Ziegfeld Girl (MGM 1941)
Production Dates: November 1940-January 1941
Release Date: April 25, 1941.
Credited Cast and Crew:
Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, James Stewart
Directed by: Robert Z. "Pop" Leonard
Writing Credits: William Anthony McGuire (story), Marguerite Roberts and Sonya Levien (screenplay), Annalee Whitmore
Produced by: Pandro S. Berman
Original Music by: Roger Edens and Herbert Stothart
Non-Original Music by: Nacio Herb Brown, Harry Carroll, Edward Gallagher, Al Shean, Richard Coburn, Walter Donaldson, Ruth Lowe, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Vincent Rose, John Schonberger and Richard Wagner
Cinematography by: Ray June and Joseph Ruttenburg
Synopsis: The trials and tribulations of three Ziegfeld Follies' starlets. Lana in her first "A" film, almost walks away with it.
My Review: Immensely watchable (if not a bit overlong) and endlessly entertaining tale of three chorus girls trying to make their way in the Ziegfeld Follies, 1941's Ziegfeld Girl is a treat from beginning to end. MGM pulled out all of the stops, with the (at least at the time) up and coming Lana Turner appearing alongside a post Wizard of Oz Judy Garland, a gangly (but very effective) Jimmy Stewart, a teenage Jackie Cooper and the eternal wisecracker Eve Arden (who's part was no doubt mostly left on the cutting room floor). They all fit together well with Garland singing her heart out on such gems as I'm Always Chasing Rainbows (watch Lana's reaction in the background while Judy sings this one) and Minnie From Trinidad. Lana, not being a singer (MGM had stopped trying to make her one by this point), is on hand as eye candy during the musical numbers but more than holds her own during her dramatic scenes as a down and out alcoholic. Her transformation from the chorus girl in the first reel to the ill young woman in the last reel will jar you.
If there IS one weak link in the cast it's Hedy Lamarr. Her role of a young wife torn between her marriage to a concert violinist and the Follies is the smallest of the three principals and though it has some potential, it just seems unnecessary to to the plot. IMO, the film would have worked just fine had they fattened up Eve Arden's part and either omitted or reduced the subplot of Lamarr and her husband. Better cast as exotic dark-haired vamps and being a decade older than both Garland and Turner, she seems ill at ease and dreadfully miscast.
Your Review: What are YOUR thoughts on this film? Contact me at Liza@lanaturneronline.com
Reviewed by Taylor C. Downing on January 29, 2005
This is honestly
one of my favorite films. Lana, Judy and James Stewart completely steal the
show! The only regrets I have for this film is that it wasn't filmed in
Technicolor and instead of having Hedy Lamarr play the wife, they could have
gotten Rita Hayworth or Dorothy Lamour to play the wife or even Gene Tierney,
because now that I think about it, she was too inaccessible. However, other than
that, it's a great film and definitely a classic. It's what "Two Girls on
Broadway" could have been if MGM had put in a lot more time, effort and money.
Highlights and Trivia
*The character of Sheila Regan was the first in a long line of alcoholics that Lana would play on film. She also played a boozer in 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful, 1961's By Love Possessed , 1965's Love Has Many Faces and 1966's Madame X.
*Loosely based on 1936's The Great Ziegfeld.
*Lana and Judy Garland appeared together three years earlier in 1938's Love Finds Andy Hardy.
*For Lana's final, climactic scene on the staircase, she had to be coached on how to fall (without breaking her delicate and heavily insured bones) by MGM gymnasium coach, Doc Roemer.
*Lana and the crew of the film had to endure twenty-six takes of the staircase scene until director Robert Z. ("Pop") Leonard was satisfied.
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