The Great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld Girl and Ziegfeld Follies

[Lino]

Here they are:







From what I understand, they only share similarities in the name Ziegfeld (apart from being musicals, that is) which certainly helped the marketing but having never seen them (at least beyond the clips shown in the That's Entertainment movies) I would appreciate that someone expanded on their history and artistic merits (whatever they may be). Dev and David, be my guests!

[viciousliar]

The "tower" in the "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" production number is the craziest set piece to ever grace the silver screen. The first time I saw it I could hardly believe my own eyes. "Surreal beyond belief" is a phrase that becomes too lame in this context. Awe-inspiring, hilarious spectacle that borders on the insane - I love it!

[Lino]

Being the good girl that I am, I already ordered Ziegfeld Girl and am planning on making a trip to the nearest Fnac in order to buy The Great Ziegfeld (the former is not yet available in Europe).

From what I've been reading online, Girl reprises/borrows/steals the grand finale of the first Ziegfeld film. This leaves me a bit suspicious. I wonder if it feels like a rip-off or a cheap move. Does it ruin the viewing experience?

Anyway, I am now anxiously waiting for the release of the Follies movie! And I don't really care if it doesn't have a plot - musical revues are pure entertainment and this one is sure to deliver the goods (rubbing hands at the thought of seeing a meticulously restored technicolor print in reach of a single touch of the "play" button!).

[viciousliar]

Sorry, Annie - but I forgot to mention that the production number I mentioned is found in The Great Ziegfeld. I'm afraid I haven't seen the middle entry - Ziegfeld Girl - so I cannot answer your question. However, as far as budgets are concerned, I'm sure this is the lesser of the three entries. And I think plotlines are inconsequential as far as these movies go, anyway; they're all spectacle - comedy routines, show-stopping dance numbers and (as mentioned) grand production numbers that only MGM could deliver at the time. Prepare to revel yourself in some light-hearted fun, and forget about flimsy plotlines - this is as glamourous as the Movies ever got, hon!

[Lino]

Ok, I already got The Great Ziegfeld and Ziegfeld Girl on my hands (yeah, I move fast!) and am hoping to make myself a Ziegfeld mini-marathon this weekend (Follies cannot come soon enough!).

I've skimmed through both discs and the A/V quality seem to be truly excellent considering their ages. The extras, while not very extensive, are nonetheless interesting and appropriate - for me the best part was seeing the original trailer for Ziegfeld Follies and I'm telling ya': this one promises to be the mother lode of all Ziegfeld movies! Truly awe-inspiring sets and costumes the likes of which we stopped seeing a long time ago. And the extras of the upcoming edition seem to be as fantastic as the film itself:

# New featurette Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches
# Vintage MGM Crime Does Not Pay short The Luckiest Guy in the World
# 2 classic MGM cartoons:

* The Hick Chick
* Solid Serenade

# Audio-only bonus: outtake songs If Swing Goes, I Go Too, This Heart of Mine and We Will Meet Again in Honolulu
# Ziegfeld movies trailer gallery
# Both remixed Dolby Surround Stereo and original Mono English Audio

Anyway, very much looking forward to this weekend!

[Lino]

Oh, God. I couldn't resist until the weekend...I just finished watching The Great Ziegfeld and what a blast I had! My mother was sitting with me for the most part of the movie (it is a 3 hour movie so give her a break!) and we just couldn't stop expressing our mutual admiration about the musical numbers - Jesus Christ, they border on the insane! It's amazing what they could do back then and the A Pretty Girl is like a Melody number really is quite something out of the ordinary to put it mildly - I replayed it three times!

I also got a terrible kick out of the dialogue, very witty and always fresh and gay, as they used to say.

So do yourselves a favour and give this one a go - you will never look at a musical number in quite the same way, I promise you!

[Lino]

Watched Ziegfeld Girl this sunday afternoon and loved it more than The Great Ziegfeld though for entirely different reasons altogether. The former is a fairly accurate biography of the great showman with some fantastic musical interludes thrown in for good measure; the latter is a fictionalized account on the lives of 3 Ziegfeld girls which end in 3 very different manners, as played by Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr (which will make you fall in love with her head over wheels! God, what a ravishing beauty!). This time aroung the musical numbers are a bit irregular in quality with only the Trinidad number being the highlight of the whole movie (and what a highlight it is!).

As suspected, the use of the first movie's musical numbers at the end of Ziegfeld Girl cheapens it a bit and the film ends a bit abruptly and even disjointingly - we never know what will happen to the Lana Turner character. I sure would like to know more about the nuts and bolts of this movie scripting and filming...

