He gives stagehand Ray Bolger his break as well. [16] The earlier scenes with Sandow, the milk bath advertising scenario, and many other sequences including several of the dramatic ups and downs of the film were fictional. Universal Pictures originally made Show Boat as a silent, and obtained the rights to the popular Broadway score after the film was shot. The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Theatrical release poster Decided to start watching all of the Oscar best picture winners, in order. Leonard, a film director who specialized in melodrama and musicals, anchored the music for the film, working with Walter Donaldson, Irving Berlin, and lyricist Harold Adamson. [20], In real life, Ziegfeld did not die in his room at the Hotel Warwick (not mentioned) which stood in front of the Ziegfeld Theatre; he actually died in Los Angeles and had not even spent his last years in New York. Ziegfeld was known to be a tyrannical monster, and even for Rodgers and Hart two full theatrical scores inside three weeks was ambitious. We dont share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we dont sell your information to others. [42], According to MGM records, the film earned a then-massive $3,089,000 in the US and Canada and $1,584,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $822,000. Nat Pendleton, a freestyle wrestler who had won the silver medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp and had appeared alongside Powell in The Thin Man (1934), was cast as the circus strongman Eugen Sandow. Starting out by promoting. However, there were too many of them and towards the end, I fast-forwarded through them to get to the true meat of the story. The Great Ziegfeld (1936 b 176') En: 8 Ed: 8. . She is best remembered from The Wizard of Oz as Glinda and Ms Loy is not really much like her, but she is always worth watching. I first saw this film at the old Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan back in the Sixties. [6] The principal cinematography was shot by Oliver T. Marsh, and George J. Folsey and Karl Freund were brought in to shoot the Ziegfeld Roof numbers. Ruth Lewis Austin American-Statesman. The Great Ziegfeld (1936) In director Robert Z. Leonard's and MGM's lengthy, big-budget musical biography, a Best Picture winner, the fictionalized musical biography of the career of the flamboyant Broadway show business impresario Florenz ("Flo") Ziegfeld, Jr. (William Powell) was presented; it featured the fictional and real-life portrayals . Deeds Goes to Town were released, which some argue was more deserving of Best Picture. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. "- Who's this Florenz Ziegfeld Jr? Included among these are Nora Bayes, Fanny Brice, Ruth Etting, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Marilyn Miller, Will Rogers, Bert Williams and Ann Pennington.[14]. "[15] John Mosher of The New Yorker called it "the most lavish display the screen has had to offer" with chorus numbers that were "gigantic and effective", though he found the romance to be "peculiarly average screen-story stuff. The film, shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City, California in the fall of 1935, is a fictionalized and sanitized tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. and a cinematic adaptation of Broadway's Ziegfeld Follies, with highly elaborate costumes, dances and sets. Cinemark His father ran the Chicago Musical College and later opened a nightclub, the Trocadero, to profit from the 1893 World's Fair. ; Now Mrs. F. Ziegfeld Married in Hoboken After Matinee", "Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, Daughter of Legendary Broadway Impresario", Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "Roger DeKoven Dies; Diverse Actor Was 81", "Florenz Ziegfeld-Billie Burke Collection", Joseph Urban Stage Design Models & Documents, Flo Ziegfeld-Billie Burke Papers, 19071984, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Florenz_Ziegfeld_Jr.&oldid=1147945605, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 3 April 2023, at 05:15. Since its release, the film has been criticized in particular for its reliance on extravagance, being unnecessarily lengthy, and its overacting (particularly by Rainer). AMERICAN GROOVES RADIO HOUR hosted by JOE LAURO 00:54:34 From 1908-1931 THE ZIEGFELD FOLLIES were perhaps the most well known and beloved of the Broadway reviews. [114]:120121, Released by MGM ten years later, Ziegfeld Follies (1946) was an all-star revue that includes Powell in a cameo role as Ziegfeld. I thought that Luise Rainer was great but Myrna Loy was miscast and seemed to disappear as far as her character was concerned, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 August 2018. - I do not know, madame. The circus ballet was an adaptation from the old Ziegfeld stage shows. This is one of those biopics that the studios used to churn out and is a superior example of the genre with good performances all round, and a better than good one from Louise Rainer as an actress called Anna Held, one of the great man's lovers. The family lived on his estate in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and in Palm Beach, Florida. Director: Robert Z. Leonard Writer: William Anthony McGuire Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice, Virginia Bruce Producer: Hunt Stromberg See full cast &. I thought that Luise Rainer was great but Myrna Loy was miscast and seemed to disappear as far as her character was concerned William Powell, always a joy, played a great part - which he reprised as Ziegfield in Heaven in the film The Ziegfield Perhaps too long. