Ziegfeld Girl
by Busby Berkeley, Robert Z. Leonard
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DVD details
Actor: Hedy Lamarr, James Stewart, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Tony MartinDirector: Busby Berkeley, Robert Z. Leonard
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Joseph Ruttenberg
Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Writer: Annalee Whitmore
Writer: Marguerite Roberts
Writer: Sonya Levien
Writer: William Anthony McGuire
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 132 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-04-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Ziegfeld Girl
DVD Review: Great Musical
Summary: 4 Stars
I watched this movie over the weekend and fell in love with it. Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, and the great Judy Garland light up the screen. The lavish musical numbers, georgeous costumes, and old Hollywood glamour make this a "can't miss" event.DVD Review: Ziegfeld Girl
Summary: 5 Stars
Great Music. I was thrilled to see the musical dance number 'Minnie from Trinidad'. I have been looking for it for years. It's great you made it available on DVD. DVD Review: Class A Suds
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay, the plot is familiar -- three girls head for stardom in the Follies, one good (Garland), one bad (Turner), and one indifferent (Lamarr), with predictable results. But MGM threw all of its renowned studio craftsmanship into this film, and it makes for a wonderfully satisfying experience. Garland has moxie and talent, so her character makes it -- but only after proving her loyalty to her vaudeville Dad. That's MGM's (read: Louis Mayer's) take on the morality of show business, but it doesn't come across as hokey because Garland makes us believe in it, and her, all the way. Turner's character isn't really bad, just greedy, but she rejects James Stewart's offer of domestic penury and, in MGM's eyes, that's equivalent to Mortal Sin. So she lushes herself to the bottom. The part may be a stereotype, but Turner isn't. For those who've only seen her as a caricature of herself in later roles, this performance is a revelation. And Lamarr -- well, her character leaves her husband (justified, if you ask me; he acts like a jerk about her success) but runs back to him in time for the final number. I can't really get on Lamarr's case for her lack of acting skills since she was (a) drop-dead gorgeous and (b) an electronics wizard in real life, which is about all you can ask of one person. Still, one does get tired of MGM's insistence on pushing her into roles that could have used a real actress.
And yes, this movie is one that cries out for the visual joys of technicolor (The Sea Hawk is another). But perhaps Adrian's gloriously decadent costumes and Busby Berkeley's reliably loony production numbers would have been way over the top in color. In black-and-white they seem just right, an evocation of a bygone era. Ziegfeld Girl is a sudsy but terrifically effective fairy tale that retains its magic even today.
Last word: this may be the only Edward Everett Horton movie in which he doesn't plague the viewer with stupid double-takes, a real plus if you've seen him dithering in RKO movies. Plus his character's name (Noble Sage) is one of my all-time favorites.
DVD Review: WONDERFUL MUSICAL-DRAMA
Summary: 5 Stars
.. with an all-star cast. The plot is not new(Stage Door, How to Marry a Millionaire and Valley of the Dolls to mention but a few), but Judy, Hedy and Lana do an admirable job. Never mind highbrow critcs; Hedy Lamarr wasn`t THAT bad and Lana does one of her best acting jobs ever. Judy is a tomboy and it`s sad that life eventually took her into the direction of Lana`s character Sheila.
The musical numbers are good, but sadly; footage from THE GREAT ZIEGFELD are edited in(note the finale). James Stewart are good as well - as are Edvard Everett Horton, Charles Winninger and Eve Arden. The film is filled with good 1-liners and there are even echoes of Garbo`s first sound-entrance in ANNA CHRISTIE.
DVD Review: Four Stars For The Four Stars.
