This movie was released in the same year that the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 featured a duet performed by Bob Hope and Eve Arden and written by Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin. 'I Can't Get Started' went on to become a 'standard' helped initially by a 12" 78 rpm recording by Bunny Berigan. Ironically, of course, Flo Ziegfeld had no involvement other than his name in this edition of the 'Follies' he inaugurated in 1904. This was one of the very first biopics and in terms of length one of the most ambitious; whilst it may have been sanitized in terms of playing down Ziggie's philandering that philandering wouldn't have been public knowledge in a period when the press had standards and William Powell was an ideal choice for the eponymous character bringing both gravitas and charm to the role. It's difficult today to find anything in the performance of Luise Rainer that would justify an Oscar and Busby Berkeley had already out-spectacled the big Production Number - A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody - two or three times over from 42nd Street on but nevertheless this remains highly watchable and enjoyable not least for the interplaying of Powell and Frank Morgan in early Wizard Of Oz mode. Given the budget it's difficult to understand why so little use was made of Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, etc, who had, after all, presumably been roped in to remind current audiences of the range of the Follies but cavils of this nature to one side this is well worth a look.
Review of The Great Ziegfeld