However, it's in the performances that this movie will grab you and the female protagonists have enough star quality to hold this light-hearted rags to riches tale until the credits roll. And when you least expect it, those 2 hours have already flown by pretty quickly and it's back to the ugly reality of your day to day life...

Guess there's only one thing to do: watch it again and again!

[viciousliar]

Dear Annie, I'm thrilled you liked the first two entries. RE the latter, I recently learned in a doc that Lana Turner was considered The Expert at descending grand staircases, according to the "expert" of that program - she did it so fluidly and graciously. And I can see that expert's point.

BTW, do you happen to know if the upcoming edition of "Ziegfeld Follies" will be mastered in WB's patented "Ultra-Resolution" process? Nothing is revealed on WB's website, but if "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Wizard of Oz" and "Meet Me in St. Louis" were granted the honor, I cannot for the best of me see that "Ziegfeld Follies" shouldn't be granted the same red-carpet-treatment...

[Lino]

BTW, do you happen to know if the upcoming edition of "Ziegfeld Follies" will be mastered in WB's patented "Ultra-Resolution" process?

Don't know. Here's what DVDTimes has to say:

Each feature film in this collection has been meticulously restored and remastered from its original elements by Warner Home Video and complimented with new featurettes, rare outtake musical numbers, audio only bonus outtakes and vintage cartoons

Not much, right? But I trust the use of "meticulously" in there. We'll see. I'm sure we won't be disappointed. Fingers crossed, at least!

[Matt]

BTW, do you happen to know if the upcoming edition of "Ziegfeld Follies" will be mastered in WB's patented "Ultra-Resolution" process?

It won't be. The next Ultra-Resolution title is John Ford's The Searchers.

[viciousliar]

BTW, do you happen to know if the upcoming edition of "Ziegfeld Follies" will be mastered in WB's patented "Ultra-Resolution" process?

It won't be. The next Ultra-Resolution title is John Ford's The Searchers.

That really SUCKS, I guess the 3-strip camera negatives no longer exist. But thanks for filling me in, anyway, Matt - it softens the blow!

[Lino]

Some useful info from an amazon.com client about Ziegfeld Follies:

This movie is more of an excuse to put all of MGM's stars into one movie. The movie is set up like it was a real Ziegfeld show. It has no plot, it's just a show with some variety acts from singing, to dancing and some comedy acts! William Powell is Ziegfeld and he is watching the show from Heaven. Anyway the acts include:

Here's to the Girls- Fred Astaire sing this number and it is danced by Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire. This a big production number with a chorus. Lucille Ball is in this number too. Virgina O'Brien appears right after this number and sings.

A Water Ballet- Esther Williams does what she does best, swims!

Number Please- This is a comedy skit with Keenan Wynn.

Traviata- A opera number with James Melton and Marion Bell.

Pay the Two Dollars- Another comedy skit with Victor Moore and Edward Arnold.

This Heart of Mine- Fred Astaire sings this number and dances with Lucille Bremer. A personal favorite.

A Sweepstakes Ticket- Another comedy skit with Fanny Brice, Hume Cronyn and William Frawley (Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy).

Love- The lovely Lena Horne sing this song. Another personal favorite!

When Television Comes- A comedy skit with Red Skelton.

Limehouse Blues- A dance number with Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer with a chorus. A very strange number in my opinion.

A Great Lady Has "An Interview"- A musical number with the great Judy Garland. Another favorite!

The Babbitt and the Bromide- Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly dance in this number. My favorite number in the whole movie!

Beauty- The lovely Kathryn Grayson sings this number. Also a chorus of girls. Cyd Charisse is the featured dancer in the bubbles.

[Lino]

Ziegfeld Follies review is up at DVDTalk:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=21284

[Lino]

Watched Ziegfeld Follies the other day and it left a bittersweet taste on my mouth. Oh, yes the film was wildly entertaining with the Limehouse Blues segment being the absolute highlight of the whole show -- it really is something quite amazing.

The thing that bugged me was the DVD transfer. Firstly, the Overture card seems to be something that someone in the 80's might have made when a possible restoration was in course. Does the original still exist in some form? I realize that original elements no longer exist but surely it would have been preferable to leave it just in black as the music played on.

But my major gripe was with the color balance. There are so many color fluctuations throughout the whole movie to the point of being distracting. I know I probably shouldn't be nitpicking it so much since this is probably the best this movie will look like for a long time but surely they could've done better, right?

[shearerchic]

the great ziegfeld is being re-released next year in a keepcase for the the 2nd loy & powell collection.