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List Price: $19.98Amazon.com's Price: $17.99 You Save: $1.99 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0883929002498
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 08, 2008
Running Time: 185 minutes
Sales Rank: 95204
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: April 08, 1936
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Flo Ziegfeld's midway attraction isn't drawing flies. 'How's business Ziggy?' a rival taunts. This winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture provides the career-chronicling answer. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s business was good (with Broadway's legendary Follies and more) bad (including times the showman could scarcely rub two nickels together) and rarely lacking optimistic excess. Year: 1936Running Time: 128 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 883929002498 Manufacturer No: 1000035660
Amazon.com:
Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Great Ziegfeld stars William Powell in a biopic 'suggested by romances and incidents in the life of America's greatest showman, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.' With admirable accuracy, the film follows Ziegfeld's career from small-time sideshow barker to creator of the famous Ziegfeld Follies, the collection of singing, dancing, and comedy vaudeville acts that launched the careers of such luminaries as Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger, and Harriet Hoctor, all of whom play themselves in the film. In the title role, Powell offers a believable combination of ambition and hucksterism, and his Thin Man costar Myrna Loy makes a late appearance as his second wife, but it's large-eyed Luise Rainer who has the showier role (and won an Oscar) as Ziegfeld's first big star and first wife. The musical numbers, however, don't hold up quite as well as the plot, and the film is overlong at 185 minutes. It's fascinating, though, to see the vintage stars performing, and the eight-minute spectacle 'A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody' is an eye-popper, with an elaborate revolving set supporting a large cast singing and dancing to the Irving Berlin tune while throwing in some Puccini, Strauss, Leoncavallo, and Gershwin for good measure. --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - they don't make 'em like they used to
THE GREAT ZIEGFELD was another big one for MGM, a biopic extravaganza in which the life of Florenz Ziegfeld was used as a sounding board for a variety of ever more spectacular musical numbers. Along the way, there are brief respites for some guest stars (Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice - her line, "For Ziegfeld, I gotta be an urchin... even in burlesque, I was middle-class", is priceless), and mind-numbing musical numbers (how were those supposed to be done live on stage?), tied to a story of Ziegfeld's ... Read More
Rating: - "Ziegfeld" Merely Good
I'd be a little kinder to this film if it hadn't won the Best Picture Oscar. Adding insult to injury is that "Dodsworth" didn't win. The debits here are overlength, superficial storytelling, skindeep biographical study, and generally weak production numbers. To it's credit the film contains strong performances by William Powell, Luise Rainer, Myrna Loy, and Frank Morgan. Good cameos by Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger. The production does have stunning direction and costume design. "The Great Ziegfeld" ... Read More
Rating: - A Best Picture decision that hasn't held up over time
This movie is worthwhile viewing for any fan of classic cinema or William Powell, but over 70 years later it's hard to see why this film won Best Picture of 1936 and a film like "Dodsworth" lost. Today it does seem overly long on musical numbers that could have been cut and short on storyline. There are probably several reasons that the picture could have been better and wasn't, the primary reason being that at the time the film was made Ziegfeld had only been dead four years and was thus still fondly and ... Read More
Rating: - A Best Picture decision that hasn't held up over time
This movie is worthwhile viewing for any fan of classic cinema or William Powell, but over 70 years later it's hard to see why this film won Best Picture of 1936 and a film like "Dodsworth" lost. Today it does seem overly long on musical numbers that could have been cut and short on storyline. There are probably several reasons that the picture could have been better and wasn't, the primary reason being that at the time the film was made Ziegfeld had only been dead four years and was thus still fondly and ... Read More
Rating:  - The Great Ziegfeld
Top MGM musical recreates the glory days of the musical theatre, before movies overtook Broadway as our primary form of entertainment. The ever-charming, debonair Powell is perfect casting for Zeigfeld, and frequent co-star Myrna Loy is also on hand playing second wife Billie Burke. Winner of that year's Best Picture Oscar, Luise Rainer also won a statuette for her portrayal of "Ziggy"'s first wife Anna Held (her culminating phone scene is justly famous). Long but dazzling, "Ziegfeld" combines backstage drama ... Read More
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