Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

It will be harder for us in the 21st century to take a movie like "The Great Ziegfeld" seriously due to its over-the-top pomp and the occasional politically incorrect material (and a scene that comes across as pedophilic). I guess that Florenz Ziegfeld was more recognizable to audiences in the 1930s (or they wanted an escape from the Depression). Nonetheless, the movie does show how Flo was determined to make a name for himself in entertainment and did whatever he had to in order to become one of Broadway's biggest impresarios. Of course, I don't know how accurate the movie is.Probably the most famous scene is during the "Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" number, as a spiral staircase gets slowly revealed, with people in all sorts of fancy outfits. The 1930s version of sensory overload.So I'd say that it's nothing special, but worth seeing. Certainly not the sort of movie that would get made nowadays.As for the cast. William Powell and Myrna Loy were of course most famous for the Thin Man series. Co-stars Frank Morgan (Billings) and Ray Bolger (himself) played the Wizard and Scarecrow, respectively, in "The Wizard of Oz" (and Loy's character Billie Burke played Glinda). Mae Questel (Rosie) voiced Betty Boop and also played Woody Allen's character's mom in "New York Stories" and Aunt Bethany in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". Fanny Brice was of course the subject of "Funny Girl".

This biography follows the ups and downs of Florenz Ziegfeld (William Powell), famed producer of extravagant stage revues.For some reason, this film is epic, with a long overture and an extended running time. This is completely pointless, and it would probably be more enjoyable if they cut the fat and got this down to a reasonable length. What hurts it ever more today (2015) is that few people anymore even know who Ziegfeld was.I do not want to be too harsh on the movie, because William Powell is excellent (as always) and part of it is shot by the world's greatest cinematographer, Karl Freund. But really, I cannot see this being a lost classic or anything of the sort.

The nominees for the 1937 Best Picture Oscar included some of the greatest movies ever made: Dodsworth, A Tale of Two Cities, The Story of Louis Pasteur, and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Libeled Lady, San Francisco, and Romeo and Juliet (with Norma Schearer) were unequal but often good as well. And yet, the winner of that year's Best Picture award was The Great Ziegfeld, an undistinguished melodrama. Yes, in the middle, when they reproduce a Ziegfeld show, there are some impressive staged numbers, of which the best is definitely "A Pretty Girl is like a Melody," which just keeps building and building. But the rest of this movie is a long and undistinguished melodrama. How did it win the Oscar? And how, oh how, did Louise Rainer get the Oscar for Best Actress??? That I truly do not understand. Her very artificial performance pales into obscurity against some of the other nominees, like Irene Dunne in "Theodora Goes Wild," or Carole Lombard in "My Man Godfey" - or Ruth Chatterton in "Dodsworth." If you can catch the musical numbers and skip the rest, you'll get the uneven best this movie has to offer, and miss what is largely not worth bothering with.

This is one of those films that I remember watching on television when I was a kid...half a century ago...and the movie still glitters now over 70 years after it was made. This is a true classic.That's not to say it's a perfect movie. My major objection is Luise Rainier's portrayal of Anna Held. How this performance won the Academy Award, I just don't know. I guess I'll just attribute it to tastes of a different era that we, today, can't quite comprehend. In reading a few articles about the film, I discovered that Rainer's performance has been reexamined by critics and often found today to be a key example of overacting. I couldn't agree more. Perhaps it was her overacting in this film that made the locusts attack her in her follow-up movie, "The Good Earth". Perhaps there is karma, after all. And, the movie is 186 minutes long (depending on the cut). But, there is a reason for that. MGM made a logical decision -- to make it a real biography, but also to make it a musical that highlighted the type of production numbers that Ziegfeld is so famous for. So while either could have made a 90 minute movie, together they make a 3 hour movie. It's fine, just be prepared to perhaps watch the film in two sittings.The cast, for its time, was very strong. William Powell felt this was his finest performance, and he was probably correct, although many remember him more for his acting in the Thin Man series. But I have always most associated him with his role here as Florenz Ziegfeld. The death scene here is one that I never forgot after many, many years. Quite impressive and poignant.Powell's partner in the Thin Man series -- Myrna Loy -- plays Billie Burke here (the Good Witch in "The Wizard Of Oz") who married Ziegfeld later in his life. They had completed the first of the Thin Man films 2 years before this film, and did more Thin Man films after this. Their chemistry is rightfully legendary. The surprising thing is that, although she gets second billing, Loy does not appear until 2 hours and 15 minutes into the movie! One of my all-time favorite actors has a major role here -- Frank Morgan as a friendly Ziegfeld rival. In most films, Frank Morgan plays Frank Morgan, and here is no exception. But his performance only adds to the luster of the production. He has one of the main parts here that were not based on an actual person, but the part seems to signify that, despite his craftiness, Ziegfeld was well-regarded by associates.Several performers portray themselves -- Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger, for example (although, apparently Bolger never actually performed in a Ziegfeld production). The big disappointment is that although Brice sings a couple of numbers, just a couple of bars into "My Man", the scene dissolves! Major mistake by the director! Nat Pendleton plays Eugen Sandow, and the Sandow sub-plot here pretty much follows real life. In fact, if you read the Wikipedia bio about Ziegfeld in advance, you'll find that the film somewhat accurately follows Ziefeld's life...in broad strokes.I doubt you'll find her, but Pat Nixon -- as in Mrs. Richard Nixon -- is a Ziegfeld Girl in the film, though she was not credited.While Luise Rainier's role is annoying, and the movie is long, it's still a very worthwhile journey to take. This was one of MGM's top films of the 1930s, and it still deserves the "classic" status it earned all those years ago. Sit back and savor great film-making.P.S. You'll notice that in a few scenes, the film stock is quite degraded (scratchy looking). My guess is that the DVD started with the 176 minute roadshow version print, which was missing 9 minutes that was in the original version, and that those 9 minutes were found in the original version of the film, but were not in pristine condition. Don't worry, it's not a problem for those few minutes of somewhat degraded film quality...it's still very enjoyable, but you will notice it.