Extravagant, avant-garde, and elegant are an under exaggeration for a man the gave meaning to the very words to describe him, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. Known for his "follies" and his Broadway shows such as Show Boat and The Three Musketeers, Florence Ziegfeld was a force of nature that nothing could stop. When he got an idea into his head it just had to be seen by the rest of the world. The Great Ziegfeld is a movie that attempts to tell the story of the man who imagination can barely be contained within the stage of a theater.
Winner of the of the 9th Best Picture, The Great Ziegfeld is a glorious production of the life of a glorious man. Originally the story was sold to Universal by Billie Burke, Ziegfeld's real life widow, to help pay off debts. However, arguments about the budget of the film because and MGM bought out the picture for $300,000 ($5,240,534 is today's money), which included the story, the cast that included the great movie couple William Powell and Myrna Loy, and some of the sets that were already built. Filming under a new budget that ended up being over $2 millions ($34 Million in today's money) MGM picked up a movie that was well on it's way to success. Still being held as one of the great musical biopics of all time, this film is every bit as beautiful as Ziegfeld would have wanted it. It did not get to be without some competition. This film went head on with nine other films in order with win the Best Picture category. The other films included in the nominations were: Warner Brothers' Anthony Adverse and The story of Louis Pasteur; Goldwyn's Dodsworth; MGM's Libeled Lady, Romeo and Juliet, San Francisco, and A tale of Two Cities; Columbia's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; and Universal's Thee Smart Girls. With keeping as much to how Ziegfeld would have wanted his production done, and to honor his memory, MGM came up with a wonderful masterpiece that gave a great credit to such an inspiring human being.
This has got to be one of the most beautiful productions that I have ever seen on the screen! I first got my taste of the Ziegfeld flare when I fell in love with the movie Ziegfeld Girl. While that movie is more about the "average people" that play in his production, and not about him, the productions that have his name attached to them were just as beautiful and majestic. I have known about this movie for a while and have not had a chance to watch it till now. I was hoping that is was going to be a wonderful story and it was so much more than that. It's showed more about his life and love of theater and family. Even though some of the stuff about his life was made up for theatrical appeal, it was the little quirks that were true that they left in that really brought this man to life. This is a great example of what a Best Picture really is. All of what it encompasses from the costumes, stage, and performances had come together to make a perfect film of the time. Though many to view this movie now say that it is too excessive, being a nearly three hours long, I believe this is a movie that was deserving of the win it received.
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