Review of The Great Ziegfeld (1936) by Grant S — 31 Oct 2015
Decent biopic. Won the 1937 Oscar for Best Picture.
The (true) story of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr, entertainment producer extraordinaire and creator of the Ziegfeld Follies. Shows his many ups and downs, veering many times from stellar success to near-bankruptcy. Also shows his relationships.
Like Ziegfeld's career, the movie has its ups and downs. The ups are the portrayals of Ziegfeld's creative genius and mind for advertising. He clearly knew how to put on a show, and how to generate publicity for his shows and performers. William Powell puts in a solid. convincing performance as Ziegfeld.
The shows themselves are quite entertaining, though do consume too much time.
There's the main problem - the movie goes on and on. The show scenes are overly long and too frequent. Plus there are several scenes involving Ziegfeld's private life that are boring and add nothing to the movie - they should have been left out. I really don't know how Luise Rainer won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Anna Held - she was average, at best.
Overall, reasonably interesting from an historical perspective but could have done with some major editing.
This review of The Great Ziegfeld (1936) was written by Grant S on 31 Oct 2015.
The Great Ziegfeld has generally received positive reviews.
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