Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

• Year: 1941
• Released: 25 Apr 1941
• Country: United States
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034415/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ziegfeld_girl
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Passed
• Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance
• Runtime: 132 min
• Writer: Marguerite Roberts, Sonya Levien, William Anthony McGuire
• Director: Robert Z. Leonard, Busby Berkeley
• Cast: James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr
• Keywords: musical, millionaire, violinist, chorus girl,

	6.7/10
	78% – Audience

Ziegfeld Girl Storyline

Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl’s life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on Broadway: Susan, the singer who must leave behind her ageing vaudevillian father; vulnerable Sheila, the working girl pursued both by a millionaire and by her loyal boyfriend from Flatbush; and the mysterious European beauty Sandra, whose concert violinist husband cannot endure the thought of their escaping from poverty by promenading her glamor in skimpy costumes.

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Ziegfeld Girl Movie Reviews

Spending a day with Ziegfeld

I first saw this film at the old Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan back in the Sixties. The theater was showing a triple Ziegfeld feature: The Great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld Follies and Ziegfeld Girl. It ran over 8 hours and I was blinded by the sun as I emerged from the darkened theater.

It was all worth it because as the cliché goes, they really don’t make them like that any more.

Seeing it today or even in 1967 one probably wonders why one doesn’t see Mr. Ziegfeld in this film. He’s a shadowy genius and his two aides Paul Kelly and Edward Everett Horton are in operational charge of his shows in Ziegfeld Girl.

My answer is that William Powell who made such an impression as the great Broadway producer in The Great Ziegfeld five years earlier was probably not available for this film, that Louis B. Mayer had him committed to other projects. And Mayer probably decided that no other player would stand comparison.

Anyway this film is the story of three women who are picked for the Ziegfeld Follies. Three beauties as it were; Lana Turner, Judy Garland, and Hedy Lamarr.

Lamarr has her fling with success and a fling with married singer in the show, Tony Martin. After that she decides to work on her own marriage to violinist Philip Dorn.

Garland of course has real talent and she has the success similar to what she normally has in her ‘let’s put on a show’ movies with Mickey Rooney. Like in her own life, her character is a child vaudeville trooper and her dad is played by Charles Winninger. The family name for Garland and Winninger is Gallagher. And this plot device allows Al Shean to revive his old vaudeville act with Winninger. Shean himself was a Follies veteran with his late partner Ed Gallagher and the two of them had a great patter number, Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean and it was revived very nicely here with Winninger pinch hitting.

Turner is the quintessential girl from Brooklyn who’s discovered while operating an elevator for the Follies. She’s a girl with a taste for the material things that her truck driver boyfriend James Stewart can’t provide. She gets them though, fame, wealth, expensive grown up toys for girls; but at a big price.

Except for the Gallagher and Shean number the musical chores here are carried out by Garland and Martin. Judy’s numbers are nice, especially Minnie from Trinidad. But the hit of the film was sung by Tony Martin with You Stepped Out of a Dream. That song was the last lyric written by Gus Kahn who was one of the great Tin Pan Alley lyricists back in the day. Kahn died after this film was completed.

Fans of Judy Garland who are still legion will love this film. Fans of musicals in general will find it very entertaining.

Three Beauties, Jimmy, early Dan Daily, and finally “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean”

I watched this musical last night on Turner Classics – part of the salute to Hedy Lamarr. ZIEGFELD GIRL is an odd sequel film. Planned in 1938 as a follow up to the big MGM 1936 success THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, it looked closer at the woman in the fabled Ziegfeld choruses than the bio-flick really had. The concentration was on the showman himself, and here on his creations. But the 1938 film was to have Walter Pidgeon in it, and one suspects he’d be playing Ziegfeld (as he did finally play thirty years later in FUNNY GIRL). This 1941 film has nobody playing the showman (although he is mentioned). In the final film of the triptych, ZIEGFELD FOLLIES, William Powell reappeared as Ziegfeld. In 1941 Powell was returning to Hollywood after having survived cancer, so he was still unavailable for this film. I wonder if he would have been in this film again had he been available.

The story here follows three young women who get into the Ziegfeld chorus line.

Lana Turner is an elevator operator in a department store who is seen by the showman and hired by his right hand man (Edward Everett Horton). She is seeing a truck driver (Jimmy Stewart). Turner likes the more lucrative and glamorous lifestyle she is entering (especialy the relationship she picks up with wealthy Ian Hunter). Stewart gradually gets disgusted by the change in her, and turns to “easy, big money” of his own – working as a driver and lieutenant of a bootlegger.

