What a Bore

I just found out that Luise Rainer won the Oscar that year over Irene Dunne in *The Awful Truth*. !!!! Unbelievable! Louis B. Mayer must have bought that Oscar; Dunne is wonderful and runs circles around Rainer, and the film is so much better than *Ziegfeld*. But MGM had a lot of Oscar clout, and presumably Columbia, as only a "major minor" studio, couldn't compete.

WHATEVER!!!

The Great Ziegfeld is one of the best classic movies ever and Luise Rainer is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS in it!!!!!!

I disagree about the movie being 'boring'. One thing that obvious helps it is the spectacular extravagant musical numbers (ah, if only they had had 3 strip Technicolor in those days it would've looked amazing in this film). Another big thing going for the film is William Powell.

While it may be a disappointment to not see more of his frequent movie co-star Myrna Loy, they can't rewrite history so extensively as to make her character be in the entire film. While I don't think Rainer's performance screamed Oscar, I didn't find her overly annoying either. If you want to see annoying you can always watch K. Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby -- one of the most annoying and idiotic lead characters ever in a 'classic' movie.

I also liked the film Mr. Skeffington while agreeing with other posters about that line about a woman 'only being beautiful when she's loved' being a crock.

Is Ziegfeld Best Picture material? Well, from an Oscar perspective when Best Pic often goes to movies for simply being longer than 2.5 hours and being about a number of years in a character's life, then yes it fulfills the basic requirements. I don't know off the top of my head if it was the Best Film made that year, but isn't too far off the other nominees listed, some of which are also really good movies, but not quite 'great' in the way you'd expect. The Oscars have a long tradition of not picking the best film for their big award.

Still, I really enjoyed Ziegfeld and despite my wish to go make some soup for lunch while watching my time-shift recording of this off TCM, I decided to put it off because I was pretty engrossed in the film and didn't feel like an extended break. I give the film an 8/10.

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If you're watching 'Fullscreen' DVDs, you aren't getting the whole picture.

Dennis Morgan was a last minuit replacement.
And there was not time to record his voice for the film.
So they used Allan Jones prerecorded tracks for the film.

Well, you have to understand the historical and cultural context of these movies. I think the (presumably) "behind-the-scenes" telling of the impresario who brought fame to Billie Burke, Will Rogers, Fannie Brice, Eddie Cantor, Ray Bolger and the rest was irresistibly informative to audiences of the time.

Nowadays, however, no one cares about someone named "Ziegfeld" and so the movie has to hold up on its own - which it clearly doesn't.

I think it's a very well-made movie - albeit boring at times - but the fact that it's never been shown as frequently as "The Good Earth" says alot about its dated nature.

You wanna know my BIG gripe??? NO W.C. FIELDS!!! He was a major Ziegfeld Headliner prior to his film career - yet no mention of him.

I suppose W.C. (who was under contract to Paramount at the time - but who had also been loaned out to MGM to play "Micawber" in "David Copperfield") wanted more money than MGM was willing to pay - but I say it would have been worth it: it would probably have extended the movie's appeal at least to fans of Fields as one of his specialty films not to mention offer the re-creation of a truly historical Fields moment:
his original - or at least portions of - his original juggling/billiards act???
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"

I wonder what the Oscar competition was that year - must have been dismal.
If only this were true. Unfortunately, 1936 was, in my opinion, the best year for movies ever. 1936 gave us My Man Godfrey, Mr Deeds Goes to Town, City Lights, Libeled Lady, Suzy, Swing Time, Camille, San Francisco, Dodsworth, Come and Get it, and many, many others.

My problem with this movie is that I never rooted for Ziegfeld. The man always got what he wanted. He always got the women. Whenever it seemed he was out of money he would find an easy way to make his shows. There was never any challenge for him.

Someone I rooted for was Billings. Whenever he had something, Ziegfeld took it away from him...performers, women, and even his valet. There came a point in the movie where I wanted Billings to actually get away with something because Ziegfeld always ruined it for him.

I think the acting was great. But overall, the screenplay needed a rewrite. Too much time was spent on the musical numbers which were a bore, and some things should have been left on the cutting room floor. Like the whole subplot about the little girl who plays the piano who later appears as a woman and Ziegfeld gives her a job. I mean, what was the point of that?



"Let us be crooked, but never common."

I hate Hollywood production numbers, and nightclub scenes in movies. Frank Morgan was fun to watch, but otherwise the only things interesting were seeing the real Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice perform.