Coming up next we have 1936's "The Great Ziegfeld", a fictionalized biopic of the life of theater great Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr. and his desire to capture the fascination of American theatergoers with elaborate and extravagant performances.
The film's cast includes William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, Ray Bolger, Ernest Cossart, William Demarest, Joseph Cawthorn, Nat Pendleton, and Dennis Morgan.
Flo Ziegfeld is a master of publicity and a master at staging productions. At the World's Fair in Chicago, he turns his one man show, featuring strongman Sandow, into one of the top box office draws.
After the Sandow success, Flo travels to Europe in search of a new act to promote. He finds singer Anna Held, and the two hit it off. They eventually get married and Flo brings her to America and puts her on the stage.
He creates a cult of celebrity about her. He tells the public that she bathes in twenty gallons of milk every day, and he showers her with furs and jewelry.
However, Anna becomes a bit discouraged when Flo tells her that he's going to branch out to even more theaters and reach more audiences. Genuinely in love with him, she hopes that they can find happiness in each other.
Productions with songs such as "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" are enormously popular with the public. And Flor spares no expense to give them shows the likes of which they've never seen before. (A young Dennis Morgan appears as a stage singer in this segment.)
Flo even makes some important theater discovers, such as singer/dancer Ray Bolger and comedienne Fanny Brice.
And Ziegfeld never shies away from being on the cutting edge of theater, as with this particular number "You Never Looked So Beautiful".
Flo gives Audrey Dane a chance and she is initially successful. She's a big box office draw. However, Dane's struggle with alcoholism causes Flo to end their association.
Anna, however, realizes that her husband loves the theater more than her and sadly divorces the man she still loves.
The years go by and Flo meets and falls in love with successful actress Billie Burke. It's a mutual attraction, and soon the two are married.
Anna finds out that Flo and Billie were married and is very depressed. She calls Flo to offer her congratulations and valiantly puts on a brave face. When her maid asks her why she divorced him when she obviously still loves him, Anna replies, "Because I thought it would bring him back to me. I was sure it would bring him back to me."
More years pass, and Flo's marital happiness with Billie and their daughter Patricia is very much in evidence. For Christmas one year, he gives his wife a tiara, a bracelet, rings, a necklace, and furs. Billie is overwhelmed.
For his next show, Flo decides to put on a ballet circus for his daughter. The star of the show is ballerina Harriet Hoctor.
Soon, however, Flo's lavish lifestyle and his extravagant productions cause the money to run dry, and he becomes deeply depressed and ill.
At the end of his life, sick and living in a tiny apartment overlooking the Ziegfeld Theater in New York, Flo thinks back on all his past successes and looks ahead to productions with "more steps, higher, higher."
Cast rundown:
William Powell..............................Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
Virginia Bruce..............................Audrey Dane
Reginald Owen............................Sampson
Ray Bolger...................................Himself
Ernest Cossart.............................Sidney
William Demarest.........................Gene Buck
Joseph Cawthorn..........................Dr. Ziegfeld
Nat Pendleton..............................Sandow
Dennis Morgan.............................Stage Singer
And that's it for The Great Ziegfeld. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Luise Rainer received the Academy Award for Best Actress. The next year she received the same award for "The Good Earth", becoming the first person to win back to back Oscars. Ziegfeld's wife, Billie Burke, was under contract at MGM at the time of production and was furious at not being able to portray herself in the film. She was given the role of technical consultant.
No comments:
Post a Comment