"Glorifying the American Girl" was a huge hit in its day. Talking pictures were brand new and musicals were all the rage, and this was not only the most extravagant musical of it's day, it allowed America to finally see one of Florenz Ziegfeld's legendary musicals without going all the way to New York. Today it's chiefly of historical interest, as an early talkie and an example of 1920's Broadway, and yes, a Flo Ziegfeld's musical extravaganza.
It's not very entertaining, being as clumsily shot as most early talkies, with bad sound and film that's been allowed to deteriorate until hardly any detail is visible. The Ziegfeld show that's the chief attraction would be eye-popping if it were in color, if you could see any of the detail of the huge, insane, costumes, and if you could see any of the famous "Most beautiful girls in New York" except as distant blurs. The plot is pretty lame, about a sweet, innocent, well-chaperoned vaudeville girl who becomes a Broadway star in spite of a few minor difficulties, so the mind is pretty much left to look at such spectacle as is visible (and Eddie Cantor) and ponder the meaning of life and history and wonder about things like...
...If you're sick of movies that are nothing but CGS special effects, it be glad you didn't live in the "Good old days" where the show was nothing but fancy costumes and girls who just stood there wearing them. Ziegfeld never had even a pretense at a plot, just some disconnected songs and comedy routines. ...Isn't it amazing how far the art of dance has come in the last 80 years? Leading lady Marilyn Miller is the only one of the dozens of girl dancers who looks like she had more than a month of training, and she lacks anything resembling polish. Then she was a star, today she couldn't get a job. ...If you're a woman and tired of the endless quest for perfect thinness, it's interesting to see how much fashions in women's figures change; Marilyn Miller was one short, chunky woman and everyone thought she was hot stuff. ...Gosh, weren't those costumes skimpy? Even by today's standards (outside of Las Vegas). This was made before the movie industry began censoring itself, and it makes one wonder what one's grandmother got up to during the roaring twenties! ...How did the girls move in those 10-foot headresses? Do they use the same steel-brace-down-the-back as "Beach Blanket Babylon", or are they so stiff because they're afraid a wrong move will unbalance the things and break their necks? ...Isn't it nice to live in a world where a girl can have a job without having to take her mother with her everywhere she goes? And aren't you glad girls don't have to pretend to be so innocent they're helpless anymore? ...Did you know that Marilyn Miller was the first Marilyn? Yup, she made up the name for herself and it caught on bigtime.
did you know Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch in `The Wizard of Oz' was Ziegfeld's last wife? And did you know that Myrna Loy played her in `The Great Ziegfeld'?
Okay, I was getting pretty bored with the movie by the end.
It's not very entertaining, being as clumsily shot as most early talkies, with bad sound and film that's been allowed to deteriorate until hardly any detail is visible. The Ziegfeld show that's the chief attraction would be eye-popping if it were in color, if you could see any of the detail of the huge, insane, costumes, and if you could see any of the famous "Most beautiful girls in New York" except as distant blurs. The plot is pretty lame, about a sweet, innocent, well-chaperoned vaudeville girl who becomes a Broadway star in spite of a few minor difficulties, so the mind is pretty much left to look at such spectacle as is visible (and Eddie Cantor) and ponder the meaning of life and history and wonder about things like...
...If you're sick of movies that are nothing but CGS special effects, it be glad you didn't live in the "Good old days" where the show was nothing but fancy costumes and girls who just stood there wearing them. Ziegfeld never had even a pretense at a plot, just some disconnected songs and comedy routines. ...Isn't it amazing how far the art of dance has come in the last 80 years? Leading lady Marilyn Miller is the only one of the dozens of girl dancers who looks like she had more than a month of training, and she lacks anything resembling polish. Then she was a star, today she couldn't get a job. ...If you're a woman and tired of the endless quest for perfect thinness, it's interesting to see how much fashions in women's figures change; Marilyn Miller was one short, chunky woman and everyone thought she was hot stuff. ...Gosh, weren't those costumes skimpy? Even by today's standards (outside of Las Vegas). This was made before the movie industry began censoring itself, and it makes one wonder what one's grandmother got up to during the roaring twenties! ...How did the girls move in those 10-foot headresses? Do they use the same steel-brace-down-the-back as "Beach Blanket Babylon", or are they so stiff because they're afraid a wrong move will unbalance the things and break their necks? ...Isn't it nice to live in a world where a girl can have a job without having to take her mother with her everywhere she goes? And aren't you glad girls don't have to pretend to be so innocent they're helpless anymore? ...Did you know that Marilyn Miller was the first Marilyn? Yup, she made up the name for herself and it caught on bigtime.
did you know Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch in `The Wizard of Oz' was Ziegfeld's last wife? And did you know that Myrna Loy played her in `The Great Ziegfeld'?
Okay, I was getting pretty bored with the movie by the end.