Summary: 4 Stars
How did it take me three days to plod through this film, considering it was produced by Pandro S. Berman, directed musically by Busby Berkeley, and starred Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, and Jimmy Stewart? This film had all the ingredients for being a huge success, but it just didn't quite make it. It is definately worth seeing as a piece of classic Hollywood history, but, the story drags, and the musical numbers range, in my opinion, from acceptable to pretty bad. There's a reason why you almost never see clips from this film in retrospectives of Hollywood musicals. Even the great Judy, albeit always charming, comes off as somewhat lackluster in her numbers, though she injects them all with her trademark energy. I found the musical number "Minnie From Trinidad" particularly bad....everyone seems to be doing a dress rehearsal at best, and for the first time in one of her films I could tell Judy was singing to a pre-recorded track. Still, she is adorable as one of the gals with stars in her eyes, and retains the persona of her two years earlier role of Dorothy in "The Wizard Of Oz." Lana Turner, Judy's Little Red School House chum from the MGM lot, is surprisingly effective as the sexy blonde showgirl with a fatal ambition. Never wanting to return to her lower class squalor, she "dates" many men, accepting fabulous jewels, a Park Ave. apartment, and, at last count, six furs, for her "company", the '40s reference for whoredom. Bad girls, even those with a heart of gold, always got punished way back when, and Lana's showgirl, the former elevator girl, is back on for a ride straight down. I had never seen too many of Lana's earlier roles, being more familiar with her '50s melodramas, such as "Imitation Of Life" and "Madame X", where she definately projected a mature quality. I was very impressed with her role here. She had a natural ability for one so early in her career. Tennessee Williams, before his own fame, was once assigned to write a screenplay for her, and commented that she couldn't act her way out of her brassiere. I feel this was an unfair assessment of her skills. She's darn good! Fellow Little Red School House alumni Jackie Cooper plays Lana's kid brother, and there is a very humorous moment when he saunters for their mom in imitation of Lana's performance of the night before, and mom says "I hope I didn't raise my son to be a showgirl" with such gay inference that it should have been included in "The Celluloid Closet." Jimmy Stewart is Jimmy Stewart, which is to say he is totally believable as Lana's true love. Hedy Lamarr, as the third showgirl, has no ambitions other than to get she and her husband out of debt. As porcelein and perfect as a Dresden doll, she shows just about as much acting range. Hedy was one of Hollywood's all-time beauties, and her image in this film is no exception. But, I wouldn't consider her the world's greatest actress. In her scenes with the even more wooden actor who plays her violinist husband, "Franz", their interaction, both replete with discernible European accents, comes off as very dated and almost amateur. Hedy, who was no dummy, once commented that "any girl can look glamorous, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid." She knew wherein her own strengths lie, and it is when she is immobile that her screen power shines. She is unbelievably gorgeous, and in scenes such as the one here where she is framed by giant orchids, well...that image alone is worth a chapter in any book on the history of Hollywood. Busby Berkeley was Hollywood's most famous stage/musical director. Though his sets and numbers here have all the elaborate, over-sized qualities that are identified with his style, and are visually impressive, the music accompanying them just wasn't that memorable. And seeing Judy Garland in her last musical number here was not my favorite Garland moment in a film. Sitting atop the revolving, showgirl laden Berkeley monument, dressed in attire and wig which make her look amazingly and unflatteringly similar to Marie Antoinette, she also looks very uncomfortable and almost ridiculous. Costumes in this film were designed by the famous contract designer, Adrian. These are quite possibly some of the most elaborate, detailed costumes ever in a film, and they range from breathtakingly gorgeous to so over-the-top as to make a drag queen blush. Though this all may seem like too many negatives to make this viewable, the star power and, most of all, the visual power of this film make it more than worthwhile. Add to it the great cast of character actors, most of whose names would be familiar to only film buffs, and, Eve Arden with her trademark dead-pan cynicism and best - gal friend humor, and it all combines to make this, if far from a perfect movie, a movie well worth seeing anyway. My final impression?: "Hooray For Hollywood!"
Description of Ziegfeld Girl
An elevator operator, a wife of a struggling concert violinist, a born-in-a-trunk vaudevillian: they're three different women on three different paths of life, yet they soon share one dream: to become a Ziegfeld Girl. Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Judy Garland play the respective three trying for stardom in this sumptuous extravaganza. James Stewart adds to the star wattage, playing the jilted truck-driving beau of Turner's footlight diva. And legendary innovator Busby Berkeley brings his imaginative camerawork and pacing to numbers that include Garland's massively scaled and calypso-infused Minnie from Trinidad, plus a lavish, showgirl-revue finale that reprises the rhapsodic You Stepped Out of a Dream. Sweet dreams, movie fans.General DVDs
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