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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 of past Ziegfeld Follies greats,
including Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, and Eddie Cantor:
- there were many lavish and grand
dance production numbers, extravagant and huge sets (especially
for "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody"), and a number of memorable
songs, including "Look
For the Silver Lining," "If You Knew Susie," "Shine
On, Harvest Moon," and "Rhapsody in Blue"
- the film followed Ziegfeld's
rise from a sideshow barker to his world-famous and opulent New
York "Follies"
featuring hundreds of beauties - dubbed his "Glorified Girls"
- the musical drama also revealed Flo's relationships
with his co-workers (mostly Audrey Dane (Virginia Bruce))
and his two wives: French singer Anna Held
(Best Actress-winning Luise Rainer) (known for bathing in milk
every day to preserve her complexion) and after a divorce, his
second marriage to red-haired Broadway star Billie Burke (Myrna Loy).
- in the film's most celebrated,
moving telephone scene, heartbroken Anna Held, the first
of womanizing impresario Flo's wives, congratulated her ex-husband
on his re-marriage, after reading the World newspaper article
headlined: "ZIEGFELD WEDS BILLIE BURKE; PRODUCER AND STAR IN SECRET CEREMONY AT HOBOKEN
- Frohman Enraged at News of Romance, Friends Learn" - and
she pretended to be cheerful and happy for him: ("Hello, Flo...
Yes. Here's Anna... I'm so happy for you today, I could not help
calling you and congratulate you... Wonderful, Flo! Never better
in my whole life!... I'm so excited about my new plans! I'm going
to Paris. Yes, for a few weeks, and then I can get back, and then
I'm doing a new show, and... Oh, it's all so wonderful! I'm so happy!...
Yes... And I hope you are happy, too... Yes?... Oh, I'm so glad
for you, Flo... Sounds funny for ex-husband and ex-wife to tell
each other how happy they are, oui?... Yes, Flo... Goodbye, Flo...
Goodbye..."); after her show of support, she collapsed sobbing
- although there were many financial challenges and
hurdles in his rise to success, Flo was able to produce four successful
shows in the same season in the late 1920s - but then he suffered
as many did with the Stock Market crash of 1929.
- its most famous sequence was a lavish, elaborately-costumed,
gargantuan, overly-long production number "A Pretty Girl is
Like a Melody" filmed in one continuous shot and featured 180
performers; after the singing of the song in front of an immense
curtain, it was drawn back to view a fabulous crane shot of a slowly-spinning,
cork-screwing tower of stairs holding singers, dancers, musicians,
and other artists; at the end was the appearance of Audrey Dane (Virginia
Bruce) - a Glorified Ziegfeld Girl, perched atop the giant revolving
platform or pillar (a towering white staircase)
"A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody"
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The Curtain
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Dancers
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The Staircase
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- in the closing segment, "You Never Looked So
Beautiful" was sung by Audrey Dane with tuxedoed men; it was followed
by a fashion show, of sorts, with many poses of numerous chorines
wearing extravagant costumes and headdresses, ending with a close-up
of Audrey Dane
- the aging and seriously-ill Ziegfeld's final scene
was with his faithful butler Sidney (Ernest Cossart); after viewing
his Ziegfeld Theatre sign from his window, Ziegfeld dreamt of wanting
to do an even more spectacular Follies show in the future: "I
must do the biggest Follies of my whole life. I-..." but then,
he realized that he was broke and only dreaming: "I can't laugh
any more, Sidney, because I've been wrong. I've got nothing, nothing
to leave anyone."
- when encouraged, Ziegfeld began to speak hopefully
again, but then passed away in his arm-chair (as he recalled images,
super-imposed atop his face, of his stage productions): "(You
leave them) the memories of the finest things ever done on the stage...
I've got to have more steps. I need more steps. I've got to get higher,
higher!"); a white rose dropped from his right hand, signifying
his death
Ziegfeld's Death Scene
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Telephone Scene with Ex-Wife Anna Held (Luise Rainer)
Ray Bolger Dance
"You Never Looked So Beautiful" (with Virginia
Bruce)
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