleman thief and a princess who meet at a ball and learn quite a bit about each other. It's all bright red sets, stylized white trees and purple gowns. Bremer may have had little on-screen personality, but she was great to look at and a fine dancer. The song itself is a lush, mesmerizing tale of romantic discovery. The lyrics may contain some cliches, but they work seamlessly with Warren's melody.
This heart of mine
was doing very well.
The world was fine
as far as I could tell.
And then quite suddenly I met you and I dreamed of gay amours.
At dawn I woke up singing sentimental overtures.
This heart of mine
is gaily dancing now.
I taste the wine
of real romancing now.
Somehow this crazy world has taken on a wonderful design...
As long as life endures it's yours, this heart of mine.
"Limehouse Blues' is an odd, tragic number for Astaire but he carries it off. He's a poor Chinese man in London's Chinatown who sees this exquisite Chinese woman (Bremer) and falls hopelessly in love. He could never have her; she barely notices him. In the aftermath of a robbery he takes a fan she had admired. Dying, he imagines a courtship dance with her involving fans.
"The Babbit and the Bromide" was the only pairing of Astaire and Gene Kelly. It's clever, amusing and not too challenging for either of them. It's also no contest; in my view Astaire carries the day.
"Love," the Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane song, is sung with sultry intensity by Lena Horne. She dominates the over-produced, over-decorated, over-costumed MGM idea of a tacky "Negro" nightclub. The song is sweet and hopeful, then knowing and realistic. Horne nails it...
Love can be a moment's madness;
Love can be insane.
Love can be a life of sadness and pain.
Love can be a summer shower;
Love can be the sun.
Love can be two hearts that flower as one.
It can be, fine and free
But it's true,
It doesn't always happen to you.
Love can be a dying ember;
Love can be a flame.
Love pledged in September
May be dead in December;
You may not even remember it came.
Love can be a joy forever,
Or an empty name.
Love is almost never ever the same.
Love can be a cup of sorrow.
Love can be a lie.
Love can make you wake tomorrow and sigh.
For the rest, Judy Garland does a song and dance number parodying a great lady of the screen being interviewed. She's terrific. I suspect Garland was coached by Kay Thompson, who did the lyrics, and who was a great over-the-top song stylist herself. You can get a rare recorded look at her in Funny Face, costarring with Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. Thompson, incidentally, was godmother to Liza Minnelli. When Thompson was very ill, Minnelli moved her into her New York apartment and cared for her until Thompson died. The other numbers range from interesting artifacts (Red Skelton, Victor Moore, Keenan Wynn, Esther Williams and such) to awesomely awful (Kathryn Grayson, Fannie Bryce, James Melton).
For those who like musicals and older movies, who like Astaire, who look with fondness on the days of the studios and of a time when Louis B. Mayer and MGM tried to set the standards for what was tasteful and cultural, Ziegfeld Follies has a lot to offer. Just enjoy it for what it is, a collection of archeological discoveries, with some of them rare and wonderful.
The DVD is in glorious Technicolor and jumps off the screen with every bright color the designers and Vincent Minnelli could think of. There are several extras included on the disc.
Movie Review: Big names,big revue Hollywood style!
Summary: 4 Stars
Ziegfeld Follies was a movie fraught with so many delays,shooting schedule work arounds,cancellations,scene deletions,etc.,that this picture is one of very few to finally be released so long after its' original production had stopped.A few pre-release screenings were done in 1944 and 1945 but the film got such a tepid response it was returned to have more work done on it.The studio got the jitters and finally shelved it.
Fred Astaire personally wrote the production chief Arthur Freed wondering when the film would be released;he was very anxious to say the least.He told him it was the first time he had made a film that would be seemingly released so long a time afterwards or at all.Freed assured Fred that Ziegfeld Follies would be released in 1946 and not to worry.The film was copyrighted in 1946 but wasn't released nationwide until January 11,1948!
One of the other reasons Astaire was worried was that he felt his routines might get dated.He needn't have worried for the routines Fred appears in(there are three;technically four if you count his brief opener)are the highlights of this film.In fact after William Powell opens the movie reprising his /36 role as the show master himself,Florence Ziegfeld,Fred Astaire opens the movies' first number(in his trademark top hat and white tails!)with "Bring on the Beautiful Girls".We find a very young Cyd Charisse here along with then screen veteran Lucille Ball.Next we have swim star Esther Williams doing the "Water Ballet" sequence; it is amazing how graceful and poised she could be underwater.Next we have vaudeville star Ed Wynn's son,Keenan,doing a funny turn with "Number Please".Next famous tenor James Melton and Marion Bell do a fine number pulled from the opera La Traviata.We then go back to comedy with Victor Moore playing the plaintive plaintiff and Edward Arnold doing the wise-guy/lawyer bit in "Just pay the two dollars".Next we are treated to Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer in a wonderful dance/story sequence called "This Heart of Mine".Comedy makes its' comeback again with veteran stage star Fanny Brice,Hume Cronyn and William Frawley in "Sweeepstakes Ticket".Frawley plays a disgruntled apartment landlord and it is very easy to think that since Ball appeared in the picture also,that when she was casting for just such a landlord for her "I Love Lucy" show that she would remember Frawley!
