The Great Ziegfeld (1936): Movie Review + Analysis
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We’re heading back to the bright lights of Broadway in this episode of Worthy to explore the 9th Best Picture winner, The Great Ziegfeld (1936). The William Powell led film is a biopic of the Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr, or how he is nicknamed in the film, “Flo”.
Ziegfeld was most well known for “The Ziegfeld Follies”, a showcase style production featuring numerous musical numbers and vaudeville acts. Some performers that had been funneled through Ziegfeld’s productions into Hollywood stardom were Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz (1939). There is even an appearance from a Will Rogers impersonator showing off the iconic rope tricks that Rogers would perform in Ziegfeld’s show.
We are first introduced to Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of the film as he is trying to promote the Great Sandow, a bodybuilder at the Chicago World Fair. From there, Ziegfeld takes his skills as a producer to put on a show that would “glorify the American girl”. His box office success propels him into the public eye, making his productions the most talked about on Broadway.
Director Robert Z. Leonard puts together a 3-hour grand scale film that showcases what a Ziegfeld production would have been like. Between balancing out the plot with creating huge set pieces and musical numbers was pretty remarkable. It all culminates in the performance of “A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody”, which featured a 70-foot tall rotating wedding cake. The whole number runs almost 10 minutes and features only one cut, making it seem like it was done in one take. It is well coordinated and one of the finer moments of the film, all thanks to Leonard’s direction. The editing done by William S. Gray is some of the better work of the early Best Picture winners because of how long the film was and how smoothly it all came together.
The film also stars Luise Rainer who plays Ziegfeld’s first wife, the real-life Broadway star, Anna Held. Rainer received the Oscar for Best Actress for this performance, which was controversial at the time because Rainer was a foreign actress. Rainer’s performance does not necessarily reflect a style of acting from today’s modern films. Her character is very confusing, constantly telling Ziegfeld she loves him and then she doesn’t. She is vain and jealous of Ziegfeld and his constant interactions with the women in his productions. They eventually divorce after Anna sees another actress, Audrey Dane, drunkenly kiss Ziegfeld despite his protests. The Oscar-winning moment for Rainer was her final scene in the film when she is on the phone with Ziegfeld congratulating him on his new marriage to Billie Burke, played by Myrna Loy.
The weakest part of the film unfortunately is the screenplay itself, which is for several reasons. The first reason has to do with who was behind the film. The real Ziegfeld’s second wife Billie Burke, the star that portrayed Glinda The Good Witch in The Wizard Of Oz, was one of the creative minds behind the film. When talking about biopics and exploring Hollywood’s attempts at creating them, questioning who was behind it is vital. The people creating the film could have an agenda of how the person was portrayed.
For instance, it is odd that Anna Held’s (Rainer) character is made out to be vain and materialistic versus Billie Burke’s (Loy) who doesn’t create any controversy. There were also a lot of exclusions of Ziegfeld’s supposed infidelities. So when searching for the truth of a person and character, this film brings up a lot of questions about the intention of the filmmakers. This is purely speculative but it is well documented that Burke had a big hand in the film.
The other reason for the screenplay being the weakest part is how the story itself is set up. The film runs 3 hours and while I may enjoy bulky films, this one runs maybe a little longer than it should. The musical numbers take up a large part of the middle act of the film, which is great and fun to watch. However, we lose valuable time that could be developing the character of Ziegfeld himself. Powell did a wonderful job keeping the film steady, but it never feels like we are diving deep into the psyche of Ziegfeld.
What would’ve been interesting to see for the story of Ziegfeld would have been a look at just one of his productions. This would lessen the length of the film and still show what makes Ziegfeld great, which is his attention to details. I think many of the scenes would still work within this story structure giving a more concise look into the man.
Powell does a great job moving past these deficiencies and portray Ziegfeld in a meaningful way. Powell even remarked on his performance which was documented in The Complete Films Of William Powell by Lawrence J. Quirk. Powell said:
“After seeing this film I can see that most of the characters I have played before were contrived. They had no ‘folks’, as the character of Ziegfeld had in this picture. Their father was a pen and their mother was a bottle of ink. Here was a character with flesh, blood and sinews. I felt for the first time in my acting career I had tried the full measure of a man, regardless of my shortcomings in playing him.”
Powell admits to his inability to fully expand upon and portray Ziegfeld. It’s remarkable because biopics were fairly new and it’s a great reflection on the performance because he wanted to do more. Biopics are now a vehicle for most actors and actresses to showcase their talents, which has led many times to the Oscars honoring them.
Overall, The Great Ziegfeld (1936), is a great example of Golden Aged Hollywood filmmaking in the 1930s. It has huge sets and musical numbers that features some amazing dance sequences. The film even walked away with the Oscar for Best Dance Direction as well as the Best Picture and Best Actress awards. While it is not the best film to win the award, it is a fun watch and fine example of Hollywood.
How long is The Great Ziegfeld?
The Great Ziegfeld runs at 177 minutes, which is 3 minutes shy of the total runtime being 3 hours.
Was Will Rogers in The Great Ziegfeld?
No Will Rogers was not in the film, he had died a year before the film was released in a plane crash. He was portrayed by A.A. Trimble, who was a well known Will Rogers impersonator.
Was Ziegfeld real?
Of course! The Great Ziegfeld was one of the earlier biopics in Hollywood that was based on the real-life Broadway producer.
Click on this link to find places to listen to Worthy Podcast and learn more about each Best Picture winner.