The second follows Hedy Lamarr, the wife of violinist Philip Dorn. Dorn has been struggling (with the help of friend Felix Bressart) to get into public notice as a great classical violinist. While accompanying him to an audition for a violinist at the New Amsterdam Theater, Lamarr is hired for the chorus. Dorn does not want his wife to be a possible sex object for lascivious males. When Hedy refuses to give up a good job, Dorn walks out on her (although he keeps an eye on her career and relationships, especially with the male singer star of the show Tony Martin).

Finally we see Judy acting with her father Charles Winninger at a vaudeville theater in Harlem (this is about 1920 or so). He is “Pop” Gallagher, a tried-and-true old vaudeville comedian and song and dance man. Judy is hired also for the chorus (the one failure of the plot: Judy is still an adorable young woman like “Dorothy” in the WIZARD OF OZ, but is outclassed by Turner and Lamarr or even fellow chorus girl Eve Arden as a statuesque looker), but we see her pushed onto Horton and show director Paul Kelly as a singer by Turner and Lamarr. But her singing is not how Winninger trained her, and he feels he has to let her go off on her own. Instead he meets an old friend, Al Shean (here playing himself), and they go off into the vaudeville hinterlands to perfect an act together.

The film follows the rise and fall or rise of the three young women, with Turner having the hardest fall (as does Stewart). On the way Turner will have two run-ins with a very young (and obnoxious) Dan Daily as a boxing champion. It’s an interesting early role for this actor, better recalled for musical and comic parts a decade later. The other supporting players do well too, Arden getting some nice zingers regarding the benefits of being there for stage door johnnies. Horton plays it fairly controlled and not as startled as normal. Kelly is all business, an interesting early come-back role for a fine character actor just getting his life together after years in prison for a tragedy he was not really to blame for.* Martin gets to sing “You Look Like a Dream” and several other tunes, his romance doomed when Hedy meets his long-suffering wife. Dorn proves an adept actor, jealous and hurt at Hedy’s choice, but willing to meet her half-way at the end. Jackie Cooper (as Lana’s brother) is fine as her would-be conscience, and Judy’s boy-friend.

*It strikes me as ironic that Kelly (whose career continued improving into the 1950s, including a Tony Award) is in this film with Turner. Both were involved in well known murder cases, and in both the sympathy of the public is with Kelly and Turner, not their so-called victims.

Turner and Stewart have the best of the acting honors here, particularly in their reconciliation scene, and Lana’s last trip to see he Follies. Hedy has some nice moments with Martin and Dorn. Look at the scene on the beach with her writing “F” “R” “A” “N” in the sand. Does she mean “Franz” (Dorn) or “Frank” (Martin)? Judy is best with Winninger as her dad and mentor, but has a good scene with Hunter trying to have him make Lana an “honest woman” by marrying her (Hunter was planning to do so). Her singing is best with “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” and “Minnie From Trinidad”, ably directed by Busby Berkeley.

My favorite is last: Al Shean’s real partner, Mr. Gallagher, died about 1929, and except for some phonograph records their routine is not available. But in their day, Gallagher and Shean were as well known as Shean’s nephews, the Marx Brothers, would be across the country. Their comic tunes (or really one tune with new lyrics) made the line “Absolutely Mr. Gallagher? Positively Mr. Shean!” a catch phrase that ever now is still recalled. Al lived to be in the movies until his death (though, oddly, never with his nephews). This film gives him, in Winninger, a great temporary partner. I note that in their scene together at the end Winninger is wearing the same type of eyeglasses that the real Gallagher wore in the act. Did I like this film. “Positively Mr. Shean!”

legendary cast

Three girls get a chance to being new Ziegfeld girls. Elevator girl Sheila Regan (Lana Turner) with boyfriend Gilbert Young (James Stewart) finds herself pursued by a millionaire. Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland) has to abandon her vaudeville act with her father. Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) is a mystery woman from overseas.

The cast is filled with legendary names. That alone makes this an interesting movie. Each girl’s story is compelling to some extent. At least, it’s interesting to watch the legendary beauties. The least interesting is the actual Ziegfeld Follies. It’s only a line of beauties walking down the stairs in costumes. The song and dance for the three is mostly walking around. It’s not much of a song and dance play. Judy Garland doing vaudeville with her show business father is far more interesting. Of course, she is perfectly comfortable with that. Lana Turner gets to play opposite Jimmy Stewart and has the juicier story. Hedy Lamarr has the least compelling story which ends with simply walking away. All in all, it’s a great star watch and a functional musical.