Has there ever been an entertainer quite like Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.? I don’t mean a performer so much as a talent wrangler who had a knack for capitalizing on the tastes of his audiences and a flair for extravagance. We’ve all heard of The Ziegfeld Follies and the Ziegfeld Girls, a badge of honor beautiful women of the stage once clamored for. There was no man of Broadway quite like him, and his shows were so elaborate and expensive to produce that they have become things of legend.
In 1936, just four years after the death of Ziegfeld, MGM Studios released their film, The Great Ziegfeld, a tribute to this genius of the stage that was less fact and more fiction, honors a man who built a reputation for quality stage productions yet died penniless. This film is an attempt to understand the man himself and to humanize him when most people in the world would only be familiar with his reputation, his name on the top of a marquee promising glitz and glamour. While the film has the right intentions, it forgets that there is no substitute for live performances, and no matter how elaborate the set-ups and the choreography are, it cannot replicate the energy found when seeing everything in a live setting. That is why, even in our world of elaborate special effects and the ability to show literally anything on the screen, live theater still thrives.
When we are first introduced to Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell), he is struggling to rub two nickels together as a carnival barker, promoting a sideshow attraction, Sandow the Strong Man (Nat Pendleton). On the opposite side of the aisle is his friendly rival, Jack Billings (Frank Morgan), who is having much more success. Ziegfeld has a reputation for being a ladies’ man and spending his money as fast as he can earn it, and that reputation is accurate. He’s also shrewd and a fast talker, and before he can be evicted from his spot, figures out that he can make more money by offering up Sandow for more than his feats of strength. Women will pay a fortune just to get up close with Sandow and feel his pulsing muscles. Soon, Ziegfeld has stolen away a large percentage of Billings’ audience.
Later, though, while taking his show on the road, Sandow and Ziegfeld are denounced as frauds when a lion Sandow is supposed to fight falls asleep as soon as the cage is opened. Down on his luck, Ziegfeld discovers that Billings is preparing to sign a contract with a beautiful French star, Anna Held (Luise Rainer). Ziegfeld swoops in and snatches her up instead. At first, her performances are not much of a success, but he manages to generate some unorthodox publicity, and the curious flock to see her sing and dance. Not long afterwards, he marries her.
One success is not enough, though, and he gets the idea to celebrate the American Woman, creating what he calls The Ziegfeld Follies, an elaborate stage show with expensive production values, elaborate sets, and lots and lots of women. The show is a hit, and so he follows it up with more of the same, making lots of money in the process. But success comes at a cost, and he eventually divorces Anna. He also has a string of flops that have left him strapped for money. A last-ditch effort, supported by his new wife, Billie Burke (Myrna Loy), is a success, but just around the corner is the stock market crash and the Great Depression, something not even he will be able to avoid.
Ziegfeld’s story would have been well known at the time of this film’s initial release. The stock market crash left him bankrupt, something that he never really recovered from. His health rapidly deteriorated after that, and he died in 1932. It wasn’t all that long before that that he was celebrating having four successful shows on Broadway at the same time. The film dramatizes his fall by showing these shows in lights, then showing those lights shutting off, the end of his reign over Broadway. An argument can be made that making this film so soon after his death was capitalizing on this tragedy. It can also be said that this would be celebrating his life, too. Either way, it allowed for several people who were involved with Ziegfeld to play themselves on screen, adding some authenticity to the show. These include Fannie Brice, Ray Bolger, and Harriet Hoctor.
The Great Ziegfeld was the winner at the 1937 Academy Awards. It’s easy to see why, too. This is a spectacle film that brought to the movie theaters what had previously only been available to those who could afford tickets on Broadway. On top of that, it released during the Great Depression, a time when many couldn’t afford the luxury of seeing a Ziegfeld show. That, coupled with the real-life loss of the man himself just a few years prior, and the ending with the depression, still going on at the time of release, made this film topical. All of these things would have resonated with voters at the time, propelling it above the rest of the competition.
On top of that, the musical numbers really are spectacular. This is first-rate choreography and production values, and the film showcases them well. Director Robert Z. Leonard seems to know this, too, as he lingers on these moments, sometimes spending as much as twenty straight minutes showing us what the audience at one of Ziegfeld’s shows would have been seeing in real time. At the time, this would have been devoured by audiences who needed a reason to pony up money to go to the movies. Watching it nowadays, it does feel overindulgent, overstaying its welcome a bit. Still, seeing this projected on a giant theater screen back in the day would have been an event worth the ticket price.
The best part of this film is not the musical numbers, though; it’s William Powell. Powell is just as quick-witted and fast-talking as he is in The Thin Man. He even gets to pair up with Myrna Loy for a bit, though it takes over two hours to get to that. It’s simply a delight to watch Powell talk his way out of financial woes throughout the picture, which makes the finale all the more desperate for him because we can see that no amount of charm and wit will get him out of the stock market crash. The only weak part of this performance isn’t entirely his fault. The film takes place over a long period of time, and this is portrayed by the greying of his hair. No effort was put into makeup, though, and the effect is unconvincing. To make matters worse, Powell isn’t doing anything different physically to portray the age.
The Great Ziegfeld comes so close to being a great film, but it just misses the mark. It’s much too long, a product of spending so much time showing his productions, taking away from the much more interesting story of his life and career. Still, it is understandable why things were done that way. The gamble paid off, too, as it was a box office and critical success. But it hasn’t aged nearly as well as it should have thanks to these directorial choices. The spectacle doesn’t translate well to the small screen, and the choice to linger on it for as long as it does makes watching this film an exercise in patience. It’s no substitute for seeing these shows live, where the energy in the theater would be palpable. That is just something that cannot be replicated on film.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Production: Hunt Stromberg (won)
Best Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Best Actress: Luise Rainer (won)
Best Writing (Original Story): William Anthony McGuire
Best Dance Direction: Seymour Felix - For “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” (won)
Best Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu, and Edwin B. Willis
Best Film Editing: William S. Gray
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Release Date: April 8, 1936
Running Time: 177 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Luise Rainer
Directed by: Robert Z. Leonard
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