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. - I do not know, madame. (1930), which Ziegfeld himself produced with Samuel Goldwyn. Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections. As he finishes the song, Virginia Bruce is revealed seated atop the tower, wearing a voluminous gown that spills over the edge. The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, Box: 4, Folder: 2. I enjoyed Rainer's Oscar wining performance & seeing her interviewed at some superannuated age - still full of life. It's a scenic flash which makes the auditor wonder 'What can they do to follow that?' It is a Biopic about Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (Powell), Broadway's most famous producer of his day. This film undoubtedly takes liberties with how the actual story went down, but I kinda expected that. The Broadway Melody (1929) [All Region] [import], 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. [16], However, not all critics were as enthusiastic about the film; Graham Greene of the British Spectator called it a "huge inflated gas-blown object" and criticized its length, comparing it to the feat of a flagpole sitter. "[55], James Berardinelli awarded it two and a half out of four stars, stating that "although some of the production's technical aspects remain impressive, the dramatic elements come across as trite and many of the musical numbers are dated", but said that it was a "reasonably competent albeit "airbrushed" presentation of the main character's life. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". Pat Ryan, the future Pat Nixon, wife of Richard Nixon and First Lady of the United States, was an extra in the film. The film is occasionally cited as a "prime example of the Academy's fallibility" in a year when other critically acclaimed pictures such as Mr. Eve Golden (reviewed by Margaret Van Dagens). This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. It's a chronicle of the career of showman and theater producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr, and the highlights are the musical numbers and showy costumes by Adrian in the middle third of the movie which are truly over-the-top. His father was Lutheran. He was financially impractical but aesthetically impeccablea genius in his chosen field. Audrey walks out on Flo and the show after an angry confrontation. [37] They mention that "the camera traverses an enormous platform set contained within a curtained proscenium (also enormous)", and that the "set itself revolves to meet the camera, rather than the camera entering the space of the set. I have to say though, it had too much detail, and for me the first and third hours were too long. As this film clocks in at three full hours, one reviewer likened it to a "huge, lumbering, Paleozoic beast with a heart", and it's a great analogy. Here was a character with flesh, blood and sinews. [2], It was the 5th most popular film at the British box office in 193536. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. 3.3 Linear Feet (5 boxes) ; Boxes 1-3: 26 x 13 x 32 cm This biopic is undeniably stylish, but loses points for excessive length, an overreliance on clichs, and historical inaccuracies. This is the median selling price paid by customers for a product on Amazon.co.uk (excluding promotional prices). The Great Ziegfeld. A young Flo Ziegfeld. [8] Over a thousand people were employed in the production, and The Great Ziegfeld required 16 reels of film after the cutting.[12]. He said "After seeing this film I can see that most of the characters I have played before were contrived. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard. [19] That same year, he brought his Follies stars to CBS Radio with The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air. After a string of negative reviews in the press, Flo overhears three men in a barber's shop saying that he'll "never produce another hit". I remember it as a young girl and it was the only time I have seen Louise Rainer, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice. The theater was showing a triple Ziegfeld feature: The Great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld Follies and Ziegfeld Girl. [8] McGuire's script, now in the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, is dated September 21, 1935, probably the date when it was finalized. [18], Ziegfeld lost much of his money in the stock market crash. RKO Pictures had its first hit with its lavish presentation of Rio Rita (1929), starring Bebe Daniels and John Boles. [26], Ziegfeld appears in a sound prologue to the 1929 film, Show Boata part-talkie based on Edna Ferber's 1926 novel, not the popular stage adaptation that was still playing on Broadway when the film was released. Ziegfeld appears as a character in a number of films: The Academy Film Archive houses the Florenz Ziegfeld-Billie Burke Collection. The Circus is gobsmackingly awful by todays expectations. She is best remembered from The Wizard of Oz as Glinda and Ms Loy is not really much like her, but she is always worth watching. All in all, if you dig old fashioned epic spectacle type films, you'll probably enjoy this one. Those were quite grand and makes me sad that this is a black and white movie because those scenes would have been amazing in color. For the uninitiated: The term "roadshow cut" comes from the days when films weren't booked into hundreds of theaters at once. 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the great ziegfeld