I like B&W a lot, but I agree that this movie would have been even more spectacular in color. But this was 1936, and "Gone with the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz" (the first full-length Technicolor films) were still three years away. They did have a two-strip color tinting process then, but it looked kind of washed out. (See "The Mystery of the Wax Museum" and "Doctor X.") I have read that the two-strip process also required something like three times the amount of light on the sets for it to show up properly, and it made everything extremely hot, and the actors were miserable.
If "The Great Ziegfeld" had been made ten years later with the lavish 1940s Technicolor musicals MGM put out, it would have really shined. But I guess this film helped set the stage for those later films, so we just have to appreciate it for what it is and the later films it inspired.
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joystar5879
9 years ago
BECKY SHARP was done in 3-Strip in 1935, and RAMONA was done in 3-strip in 1936, so it COULD have been done. I often wonder if it was Louis B. Mayer being "Practical". There weren't too many Technicolour cameras available, either. Personally, I think it was the biggest mistake Mayer made. MGM had the money and the PRESTIGE to carry it off. I think if Irving Thalberg had lived, we might have had THE GREAT ZIEGFELD in colour. The "MacDonald/Eddy" films cried out for colour as well. SWEETHEARTS proved that in 1938...
I do hope he won't upset Henry...
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