HotToastyRag Since The Great Ziegfeld was such a big hit in 1936, winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress, Hollywood decided to reprise their hit with Ziegfeld Follies nine years later. While the film from 1936 was a biopic of Florenz Ziegfeld, this "sequel" is quite different. Mr. Ziegfeld starts off the movie in heaven, and the entire film is an imagination of a fantasy show he'd like to put on if he were still alive and in the theater business. Yes, it sounds a little depressing, but in reality, it doesn't harp on his death very much; it's basically a two hour variety show that brings Hollywood's biggest and brightest musical stars together.William Powell played Mr. Ziegfeld in both movies, and neither one really required any acting from him; he just had to be William Powell, full of authority and a little stand-off-ish. Without that silly little thing known as a plot, the singers and dancers were able to perform their numbers one after another, creating a feature-length montage for movie-goers who, at the time, couldn't rent or own movies to re-watch them. If they wanted to see Fred Astaire, they had to wait until his next movie came into the theaters. Ziegfeld Follies was such a huge hit because it was made in a pre-YouTube era; audiences couldn't just watch a twenty minute compilation of their favorite dance numbers online whenever they felt like it. In 1945, it was a humungous treat to go to the movie house and watch Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Kathryn Grayson, Judy Garland, Esther Williams, Lena Horne, Lucille Ball, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Fanny Brice, Edward Arnold, Cyd Charisse, Hume Cronyn, Lucille Bremer, James Melton, Virginia O'Brien, and Keenan Wynn all in one film! Modern audiences might find the movie a little long in the tooth, especially since not all the songs are winners. Fred Astaire headlines a chorus number "Here's to the Girls" which is pretty cute, but Judy Garland's "A Great Lady Has an Interview" will have you reaching for the fast-forward button on your remote. The entire film's a crapshoot, so if you decide to sit through the whole thing, be prepared to take the bad with the good. There is one extremely famous number to come from this film. If you're at all versed in musicals, I can guarantee you've seen this clip from Ziegfeld Follies: the one and only duet danced by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. It's one of the greatest dance scenes in history, with a hilarious dialogue exchange beforehand that instantly charms your heart. "No, I'm not, Ginger," is one of my favorite household phrases! Watching the chemistry and talent of the two greatest dancers is a wonderful and necessary experience, so add the clip of "The Babbitt and the Bromide" to your YouTube favorites list. I've watched it at least twenty-five times; it's just impossible to resist back-to-back viewings, especially since both men later revealed that their favorite dance partners in their entire careers were each other!

TheLittleSongbird There is a lot of talent on display in Ziegfeld Follies, including some of MGM's finest, and while it is a very uneven film there's a lot to enjoy. Those expecting a good story or comedy that makes one laugh will be disappointed, but those who love great production values, even better music and dancing and some great performances will find a lot of pleasure.Ziegfeld Follies is practically plot less(being more of a comedy and musical revue and nothing else), and does suffer from some uneven pacing. Most of the time the film zips along nicely, but some segments like Love and the La Traviata segment I wish were longer(lovely, beautifully performed scenes but too short) and a lot of the comedy sketches do go on for too long, which sags the pacing. Most of the comedy scenes don't work, with the exceptions of the amusing if slightly over-the-top Fanny Brice sketch and Pay the Two Dollars. Keenan Wynn's however is grating and embarrassingly out of place and Red Skelton's is a little overplayed and goes on for too long.However, the Technicolor is glorious and the costumes and sets dazzling in rich colour. Limehouse Blues and especially This Heart of Mine, with its beautiful framing, are particularly strong in this regard. The film is very charming and was clearly done with a lot of heart and affection, and while it's uneven a lot of it entertains. It's solidly directed, the songs are spirit-rousing and exquisitely beautiful, Love and This Heart of Mine being the standouts. The choreography has a lot of energy and very accomplished in moves and execution. Esther Williams' water ballet while not one of the film's most memorable moments is very nicely done, but the heart-stopping Pas De Deux for This Heart of Mine and the amazing energy of The Babbitt and the Bromide.Of the numbers, while Limehouse Blues was fun, Lucille Ball's number was interesting and Ball is more tolerable than usual and Love was beautiful, three stood out. One was Judy Garland's very witty The Great Lady has an Interview, which shows that Garland had some good comedy acting chops. Two was The Babbit and the Bromide, interesting for being the first time for Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly to dance together, and while it doesn't see either man at their best it's a superbly danced and exuberant routine. The third one, and my personal favourite, is the heavenly This Heart of Mine, a perfect marriage of visuals, music and dancing.In conclusion, patchy, with the lack of story, uneven pacing and flat comedy, but very enjoyable, thanks to how good it looks and sounds and how well it's performed on the most part. Not a must see, but definitely worth a look at least once. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Hot 888 Mama Coming on the heels of the over-lauded Oscar best picture winner THE GREAT ZIEGFIELD, MGM--that Cadillac of movie studios--proved the inverse of the Hollywood adage "less is more." MGM heaped so much "more" excess into 110 minutes than even three hours could hold that almost no one in a Depression and WWII-ravaged America would pay a cent to view such an ode to flagrant squandering for the first two years after this flick was shot. Lacking the eye-popping choreography of a Busby Berkeley, this film looks like one of those really fancy but grossly wasteful Faberge Eggs which caused the starving Russian peasants to line up and shoot their Czar and all his relations. Seldom entertaining, ZIEGFIELD FOLLIES loses sight of its purported namesake heavenly host--reprised by William Powell--after the first few minutes, and starts Judy Garland down her path to over-sophisticated ruin. The kindest thing that can be said about ZIEGFIELD FOLLIES is that it probably inspired fewer real-life lynchings of minority Americans than MGM's earlier boondoggle, GONE WITH THE WIND.

Jem Odewahn Given how much I love musicals, this was disappointing. It's a mish-mash of musical numbers and comedy routines from an all-star MGM cast, and it's only really worth watching for a couple of segments. The comedy bits are awful. I ended up skipping through the Red Skelton bit because I found it all so annoying. I watched the film primarily to see Kelly and Astaire dance together, and I'm glad I did, but it's an odd number. Neither look entirely comfortable throughout. Out of all the big name players, Astaire gets the most screen time in this, although he is partnered with Lucille Bremer in two of them, who is clearly far beneath him as a dancing partner. Her dancing lacks any personality or passion, and she's very limited (a debuting Cyd Charisse, dancing with the bubbles, would have been much better!). But the numbers are exquisitely staged, and the Technicolour is lovely. Garland's number is okay, because she has a great talent for comedy, but she never gets to belt it out so she's wasted. The less said about the pretty, pleasant-to-watch-when-she's-not-screeching Kathryn Grayson, the better. Her hymn to "Beauty" closes out the film, and it's hardly a winner. Esther Williams gets to show off her water skills, but it's all a bit so-so. A crazy bit is when Lucille Ball appears to be dominatrix to a bunch of cat women. Overall, it's hardly the great stuff you would expect from MGM