The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
April 8, 1936Release Date
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
April 8, 1936Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Currently The Great Ziegfeld is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Spectrum On Demand
Streaming in:🇺🇸 United States
Cast & Crew.
William Powell
Florenz 'Flo' Ziegfeld Jr.
Myrna Loy
Billie Burke
Luise Rainer
Anna Held
Frank Morgan
Billings
Fanny Brice
Fannie Brice
Virginia Bruce
Audrey Dane
Reginald Owen
Sampston
Ray Bolger
Ray Bolger
Ernest Cossart
Sidney
Joseph Cawthorn
Dr. Ziegfeld
Nat Pendleton
Sandow
Dennis Morgan
Stage Singer in 'Pretty Girl' Number
Marcelle Corday
Marie
Robert Greig
Ziegfeld's Butler (uncredited)
Harriet Hoctor
Herself
Jean Chatburn
Mary Lou
Paul Irving
Erlanger
Herman Bing
Costumer
Charles Judels
Pierre
Raymond Walburn
Sage
A.A. Trimble
Will Rogers
Buddy Doyle
Eddie Cantor
Wallis Clark
Stock Broker
Wanda Perry
Ziegfeld Girl (uncredited)
William Demarest
Gene Buck (uncredited)
Ann Gillis
Mary Lou as a Child (uncredited)
Selmer Jackson
Barber Shop Customer (uncredited)
John Larkin
Sam (uncredited)
Barry Norton
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
Charles Trowbridge
Julian Mitchell (uncredited)
Robert Z. Leonard
Director
William Anthony McGuire
Screenplay
Media.
Details.
Release DateApril 8, 1936
StatusReleased
Running Time3h 5m
Content RatingNR
Genres
Last updated:
This Movie Is About.
Wiki.
The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke.
The film, shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City, California in the fall of 1935, is a fictionalized and sanitized tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. and a cinematic adaptation of Broadway's Ziegfeld Follies, with highly elaborate costumes, dances and sets. Many of the performers of the theatrical Ziegfeld Follies were cast in the film as themselves, including Fanny Brice and Harriet Hoctor, and the real Billie Burke acted as a supervisor for the film. The "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" set alone was reported to have cost US$220,000 (US$4,830,504 in 2023 dollars), featuring a towering rotating volute of 70 ft (21 m) diameter with 175 spiral steps, weighing 100 tons. The music to the film was provided by Walter Donaldson, Irving Berlin, and lyricist Harold Adamson, with choreographed scenes. The extravagant costumes were designed by Adrian, taking some 250 tailors and seamstresses six months to prepare them using 50 pounds (23 kg) of silver sequins and 12 yards (11 m) of white ostrich plumes. Over a thousand people were employed in the production of the film, which required 16 reels of film after the cutting.
One of the biggest successes in film in the 1930s and the pride of MGM at the time, it was acclaimed as the greatest musical biography to be made in Hollywood and still remains a standard in musical film making. It won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture for producer Hunt Stromberg, Best Actress for Luise Rainer, and Best Dance Direction for Seymour Felix, and was nominated for four others.
MGM made two more Ziegfeld films: Ziegfeld Girl (1941), starring James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner, which recycled some footage from The Great Ziegfeld; and Ziegfeld Follies (1946) by Vincente Minnelli. In 1951, the studio produced a Technicolor remake of Show Boat, which Ziegfeld had presented as a stage musical.