The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

"The Great Ziegfeld (1936)" is one of the few black and white films I've ever seen that I wish were in Technicolor. It was, after all, a classic example of an MGM spectacular, full of elaborate costumes, sets, and star power. It's based on the true story of Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., and it famously features a "wedding cake" set piece that alone cost more than an entire Ziegfeld show.

Up until I saw this, William Powell and Myrna Loy were Nick and Nora Charles from the "Thin Man" films, so I was always half expecting Asta the dog to scurry into frame. And it took nearly two-thirds of the movie until Myrna showed up! But that was OK, because there were plenty of show-stopping musical numbers to keep me well entertained.

You see, Ziegfeld lived for beautiful ladies and overzealous stage productions. Judging by the movie, the guy was constantly in flux financially, sinking any and all of his box office take on either the next big production or ridiculous carats of diamonds for his wife and/or lady friends. He had his start as a small-time sideshow promoter at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. One day, he came up with a genius hook: allow women to fondle his strongman Zandow's muscles. Women and their reluctant husbands paid plenty to faint at the sight.

So he had his first star. He went on to make plenty of other big stars with his famous Ziegfeld Follies shows: Will Rogers, Fanny Brice, and his milk-bathing wife, Anna Held. The film chronicles Ziegfeld's multiple successes and failures in life as well as on stage. He was a well-known ladies' man, and when he divorced Anna, he married Billie Burke (Myrna Loy) and soon had a daughter. Billie, BTW, is best known as Glinda, The Good Witch of the North in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).  

Ziegfeld has his ups and downs, and after he decided to invest all his money into the stock market at exactly the wrong time. When the Crash hits, he loses everything. At the end, he is shown dying, dreaming wistfully about "more steps" towards the heavens, echoing his fetish for having multitudinous stairs for all his Ziegfeld girls to stand on in his big showcases. 

You can't very well NOT have big staircases for these kinds of fashion-week-on-steroids ensembles. 

Powell is very likable in this story, probably because despite the multiple claims by his peers regarding his love of the ladies, not much nooky is shown onscreen. Thanks again, Hays Code. All the juiciness is merely implied, and Powell is so damned amiable anyway that you don't really mind when he falls out of love with his capricious French wife. Hell, as soon as Myrna arrives, their familiar banter is the catalyst for their chemistry, proving that they were meant to be anyway.

The most memorable things about this film, of course, are the frankly ridiculous and addictive "Follies" re-creations. They feature famous songs from Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern and many others. The costumes are exorbitant, bird-of-paradise-like, and more spangly than a drag show. When the so-called "wedding cake" piece started, my husband and I could hardly believe that such a thing ever existed. It's like watching a slowly twirling everlasting spiral confection filled with beautiful women in various forms of outrageous dresses and headpieces dancing or posing  like living fashion dolls. We weren't sure it would ever stop.

Busby Berkeley, eat your women-kaleidoscope-loving heart out.

So, if you've got three hours to kill, and love Depression-Era extravagance, check this one out. Your eyes will get diabetes. Guaranteed.