The glory of Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld dazzled Broadway for decades with his extravagant “Follies” revues but never indulged in the staggering opulence MGM lavished on making this movie about his life. Hunt Stromberg paid about $2 million in 1936 for three hour filming to make this movie the most expensive for the studio.  Some of the memorable scenes worth mentioning are the musical number “You never looked so beautiful before” with Virginia Bruce at the top of a highly extravagant set, and “Pretty girl is like a melody” with its revolving set like a gigantic wedding cake bearing numerous girls, costumes and props are simply outstanding. The dance sets were created by John Hatkrider and dance director Seymour Felix have done a tremendous job in making the dance sequences memorable. Luise Rainer as Anna Held, the first wife of Ziegfeld and Myrna Loy as the Billie Burke, the second wife of the great showman has done marvelous jobs.

The story of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell) starts as a carnival barker at the 1893 Chicago Fair and his discovery of Sandow, the muscle man (Nat Pendleton). He competes with his best friend and rival, Jack Billings (Frank Morgan) by signing a popular French actress named Anna Held (Luise Rainer) to work for him in United States. Later they get married, but surrounded by gorgeous show girls; his relationship with his wife suffers, mainly from Audrey Dane (Virginia Bruce) who breaks his marriage to Anna Held. Ziegfeld later meets and marries Billie Burke (Myrna Loy), and she stands by him during the downfall of his show business at the height of great depression. Throughout his career he uses the skills of Ed Wynn, Fanny Brice, W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, and Bert Williams as the comic leads, combined with music of Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, Irving Berlin, and the Gershwin. Above all his dream of "Glorifying the American girl" pays off in the early part of his career. 

The movie won the Academy award in the best picture category and also for Louise Rainer in the best supporting actress category. Unfortunately another MGM’s all time great “San Francisco” about 1906 earthquake surpassed Great Ziegfeld in popularity to become one of the MGM’s all time winners. In the same year MGM’s another success story, “Camille” starring Greta Garbo in the lead offers the best performance of her illustrious career only to be beaten by Luise Rainer during the 1936 Academy awards.