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The Great Ziegfeld
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
February 3, 2004 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
—
| $6.00 | $0.10 |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Documentary, Drama, Musicals |
Format | Subtitled, NTSC, Black & White, Multiple Formats, Full Screen |
Contributor | Joseph Cawthorn, Hunt Stromberg, Reginald Owen, Myrna Loy, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Fanny Brice, Robert Z. Leonard, Ernest Cossart, William Anthony McGuire, William Powell, Luise Rainer, Virginia Bruce See more |
Initial release date | 2010-11-09 |
Language | English |
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Warner Home Video
With distribution in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video has one of the largest distribution infrastructures in the global video marketplace. In 2019, Warner Home Video had 20% marketshare for overall home entertainment WHV also had the library with “Harry Potter Complete 8-Film Collection” and the television franchise with “Game of Thrones.”
Product Description
Great Ziegfeld, The (DVD) (Rpkg) America's most famous showman, promoter and enduring entertainment icon--a man who dominated Broadway theater for decades--The Great Ziegfeld. William Powell and Myrna Loy (The Thin Man films) star as Flo Ziegfeld and his second wife, Billie Burke, who played Glinda the good witch in The Wizard of Oz. This Academy Award-winning film interweaves the life of the promoter--from his start promoting his first wife, the beautiful Anna Held (Luise Rainer), through decades of legendary Broadway Follies revues and his discovery of such stars as Fanny Brice and Will Rogers--with re-creations of Ziegfeld's lavish musical stage productions.
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 ounces
- Item model number : WHV1000163742DVD
- Director : Robert Z. Leonard
- Media Format : Subtitled, NTSC, Black & White, Multiple Formats, Full Screen
- Run time : 3 hours and 6 minutes
- Release date : November 9, 2010
- Actors : William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice
- Subtitles: : English, Spanish, French
- Producers : Hunt Stromberg
- Language : English (Mono)
- Studio : Studio Distribution Services
- ASIN : B0045HCIZO
- Writers : William Anthony McGuire
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #38,450 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #463 in Musicals (Movies & TV)
- #816 in Documentary (Movies & TV)
- #6,370 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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The cast is one of the film's greatest assets. William Powell is in one of his his best roles here, his natural warmth and charm energizing the entire production and carrying the film which was no mean feat. Luise Rainer's Anna Held is charming, vulnerable and sympathetic. Old pro Frank Morgan is fine as Ziegfeld's competitor and friend Jack Billings, the one imaginary character among the principals. Myrna Loy wisely chose just to be her charming self as Ziegfeld's second wife, Billie Burke instead of imitating her unique mannerisms. Burke was going to play herself in the original conception of the film at Universal, but when MGM took it over (it was too expensive for Universal) they wanted a better known star. Besides, Ziegfeld met Miss Burke when she was 26 and by this time she was 51, while Myrna Loy was 30. Nat Pendleton, the former Olympic medal-winning wrestler, played Sandow and would later play lieutenant Guild in two of the Thin Man pictures. Reginald Owen, as usual is the perfect English butler and Herman Bing makes the most as Ziegfeld's eternally flustered costumer.
The script is what you would expect of a Thirties film, with many saccharine moments, but it never overdoes it too much, not even in the famous "telephone scene". For a Hollywood biopic is actually stays fairly close to many events in Ziegfeld's life, and certainly to his extravagant spirit. His father really did found a music conservatory in Chicago, and he really did get his start with strongman Sandow at the 1896 Chicago World's Fair. He did find Anna held in London and did promote her in New York with shameless publicity stunts. His ceaseless womanizing was sanitized for the film but did have a long affair with Follies star Lillian Lorraine, an erratic, irresponsible woman thinly disguised here as Audrey Dane (played by Virginia Bruce). It was actually Anna who suggested doing a follies show similar to the Folies Bergere in Paris, somehow not realizing she was putting a kid in a candy store. He did marry Billie Burke, His habit of giving extravagant gifts and sending telegrams to people who were nearby are well documented.The script had a few nice touches that could almost go unnoticed: men, like those from the barber shop incident mispronounce his name as Mr. "Ziegfield" (a common error) when he presents them with tickets, but those who actually know him call him Ziegfeld.
The musical numbers were wisely kept to just a few, preventing the film from becoming a vaudeville show. The two main numbers, the extraordinary "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" number and the Midnight Frolic on the roof of the New Amsterdam are back to back, seeming to overstuff the film's middle, but were separated by an intermission in theaters. The only misstep was cutting Fanny Brice off just as she begins her signature song, My Man. What were they thinking? I'd have much rather had that number in instead of the dog and pony show that occurs later in the film. The film rightfully won the best Dance Direction Oscar for the Pretty Girl production, one of the most famous musical scenes in Thirties film, with its elaborate costumes and staging and its mix of Dvorak, Liszt, Johann Strauss, Mascagni and Gershwin.
If you want to give it a try, set some time aside and enjoy this great epic musical of the Thirties.
Trivia fact: One of the Ziegfeld girls in the film was played by Patricia Ryan, the future Pat Nixon.
For me, what was really neat about watching "The Great Ziegfeld" was the opporunity to partake of actual performances by such legendary figures as Al Jolson, Will Rogers, Fanny Brice and the song and dance man Ray Bolger (later the 'Tin Man' in the "Wizard of Oz"). It easy to see why these folks were such crowd pleasers in their day. But it was not just the so-called "stars" that made "Ziegfeld Follies" so special. It was was the lavish sets and the cadre of beautiful girls who would appear in each show. Literally hundreds of beautiful girls! These shows truly were spectacular in every way! And although this film was made more than 70 years ago I was glued to my TV the entire time.
As I mentioned earlier, the film also doubles as a biography of Flo Ziegfeld....well, sort of. The producers take liberal amounts of literary license with his life story. We do learn that Flo will spare no expense to make sure that his shows are the most ostentatious productions on Broadway. This penchant for lavish spending will land Flo in the poor house on more than one occasion. "The Great Ziegfeld" also focuses on Flo's personal life including his long-time common-law marriage to the Polish born performer Anna Held (played by Luise Rainer) and his subsequent marriage to actress Billie Burke (played by Myrna Loy). Indeed, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the outstanding music in this film by Walter Donaldson and the great Irving Berlin.
"The Great Zeigfeld" won three Academy Awards in 1936 and was nominated for four more. Kudos to William Powell for a splendid performance as Flo Ziegfeld. I found this to be an outstanding film on so many levels. It is a movie that I could watch again and again. Highly recommended!