The MGM stables at a time prior to Olivia de Havilland suing Warner Brothers over contract feuds were looking lovely, but just a year prior to the latter occurring, the studio looks in need of an alarming lift. Howard Stricklings favourite campaign, More stars than there are in the heavens may have been true in comparison to other studios, but a lot of them were burning out, and too few were shining amongst the rest. "Ziegfeld Follies" is certainly dazzling and lavish to look at, but little else. It certainly is on the whole, enjoyable, light musical and comedic relief, and has some brilliant highlights, but I am only thankful that "Follies" had plenty of production problems and therefore someone had the intelligence to keep a stopwatch handy as the revue could have run well into three hours.
William Powell, who is not featured in enough footage himself, explains his purpose, by using Fred Astaire as a puppet on strings to help us understand the purpose of the show, that the Follies never had a plot. That may be the case, but the legendary showman could have drafted his dream show a little better than by pooling into the talent pools at MGM alone. Hasnt he forgotten about his favourite, Marilyn Miller? Perhaps on all accounts the stars were a little exhausted by their better show effort of 1946, Till the Clouds roll by.
Of course Esther Williams smiling and swimming through a seabed of imaginary coral couldnt actually have been incorporated into the life story of Jerome Kern so she has been badly slotted within a roster of another two dozen or so people. The first comedic sketch is somewhat a disaster and a painful reminder of what national telecommunications systems are like in Australia. Lena Hornes so-called brilliant number Love is forgettable, and Lucille Ball is a painful reminder of what never to include in a musical.
Those who are psychically prone to suffering nausea and with weak stomachs are best advised to skip Kathryn Grayson in another cotton candy pink outfit singing Beauty, first in a kaleidoscope of bad colour, then in a massive bubble bath. Why anyone gave her the all-important finale remains a mystery, although she executes her operatic range routinely well, despite another diabetic causing sugary, wholesome performance.
However, the most disappointing of all is Judy Garland. As always, she is a welcome presence, but the number is a parody of the First Lady Greer Garson and is merely an eyesore for a person who wasnt anything like prescribed. Her singing pipes and dancing stems are in good order, but it cant recapture the stronger numbers from Clouds like Who? and Look For the Silver Lining. Its quite alarming to think that she had to go back to the 1890s to wear a nicer looking gown than the one worn in The Interview. Madame Credamante is certainly amusing, but generally, like the whole musical, lacking in style. The worst part remained was sitting through eighty minutes of the musical waiting to see possibly the worst Judy Garland number in eight movies.
The definitive piece of work is always stated to be Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer in the beautiful This Heart of Mine, definitely one of the top three performances in the film. Not so good, but again enjoyable is the other Astaire-Bremer pairing, Limehouse Blues which is a better story than the film itself. Red Skelton puts forward the best performance of all the comedy sketches, but also great is Fanny Brice and to a lesser extent, Victor Moore in the Pay the two dollars sketch. Cyd Charisse and Virginia OBrien appear briefly, and for the better.
The best number was the delightful The Babbit and the Bromide performed by the Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant of dance, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, and the only actual film in which the two greats met for a tap dancing match. As always, both dancers radiate brilliance, wit and charm, and make everything they dance, pure magic. Their quips, Rita Hayworth and Ginger are just perfect. Forget everything else. This is definitely a masterpiece of musicals.
Behind Follies was probably the entire writers department at MGM, who couldnt even come up with one decent story. At least eight directors of all sorts were involved, and music and lyrics from at least four musical teams. Lavish costumes and a generously huge budget, and all of it couldnt compensate for the Follies having some at least orderly fashioned plot and planning.
All this almost makes one wish back to the days of teenaged Rooney-Garland. At least their eager approach to Come on, lets put on a show seems more naturalistic than Ziegfeld imagining his life as a puppet show on the life of his stage. Follies is one of those musicals that wants to be a part of the greats at MGM with Singin in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and An American in Paris, but cannot get past the stages of longingly pressing its nose up against a glass palette window. Too many flaws unfortunately overshadow some of the great mastery of some of the elegant pieces, some of which could command a better audience, if only there were placed in the right film.
Rating: 7/10
William Powell, who is not featured in enough footage himself, explains his purpose, by using Fred Astaire as a puppet on strings to help us understand the purpose of the show, that the Follies never had a plot. That may be the case, but the legendary showman could have drafted his dream show a little better than by pooling into the talent pools at MGM alone. Hasnt he forgotten about his favourite, Marilyn Miller? Perhaps on all accounts the stars were a little exhausted by their better show effort of 1946, Till the Clouds roll by.
Of course Esther Williams smiling and swimming through a seabed of imaginary coral couldnt actually have been incorporated into the life story of Jerome Kern so she has been badly slotted within a roster of another two dozen or so people. The first comedic sketch is somewhat a disaster and a painful reminder of what national telecommunications systems are like in Australia. Lena Hornes so-called brilliant number Love is forgettable, and Lucille Ball is a painful reminder of what never to include in a musical.
Those who are psychically prone to suffering nausea and with weak stomachs are best advised to skip Kathryn Grayson in another cotton candy pink outfit singing Beauty, first in a kaleidoscope of bad colour, then in a massive bubble bath. Why anyone gave her the all-important finale remains a mystery, although she executes her operatic range routinely well, despite another diabetic causing sugary, wholesome performance.
However, the most disappointing of all is Judy Garland. As always, she is a welcome presence, but the number is a parody of the First Lady Greer Garson and is merely an eyesore for a person who wasnt anything like prescribed. Her singing pipes and dancing stems are in good order, but it cant recapture the stronger numbers from Clouds like Who? and Look For the Silver Lining. Its quite alarming to think that she had to go back to the 1890s to wear a nicer looking gown than the one worn in The Interview. Madame Credamante is certainly amusing, but generally, like the whole musical, lacking in style. The worst part remained was sitting through eighty minutes of the musical waiting to see possibly the worst Judy Garland number in eight movies.
The definitive piece of work is always stated to be Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer in the beautiful This Heart of Mine, definitely one of the top three performances in the film. Not so good, but again enjoyable is the other Astaire-Bremer pairing, Limehouse Blues which is a better story than the film itself. Red Skelton puts forward the best performance of all the comedy sketches, but also great is Fanny Brice and to a lesser extent, Victor Moore in the Pay the two dollars sketch. Cyd Charisse and Virginia OBrien appear briefly, and for the better.
The best number was the delightful The Babbit and the Bromide performed by the Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant of dance, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, and the only actual film in which the two greats met for a tap dancing match. As always, both dancers radiate brilliance, wit and charm, and make everything they dance, pure magic. Their quips, Rita Hayworth and Ginger are just perfect. Forget everything else. This is definitely a masterpiece of musicals.
Behind Follies was probably the entire writers department at MGM, who couldnt even come up with one decent story. At least eight directors of all sorts were involved, and music and lyrics from at least four musical teams. Lavish costumes and a generously huge budget, and all of it couldnt compensate for the Follies having some at least orderly fashioned plot and planning.
All this almost makes one wish back to the days of teenaged Rooney-Garland. At least their eager approach to Come on, lets put on a show seems more naturalistic than Ziegfeld imagining his life as a puppet show on the life of his stage. Follies is one of those musicals that wants to be a part of the greats at MGM with Singin in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and An American in Paris, but cannot get past the stages of longingly pressing its nose up against a glass palette window. Too many flaws unfortunately overshadow some of the great mastery of some of the elegant pieces, some of which could command a better audience, if only there were placed in the right film.
Rating: 7/10