How does one describe 'Ziegfeld Follies (1946)?' Well, I suppose the simplest description is that it's almost a live-action musical version of 'Fantasia (1940).' The film consists of a number of individual, self- contained musical numbers and comedy sketches, a tribute to the extravagant stage shows of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., which were inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris and ran between 1907 and 1931. William Powell, recreating his title role from the biopic 'The Great Ziegfeld (1936),' plays the master showman who, from his heavenly suite in the hereafter, decides to stage one final Follies using the stars of today. Certainly, by the 1940s, M-G-M had assembled such an astonishing selection of musical talent that their motto became "More Stars Than There Are in the Heavens" – the real-life Ziegfeld would have been licking his lips with anticipation! Fred Astaire naturally headlines the film, but he enjoys the support of an overwhelming (and eclectic) assortment of talented dancers, singers, comedians, directors, musicians and choreographers, the likes of which had never been seen before or since.
William Powell opens the film, as Ziegfeld, with his brief reminiscences on a lifetime in entertainment, utilising a rather bizarre style of stop-motion animation. However, once the music gets started – and, true to form, the Follies commence with a tribute to the American girl – we are treated to some of the most vivid and spectacular musical numbers ever devised. The world of Ziegfeld is often unaccountably weird: Lucille Ball cracking whips at dancers in feline costumes; Fred Astaire donning Oriental make-up; Lena Horne singing a fiery tribute to the fatal powers of love and lust. Judy Garland chimes in with a dead-on Katharine Hepburn impression, before performing a song that sounds suspiciously like cinema's first rap rendition. It all has the flavour of a dream, suggestive of something both fantastic and eternal. Even the out-of-place comedy sketches (Keenan Wynn eating a telephone, Victor Moore arrested for "expectorating" on public transport, Red Skelton as a drunken television host) take place in hyper-stylised surroundings, adding an element of abstract absurdism.
Astaire's three major performances are the highlights: "This Heart of Mine" and "Limehouse Blues" teamed him with the graceful Lucille Bremer. In the former, Astaire plays a sophisticated jewelery thief who charms, and subsequently falls in love with, a beautiful lady, the pair dancing and swirling elegantly on rotating floors and hidden conveyor belts. In the latter, Astaire improbably plays a proud Chinese labourer whose impossible yearning for Bremer finds life only in an atmospheric dream ballet, serving a similar purpose to the ballet in Gene Kelly's 'An American in Paris (1951).' Astaire's final, and most memorable, appearance sees him paired with Gene Kelly in "The Babbit and the Bromide," the first of only two occasions on which stars danced together, the other in 'That's Entertainment! Part II (1976).' And so, with Kathryn Grayson singing and floating gracefully through mountains of bubble bath, 'Ziegfeld Follies' draws to a close – the awakening from a long, colourful and timeless daydream, a stage performance beamed down from above.
William Powell opens the film, as Ziegfeld, with his brief reminiscences on a lifetime in entertainment, utilising a rather bizarre style of stop-motion animation. However, once the music gets started – and, true to form, the Follies commence with a tribute to the American girl – we are treated to some of the most vivid and spectacular musical numbers ever devised. The world of Ziegfeld is often unaccountably weird: Lucille Ball cracking whips at dancers in feline costumes; Fred Astaire donning Oriental make-up; Lena Horne singing a fiery tribute to the fatal powers of love and lust. Judy Garland chimes in with a dead-on Katharine Hepburn impression, before performing a song that sounds suspiciously like cinema's first rap rendition. It all has the flavour of a dream, suggestive of something both fantastic and eternal. Even the out-of-place comedy sketches (Keenan Wynn eating a telephone, Victor Moore arrested for "expectorating" on public transport, Red Skelton as a drunken television host) take place in hyper-stylised surroundings, adding an element of abstract absurdism.
Astaire's three major performances are the highlights: "This Heart of Mine" and "Limehouse Blues" teamed him with the graceful Lucille Bremer. In the former, Astaire plays a sophisticated jewelery thief who charms, and subsequently falls in love with, a beautiful lady, the pair dancing and swirling elegantly on rotating floors and hidden conveyor belts. In the latter, Astaire improbably plays a proud Chinese labourer whose impossible yearning for Bremer finds life only in an atmospheric dream ballet, serving a similar purpose to the ballet in Gene Kelly's 'An American in Paris (1951).' Astaire's final, and most memorable, appearance sees him paired with Gene Kelly in "The Babbit and the Bromide," the first of only two occasions on which stars danced together, the other in 'That's Entertainment! Part II (1976).' And so, with Kathryn Grayson singing and floating gracefully through mountains of bubble bath, 'Ziegfeld Follies' draws to a close – the awakening from a long, colourful and timeless daydream, a stage performance beamed down from above.