===
Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, Jr. (William Powell) is looking to leave his mark in show business, and it starts at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair where he's promoting Sandow (Nat Pendleton) as "The World's Strongest Man". He's not bringing in the crowds like his competitor across the way, however. Jack Billings (Frank Morgan) has belly dancer Little Egypt, so he's packing people in with ease. Ziegfeld pitches an idea to Billings for Sandow and Egypt to have a pretend romance, but Billings laughs off the offer since it would be a 50-50 split and Billings would actually be losing money as a result. However, Ziegfeld does successfully woo Billings's lady friend to sign with him and Sandow as part of the act.
Ziegfeld touches an elephant's trunk for good luck, and convinces Sandow to do the same. The elephant winds up giving him a shower, so Sandow removes his shirt to dry it off. A woman walks by and admires his physique, and asks to feel his muscles. When she does, she faints, and a light bulb goes off in Ziegfeld's head. The scene dissolves to the shirtless Sandow on display flexing his muscles to the music of Little Egypt across the way, and women immediately flock to Ziegfeld's tent to buy tickets for the show.
After the World's Fair ends, Ziegfeld returns to The Chicago Academy of Music (now known as Chicago Musical College, a division of Roosevelt University) where his father (Joseph Cawthorn), who founded the school, is teaching young Mary Lou (Ann Gillis) on the piano. Mary Lou is angry that Ziegfeld won't marry her, but he tells her it's because he loves all women. Ziegfeld's father doesn't like that his son is basically a carnival barker, but he wishes him well as he heads off to San Francisco with Sandow, who's now a smash act. Unfortunately, the proposed major event in San Francisco fails when the lion that Sandow was set to wrestle simply goes on stage and falls asleep. Now being called frauds, Sandow and Ziegfeld flee town.
Billings is on a cruise ship reading about the San Francisco debacle, and he laughs about it. He stops laughing once he spots Ziegfeld on the ship with him. Ziegfeld continues his charm and hires Billings's assistant, Sidney (Ernest Cossart), away from him. Billings is on his way to Paris to sign the hot nightclub act Anna Held (Luise Rainer), and he tries his best to keep this information away from Ziegfeld. Of course, Ziegfeld finds his way there anyway.
After her performance one night, Anna returns to her dressing room preparing to meet with Billings. She finds flowers and a card from Ziegfeld instead, and calls for him to see her first over Billings's objections. While seeing Ziegfeld, he tells her he'd have to pay her in the future since he's broke right now, so she sends him away, but she calls him back and appreciates his honesty. Ziegfeld promises her more publicity than she could ever imagine and top billing alongside the greatest performers on Broadway. Anna signs on with Ziegfeld.
At first, Anna's performances are not successful, but Ziegfeld gets publicity because he's having 20 gallons of milk delivered each day to Anna for a mythical beauty bath treatment, and then he refuses to pay for it. Curious theatergoers flock to the show, and in time not only is it a success but Ziegfeld hires 8 new performers to back her. Ziegfeld and Anna also are falling in love, and Anna gets frequent gifts such as lavish jewelry. The other women love seeing Anna get all these gifts, but one woman isn't impressed. That's Audrey Dane (Virginia Bruce), and remember that name because she'll be back later. Ziegfeld soon marries Anna.
Ziegfeld decides it's time for a second show, and he plans for that to be a showcase of many different singers and dancers that will "glorify" the American woman. He's calling it the Ziegfeld Follies. Anna is upset that Ziegfeld is doing a second show without her, but he charms her enough to calm her down. This will be an expensive show that needs some help getting off the ground, so Ziegfeld goes to producer Erlanger (Paul Irving). As it turns out, Billings is now partnering with Erlanger, and when he learns Ziegfeld is coming to them with a 50-50 pitch, he goes to talk Erlanger out of it. However, once Erlanger hears Ziegfeld wants to work together, he immediately agrees before Billings can even plead his case as to why they shouldn't.
The Ziegfeld Follies is an immediate success, and many names are introduced to the public that become major stars later. Ray Bolger (playing himself as seen above) begins as a stagehand and eventually is put into the show. Will Rogers (A.A. Trimble) is going to perform rope tricks but after a conversation with Ziegfeld, is convinced to just talk to the crowd because of his quick wit and current-events knowledge. One of the stars of the Follies is none other than Audrey Dane, who in fact is given the unofficial top billing as the pinnacle of the extremely-lavish "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" sequence. Rather than having me try to explain just how extravagant this number is, just see for yourself.
[For the record, that was filmed in two long takes and cost over $200K to film. In 1936!]
After the performance, Audrey receives flowers and jewelry in her dressing room from Ziegfeld. Anna visits Audrey and sees the gifts. She knows who they're from because the jewelry matches some she got from her husband as well. Audrey likes to hit the bottle, and it's obvious at the end of one performance when she comes out on stage and apologizes for being "a bit tight" and then putting over the genius of Ziegfeld. The man himself also comes out on the stage to a loud ovation, but he's out there for a reason. A top rising star named Sally Manners (Rosina Lawrence), represented by Erlanger and Billings, is in the crowd and he singles her out for an ovation as well. Naturally, the next scene sees Ziegfeld signing Sally to join him instead. Ziegfeld is also met backstage by someone who says she's an old friend. He doesn't recognize her and names some past lovers. It turns out to be Mary Lou, now all grown up (Jean Chatburn). Ziegfeld immediately hires her to join the show as well.
