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DVD The Great Ziegfeld
Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Great Ziegfeld stars William Powell in a biopic "suggested by romances and incidents in the life of America's greatest showman, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr." With admirable accuracy, the film follows Ziegfeld's career from small-time sideshow barker to creator of the famous Ziegfeld Follies, the collection of singing, dancing, and comedy vaudeville acts that launched the careers of such luminaries as Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger, and Harriet Hoctor, all of whom play themselves in the film. In the title role, Powell offers a believable combination of ambition and hucksterism, and his Thin Man costar Myrna Loy makes a late appearance as his second wife, but it's large-eyed Luise Rainer who has the showier role (and won an Oscar) as Ziegfeld's first big star and first wife. The musical numbers, however, don't hold up quite as well as the plot, and the film is overlong at 185 minutes. It's fascinating, though, to see the vintage stars performing, and the eight-minute spectacle "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" is an eye-popper, with an elaborate revolving set supporting a large cast singing and dancing to the Irving Berlin tune while throwing in some Puccini, Strauss, Leoncavallo, and Gershwin for good measure. --David Horiuchi
There are a few things to know going in: It's a biography with music (but not a musical), it's more than 60 years old, and it's three hours long!! Now I'm okay with all that, but I'm an old movie snob. This one is proof positive of the old Hollywood dream factory, where you were guaranteed happiness, pathos, bells, and whistles in practically every picture. But the film isn't as happy-go-lucky as you might expect; it gives a rather astringent portrayal of a gifted showman who knew how to dazzle audiences, but never how to save a buck. According to this book, his was a never-ending cycle of glittery and expensive theatrics pitted against dodging creditors his whole life. In that respect, we are to conclude that his lack of business sense was tempered by his need to entertain. He also knew talent, as is represented by his discovery scenes with Bolger and real Ziegfeld veteran Fanny Brice. (Watch how he hires her on the strength of her comedy, then humiliates her during a rehearsal in order to get her in the mood to belt out "My Man.") And of course, not enough can be said of the eight-minute "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" finale where spangled showgirls, opera singers, grand pianos, and a single, all-enveloping curtain hang on a revolving "wedding cake" spiral staircase. You have to see it to believe it.
An Extravagant Man
As someone who is not a fan of musicals, I was already at a disadvantage before the movie even started. I fast forwarded through most of the numbers, and they looked dazzling enough and I'm sure would be entertaining for people who like that sort of thing. I concentrated on the drama between the numbers, and with that I was quite satisfied. William Powell is excellent as the famed, extravagant theatrical producer, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. The film chronicles the many highpoints and lowpoints of his career, as well as his two marriages. Myrna Loy co-stars as his second wife, actress Billie Burke (Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz), and although she gets second billing, she doesn't have much to do. But the chemistry between her and Powell is once again a high point. Luise Rainer, who had a brief career in Hollywood, stars as Anna Held, the first wife, a passionate, impulsive singer that Ziegfeld made a star of in America. Rainer's scene on the phone has become quite famous, and she plays all of her scenes with great drama. The film is a bit long, but it doesn't get boring, thanks to the stars, the story, and the great personalities that appear (Ray Bolger, Fanny Brice). And for people that like musicals, this will probably entertain them even more.
BLINDINGLY OPULENT AND SPELLBINDINGLY ENTERTAINING!
"The Great Ziegfeld" is a biographic film on Broadway impressario, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., the man who "glorified the American girl". Determined to squeeze every last ounce of opulence from its coffers, MGM spared no expense in retelling what is essentially a melodrama with musical numbers tossed in for good effect. Flo (William Powell)is a cheap carnival barker when he crosses paths with Anna Held (Luise Rainer). Their chemistry is instant and through her talent as an artist, fame comes to them both. However, all bliss is fleeting and their marriage ends when Flo takes up with a chorus girl. But he ditches her for sassy Billie Burke (Myrna Loy) and then proceeds to create a series of lavish spectacles that only MGM could afford to do justice to. The most spectacular of these remains "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody"; a gargantuan revolving platform covered in dancers and art deco magificence. Aside: Flo's second wife, Billie was a contract player at MGM during this time. Her best known role is as 'Glinda' the witch of the north in "The Wizard of Oz". TRANSFER: Surprisingly smooth and very well balanced black levels and a good gray scale are the real selling features of this 3 hr. plus spectacle. Unfortunately an excess of age related dirt and scratches greet the viewer throughout the first hour of running time. However, things get cleaned up half way through for a really stunning transfer. Shadows and contrast levels are exemplary. The audio is clean, well balanced and quite simply, one of the best you are likely to encounter for a film of this vintage. EXTRAS: A couple of featurettes that round out the history of the film - all too briefly. BOTTOM LINE: Next to "Yankee Doodle Dandy" - another show folk bio with guts, "The Great Ziegfeld" is most readily recognized as one of the best! Add it to your film library!