The next vignette stars singing sensation Lena Horne doing a sultry song called "Love".Red Skelton next reprises his wonderful Guzzlers Gin sketch in a more modern fashion in "When Television Comes".Astaire and Bremer come back again to dance in arguably the best musical/fantasy sequence of the film,"Limehouse Blues".If you doubt for a single second Astaire's peerless dancing technique watch any of his routines here but don't miss this one!Judy Garland comes on next for what I feel is the weakest vignette of the movie "An Interview".It's played to the edge by Garland but the song and lyrics push the entire production right over the cliff.Next in their only dancing partnership on film Gene Kelly and Astaire sing "The Babbitt and the Bromide"(the smug businessman and the bore!).This is a number which Fred had great success with when performed in the 1927 stage production of "Funny Face" with his wonderful and talented sister Adele.Kelly apparently had reservations about doing the number at all but acquiesced in the end.To end the picture we have the lovely Kathryn Grayson singing "Beauty".
This film is viewed like a book,with each different numbers' title and star's name(s) highlighted for us to see on a page as it is flipped over.However unlike a book,there is nothing structured or anything with a plot to tie it all together with.All are distinctive and stand alone vignettes of music,dance and comedy.Some sketches thrive because of it or fall for the same reason.
MGM has brought this to DVD with a just above-average print transfer.It is very nice to watch but much could have been done to really make this print shine.Along with the film itself we have in the special features section a featurette on the film"An Embarrassment of Riches","The Luckiest Guy in the World",starring a young Barry Nelson,two cartoons and some nice audio only outtakes from the film.
All in all this movie is highly recommended.It is best watched and savoured as each vignette plays out before you.Each sequence will either fly or fall on its' own merit as there is no common thread to be found. This film is definitely the sum of all its' parts.There are relatively few weak spots in this picture and there are many that are must sees,and most of them belong to the legendary Fred Astaire.
Movie Review: "So bring on the beautiful girls!"
Summary: 4 Stars
MGM pulled out all the stops for ZIEGFELD FOLLIES, a wildy-splashy, star-studded musical that was the centerpiece for the studio's big 20th anniversary celebration. Intended (at least in part) as a follow-up to their 1936 hit "The Great Ziegfeld", William Powell was dragged back into service to once again play Flo, this time in heaven observing the musical shenanigans erupting down on earth.
Judy Garland spoofs Greer Garson in "The Interview" (a number originally earmarked for the great lady herself); co-writers Kay Thompson and Roger Edens really went to town in this sequence, adding lots of hysterical comedy flourishes, and Garland looks to be having a ball. Kathryn Grayson stands in a Salvador Dali-inspired wasteland filled with gorgeous showgirls to sing "There's Beauty Ev'rywhere", whilst Cyd Charisse dances en pointe amidst soapbubbles. Lena Horne, in tropical costume, sings just about the most comely rendition of "Love" that's probably ever been done; and Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly do the crowdpleasing "Babbitt and the Bromide" routine. Kelly later admitted that he'd only appeared as a personal favour to Astaire (knowing Astaire had done the routine years before on stage), and wished that a more dynamic number had instead been created for them. James Melton and Marion Bell perform a scene from Verdi's "La Traviata".
Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer pair beautifully in two lavish dance numbers. Why Bremer isn't ranked higher amongst Fred's dance partners I'll never know - next to Miss Ginger herself I think Lucille was his greatest female counterpart, and between this and the underrated "Yolanda and the Thief", you'll be able to understand what I mean! Bremer all but left showbusiness after her brief stay at MGM, and she's often forgotten because of that. The "Limehouse Blues" interlude in ZIEGFELD FOLLIES is one of the most exquisite, audacious musical numbers ever committed to film; all under the tasteful eye of director Vincente Minnelli. A "dance drama", Astaire and Bremer (in pan-ethnic makeup) are strangers in Chinatown, whose mutual attraction to an old fan in the window of an antique shop gives way to a dream of doomed love. Conrad Salinger's orchestration is never to be bettered.
Great musical numbers and the top-notch performers who bring them to life never age, and there's precious little of ZIEGFELD FOLLIES that seems creaky or dated, except the comedy routines. Despite the star wattage of William Frawley, Red Skelton, Hume Cronyn and the one and only Fanny Brice, the comedy skits are incredibly reliant on the audience having a firm grip on the references of the period. Whereas a Fred Astaire number will always carry over regardless of the passage of time, a comedy routine, heavily-mired in the Forties, sadly will not. No matter. Fanny Brice immortalised in full colour is more than ample compensation.
The DVD of ZIEGFELD FOLLIES comes equipped with an insightful new featurette ("An Embarrassment of Riches"), plus audio clips from several cut numbers, the vintage shorts "The Luckiest Guy in the World", "Hick Chick" and "Solid Serenade"; and the trailer.