Ziegfeld's next business conquest is to sign Fanny Brice (playing herself) to star in what will be the final edition of the Follies. He wants his next show to actually tell a story, and star Sally in the main role. However, Erlanger is hesitant to help finance a non-Follies show, and Anna continues to be jealous of the attention Ziegfeld is paying to others, especially Audrey. Things come to a head on that front when Audrey is being visited in her dressing room by Ziegfeld, who's upset with her for being drunk again. Audrey pulls Ziegfeld down for a kiss as Anna walks in. Anna decides to file for divorce. Audrey is then angry that she hasn't been made into the huge star Anna is, and Ziegfeld replies that the reason for that is because he can't trust her. Audrey quits.
Ziegfeld gets Billings to help fund the new show. At a dance, he sees star Billie Burke (Myrna Loy), who's talking about Florenz Ziegfeld in mostly complimentary terms, but also speaks of how she hears he's a womanizer. Billings comes up and inadvertently blows Ziegfeld's cover. The two hit it off and eventually wed, which upsets Anna when she reads about it in the newspapers. She phones Ziegfeld to congratulate him, but later admits she thought divorcing him would actually win him back.
Ziegfeld's new shows are, of course, successful. One such show was inspired by his new daughter with Burke, who wanted to see a circus. Another show features a ballet dance with dogs as props. Don't ask me to try and explain that one any further. Unfortunately, over time the public's taste changes, thanks greatly to the emergence of motion pictures and Hollywood. Many of the top theater stars are going west. One of Ziegfeld's shows begins to get negative reviews, and three men in a barbershop say that Ziegfeld is finished and won't produce another success on Broadway. Ziegfeld emerges from one of the chairs where his face was underneath a towel and vows to have four successes on Broadway all at the same time. He delivers on that promise, and afterwards even finds the three men to give them box seats to all the shows as a thank-you for inspiring him. Things go well until the stock market crash of 1929. (Have you noticed how many films we've covered in this blog series have that plot device?)
Ziegfeld, now bankrupt yet again thanks to the crash, has aged and is now seriously ill. Burke returns to Broadway while he recuperates, and one day Billings pays him a friendly visit, where they more or less bury the rivalry they've had all these years. They even agree to become partners on a new, bigger Follies as soon as Ziegfeld feels better. After Billings leaves, the delirious Ziegfeld recalls scenes from several of his hits over the years and talks out loud to no one in particular, giving directions on making the shows bigger and grander, before slumping over dead in his chair.
===
While the film does tell the generally-correct story of Ziegfeld's life, plenty of little changes were made for dramatic effect. Some songs were actually performed in earlier or later shows than as they were presented in the timeline of the film. One song, George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", actually was never in any of the Follies despite being performed in one during the movie. Ziegfeld also did not die in New York overlooking Broadway. He actually lived in Los Angeles for the last several years of his life.
Fanny Brice and others appeared in the film as themselves since they actually were a part of Zeigfeld's life. Others threatened to sue if their names were used. Marilyn Miller was set to be in the movie and perform at least one song, but Billie Burke influenced the studio to not give her a higher billing on the marquee and salary to go with it that she had demanded, so Miller walked away from the film. Her character was renamed Sally Manners. A gal named Lillian Lorraine didn't want her story and name linked in the film. The story was told, but with the character name of Audrey Dane instead. Billie Burke wanted to play herself but the studio did not feel she was a big enough star at the time. Myrna Loy played her instead, and despite getting second billing, she doesn't even appear for the first two hours of the movie. Will Rogers was set to be in the film but died in a plane crash, so popular Rogers impersonator A.A. Trimble took his place. The most famous of the many, many extras in the film? Patricia Ryan. You probably don't know that name, but you know her married name. She was future First Lady Pat Nixon.
The Great Zeigfeld scored seven nominations at the 9th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, winning three of them. Seymour Felix won for Best Dance Direction (a category that only existed for three years; this was year two), Luise Rainer won for Best Actress (becoming the first performer to win an Oscar for a musical) and the movie took home Best Picture honors over Anthony Adverse, Dodsworth, Libeled Lady, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Romero and Juliet, San Francisco, The Story of Louis Pasteur, A Tale of Two Cities and Three Smart Girls.
There is certainly no arguing the achievement by MGM in its success with The Great Ziegfeld, but wow, is it long. Clocking it at over 170 minutes, it's full of bombastic performances and a lot of story. While it's enjoyable, it really could have been dialed down a little, because there were some moments when this thing seemed to drag on a bit to get the story told. Be that as it may, it's an impressive feat full of great actors showing us their skills. Powell, Morgan and Rainer especially shine. If musicals are your thing, and over-the-top is your style, The Great Ziegfeld is exactly what you're looking for.
No comments:
Post a Comment