Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Top Billed Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
Won 3 Oscars:
Outstanding Production - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Best Actress - Luise Rainer
Best Dance Direction - Seymour Felix ("A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody")
Nominated for 4 more:
Best Director - Robert Z. Leonard
Best Original Story - William Anthony McGuire
Best Art Direction - Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu, and Edwin B. Willis
Best Film Editing - William S. Gray
Plot: A lavish impresario spends a boatload of money to impress and make many a star, only to be the subject of a biopic that might be longer than his life itself.
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Top Billed Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
Won 3 Oscars:
Outstanding Production - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Best Actress - Luise Rainer
Best Dance Direction - Seymour Felix ("A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody")
Nominated for 4 more:
Best Director - Robert Z. Leonard
Best Original Story - William Anthony McGuire
Best Art Direction - Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu, and Edwin B. Willis
Best Film Editing - William S. Gray
Plot: A lavish impresario spends a boatload of money to impress and make many a star, only to be the subject of a biopic that might be longer than his life itself.
And we arrive yet again to the Best Picture winner. The Great Ziegfeld (1936) is known for its lavishness as well as its length. It took exorbitant amounts of money to produce, which parallels the story of Florence Ziegfeld's life. Costumes, sets, trained animals, and M-G-M stars come together for one big spending spree and its truly a wonder to behold. The famous set piece, which is a spiraling "wedding cake," combines all of the above and it earns that Best Dance Direction Oscar; it costed over $220,000 and took weeks to shoot. The other Oscar the movie nabbed is for Luise Rainer's acting performance. Her filmography is not lengthy and she only appears twice in the Project, but she goes two-for-two and wins Best Actress two years in a row (for this and the following year in The Good Earth (1937)). The aforementioned length of the film is also noteworthy, To date, this was the longest talking picture, clocking in at nearly three hours (the copy I watched is over three hours, which I think is the Roadshow version).
Does all of this extravagance sit well? For the most part it does. The movie is pure spectacle at times and that;s not always a bad thing. For minutes at a time, a snippet of a Ziegfeld-esque show takes over and the music and staging is wonderful to watch. It admittedly doesn't make for a smooth cinematic experience, but if you are willing to sit back and enjoy a 1930s musical revue, these scenes are very much welcome. William Powell's performance as the lead is also a joy to watch. His charisma and wit makes Ziegfeld a likeable character that the audience can get behind. This is no small feat as any miscue could have made this portrayal as an opportunistic ladies' man. Instead, Ziegfeld is portrayed as a classy ladies' man, which is always fun to see on the silver screen.
Does the length of the movie sit well? For the most part, it does not. Although the extended musical sequences are a joy to watch, it doesn't bode well for the pacing of the movie. Even the scenes with Powell and his various woman recruits overstay their welcome. Also, the performance that got Luise Rainer her first Oscar is perplexing. I didn't see much justification for her win. I kept waiting for that Oscar moment, and I think it's the scene when she calls Flo to wish him well after his second marriage, but even that was over the top and not Award-worthy. I will only evaluate one other Actress nominee for this year (Norma Shearer in Romeo and Juliet (1936)) so I won't be able to get the complete picture, but I think this might just be a case of a performance not aging well, which is kind of a microcosm of the movie itself.
Overall, the abundance of resources that went into the film made this both a success and a failure. The showy set pieces and costumes are beautiful to look at, but the length and aged performances make this an uneven viewing experience.
My Score: 7/10
Does all of this extravagance sit well? For the most part it does. The movie is pure spectacle at times and that;s not always a bad thing. For minutes at a time, a snippet of a Ziegfeld-esque show takes over and the music and staging is wonderful to watch. It admittedly doesn't make for a smooth cinematic experience, but if you are willing to sit back and enjoy a 1930s musical revue, these scenes are very much welcome. William Powell's performance as the lead is also a joy to watch. His charisma and wit makes Ziegfeld a likeable character that the audience can get behind. This is no small feat as any miscue could have made this portrayal as an opportunistic ladies' man. Instead, Ziegfeld is portrayed as a classy ladies' man, which is always fun to see on the silver screen.
Does the length of the movie sit well? For the most part, it does not. Although the extended musical sequences are a joy to watch, it doesn't bode well for the pacing of the movie. Even the scenes with Powell and his various woman recruits overstay their welcome. Also, the performance that got Luise Rainer her first Oscar is perplexing. I didn't see much justification for her win. I kept waiting for that Oscar moment, and I think it's the scene when she calls Flo to wish him well after his second marriage, but even that was over the top and not Award-worthy. I will only evaluate one other Actress nominee for this year (Norma Shearer in Romeo and Juliet (1936)) so I won't be able to get the complete picture, but I think this might just be a case of a performance not aging well, which is kind of a microcosm of the movie itself.
Overall, the abundance of resources that went into the film made this both a success and a failure. The showy set pieces and costumes are beautiful to look at, but the length and aged performances make this an uneven viewing experience.
My Score: 7/10