This Academy Award winner for Best Picture is a sweeping soap opera about the guests at the Grand Hotel. Several plots intertwine, but mostly it's about Stars! Stars! Stars! Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, and both Barrymore brothers head up the cast. Garbo is luminous as Grusinskaya, the neurotic and famous-but-slipping dancer and, yes, she "vonts to be alone." John Barrymore is a cat burglar with blue blood and a heart of gold, and Lionel Barrymore happily caroms off him as Mr. Kringelein, a dying man who wants to live out the time he has left with the rich. Joan Crawford is perhaps the biggest surprise of the movie: as Flaemmchen, a young career girl trying to decide between secretary and tart, she is uncharacteristically funny, vivacious, and downright bubbly. Along the way... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Greta Garbo - John Barrymore - Joan Crawford Director(s): Edmund Goulding DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A movie doesn't win seven Oscars for nothing. A glowing Greer Garson (Best Actress) commands the screen as Mrs. Miniver, a middle-class British housewife whose strength holds her family together as World War II literally hits their home. Walter Pidgeon as her architect husband seems to be the prototype for future TV dads in this affecting portrait of love--familial and romantic--during war. But the relationship between Mrs. Miniver's college-age son (Richard Ney) and the upper-crust Carol (Best Supporting Actress Teresa Wright) is filled with inherent drama--as the war speeds up their young love, it also has the potential to doom it. The 1942 film, which also won for Best Picture and Best Director, is filled with colorful characters, snappy dialogue, and sensational plot twists. Although... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Greer Garson - Walter Pidgeon - Teresa Wright Director(s): William Wyler DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The highlight of Mutiny on the Bounty is undoubtedly Charles Laughton's bracingly evil performance as Captain Bligh, a man so mean that he insists on having a dead sailor flogged. Bligh pushes his men beyond physical endurance, slashes their rations for his own profit, and drastically cuts down their frolicking time with scantily clad Tahitians. Finally, the moment everyone has been waiting for arrives: first mate Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) hits his limit and all hell breaks loose. Gable holds doggedly onto his American accent through the entire movie, but in a way it makes Christian come off as a Regular Guy in opposition to Bligh's institutionalized cruelty. Once you get past the hurdle of his diphthongs, Gable makes an excellent Fletcher Christian--strong, fair, and noble,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charles Laughton - Clark Gable - Franchot Tone Director(s): Frank Lloyd DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The Greatest Show on Earth is a heaping helping of flapdoodle served up by one of Hollywood's canniest entertainers: producer-director Cecil B. DeMille. This overripe melodrama purports to be life inside the Ringling Brothers Circus; maybe it's not, but the circus ought to be like this. The actors wrestling with the purple dialogue are: early-career Charlton Heston, as the tough-as-nails circus manager; Cornel Wilde and Betty Hutton as trapeze artistes; and Gloria Grahame (who won an Oscar), dangling from elephants. Best of all, James Stewart plays a clown who--for mysterious reasons--never removes his makeup. (Stewart took the supporting role simply because he'd always wanted to play a clown.) This is a fried-baloney sandwich of a movie: it ain't sophisticated, and probably... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Betty Hutton - Charlton Heston Director(s): Cecil B. DeMille DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the finest American musicals, this 1944 film by Vincente Minnelli is an intentionally self-contained story set in 1903, in which a happy St. Louis family is shaken to their roots by the prospect of moving to New York, where the father has a better job pending. Judy Garland heads the cast in what amounts to a splendid, end-of-an-era story that nicely rhymes with the onset of the 20th century. The film is extraordinarily alive, the characters strong, and the musical numbers are so splendidly part of the storytelling that you don't feel the film has stopped for an interlude. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Director(s): Vincente Minnelli - Alan D. Courtney - Roy Mack DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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