Powell/Loy Treat
I'm an unabashed lover of this cinematic couple since I watched all the Thin Man movies this past New Year's Eve. They are great together, but move importantly, they are great actors.
Powell's Ziegfeld had depth and pinache. As one of the great showmen of the late 19th and early 20th century, it was inevitable that someone would make a movie about his life. The movie spans his life from the 1890s when he was a carnival baker and showmen up to his foray into Broadway and Hollywood. His love for the theater overshadowed his love of his wives and girlfriends so many of them got left in the dust. The film does an pretty amazing job of showing how Ziegfeld grows from just a carnival front man to going for bigger shows and putting together some of the most amazing productions ever. The films version of "A Pretty Girl is a Medley" is simply awe inspiring in its spectacle and extravagance. I wondered if the actual Broadway production was as good or if the movie version topped it.
What really makes this movie work are the relationships in Ziegfeld'0s lives. His years long love/hate relationship with rival/friend Jack Billings (played by the future Wonderful Wizard of Oz himself, Frank Morgan) is almost as touching and endearing as any of Ziegfeld's female relationships. The scene near the end where Billings and Ziegfeld discuss trying to make one last musical is both touching and heartbreaking. Both know the other is lying, but they go with it to try and rekindle the old creative juices. Its a short lived revival as both are broke from the stock market crash, but it was a very remarkable scene and both actors deserve kudos for it. The incomparable Myrna Loy plays Ziegfeld's second wife, Billie Burke (the real Burke, ironically, starred with Frank Morgan as the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz). Loy is gorgeous and talented, but she refused to portray Burke realistically (high pitched voice) and instead did her own thing...which was playing Myrna Loy. Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld's first wife, Anna Held, was kind of an enigma to me. I wanted to like the character, but she was so whiny and childlike, I can see why Ziegfeld sought the comfort of other women. The movie completely ignores his lifelong romance with Lillian Loraine, although they do sort of portray it with the character of Audrey Dane, who I found forgettable as played by Virginia Bruce.
I'm not old enough to remember a lot of these real life people, but Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger (another soon to be Oz alum) playing themselves was sort of cool. Name a movie today that has actors playing themselves in a historical context. You have fun cameos, but usually in movies that are fictional in nature.
At a mammoth three hours, this movie takes some patience. The acting and production values are impeccable. I manage to watch it in one sitting and am glad I did. They don't make movies like this anymore.
My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.