Redwarmin
This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
ChicDragon
It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Brenda
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
richard-1787
I was expecting more from this, because it has a promising cast and the same director as *The Great Ziegfeld*, which MGM had released five years earlier.Granted, the premise is hackneyed: three young women are accepted into the Follies and have to deal with the problems that come with fame, especially fame for appearing in a (for its day) skimpy costume. But, with the exception of Garland's character, the others don't get any good dialogue, no chance to become more than cardboard characters.At one point, we see Al Sheen do (parts of) his famous vaudeville routine with Charles Winninger replacing his old colleagues Pat Gallagher. Part way through we cut away to an uninteresting moment of drama, rather than getting the whole of what could have been one of the highlights of this film.The musical numbers here are often lavishly staged, but not in an interesting manner. If you compare it to MGM's *The Great Ziegfeld*, you can see the difference. That is especially true of the last number, which reuses the wedding cake set used so spectacularly at the end of *The Great Ziegfeld*. The way it is filmed is bland, however, and nothing like the breathtaking finale in the previous picture.Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr both look beautiful in this picture, but they are largely just window dressing here.In short, a pretty but disappointing picture.
mark.waltz
The three girls here are Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner and Judy Garland. Turner is discovered, not sipping sodas but running an elevator. One of Ziegfeld's scouts finds Garland performing with her father in burlesque. Hedy Lamarr happens to be there just because her boyfriend is auditioning for a place in the orchestra. These three girls are all chosen as Ziegfeld girls, and while the glamorous Lamar and Turner both have leading roles in the musical number, Garland is featured in the chorus. One will make it to the top of the wedding cake; another will retire to be a wife, and the third will end up in tragedy.This is an unofficial sequel to The Great Ziegfeld with the focus on the girls rather than the man behind the scenes. He is absent here, but the plot is something similar to some of the subplots from the original. Legengs of real life Ziegfeld girl scandals are still being talked about today with Turner an amalgamation of several real life Follies girls.Garland, who would later stand out in the supporting role of Marilyn Miller in the 1946 Jerome Kern musical bio Till the Clouds Roll By, is perky and sweet, but her character is no different than any of the roles that she played opposite Mickey Rooney. Here, she gets Jackie Cooper instead. Lamarr remains a beautiful block of ice, which leaves Turner to get the best scenes as a self- destructive train wreck.Musically, this is just as lavish looking as its predecessor and Tony Martin provides the voice for the Follies leading man who makes a play for Lamarr even though he's marriedLamarr does get to liven up in a confrontation with the wife that takes a different turn. James Stewart also has a rather thankless part as Turner's boyfriend who ends up involved with gangsters. Smaller roles played by Charles Winninger, Edward Everett Horton and Eve Arden are brief but memorable. Dan Dailey has a nir as a low-class brute who abuses the down on her luck Turner. Garland explodes finally in her big production number, Minnie From Trinidad, where she dances with a chubby but talented hoofer and appears to be propelled high up on a platform with only bamboo poles lifting it.This propelled Turner into stardom and showed that she was more than just another blonde beauty. She really gives her all acting wise. Some elements make this seem forced and an artificial view if the Fillies, but as directed by Robert Z. Leonard, it is a worth-while follow up to the original.
writers_reign
... as someone should have said to Lana Turner before it was too late. Turner plays an elevator (lift in England) operator in what the film coyly calls a 'Fifth Avenue Department Store' and is spotted there (offscreen) by the great Ziggie himself - this may be a backhanded nod to Turner's alleged 'discovery' whilst in Schwab's Drug Store - and before you can say staircase she is a 'Ziegfeld Girl in the same intake as Hedy Lamarr and Judy Garland. This was the second of three films - The Great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld Girl, Ziegfeld Follies - glorifying the Great Mittel Europe Showman and arguably the worst. It's basically a melodrama with a half-hearted score in which top-billed Jimmy Stewart seems miscast as the truck-driver who turns as 'bad' as his girl-friend (Turner) once he realizes her head has been turned by the cliché financier. Turner is actually half decent as the neighborhood gal who abandons True Love for Faux jewellery and most watchable - though there's not enough of her - is Eve Arden, that mistress of the one-liner. Hedy Lamarr supplies the glamor but luckily isn't prevailed upon to act, Judy and Charles Winninger walk through their father-daughter schtick, Tony Martin reminds us just how far short he was of Sinatra or even Dick Haymes and doesn't QUITE ruin the one decent number in the score, You Stepped Out Of A Dream. To add insult to injury MGM shot it in black and white. Try to catch it on TV rather than shelling out for the DVD.
mookindahouse
What looked like the big-budget spectacles that MGM normally churned out in the 1940s turned out to be a big train-wreck. 'Ziegfeld Girl' is definitely one of MGM's worst of the musical bunch. Judy Garland, fresh off of The Wizard of Oz, outshines her co-stars Lana Turner (playing a drunk showgirl who over dramatically falls down the stairs) and Hedy LaMarr (who all but gazes at the ceiling) as the showgirl who makes it in the Follies (Mr. Ziegfeld is never seen... HM I wonder why?). Jimmy Stewart plays Lana's mobster boyfriend. Yes, you read that right, Jimmy Stewart as a mobster. He's as unconvincing as Lucille Ball playing a Gypsy Rose Lee like stripper in one of her early movies. Combine all these with over-the-top Busby Berkeley numbers (with costumes that look like they were stolen from Lady Gaga's dressing room) including one with Garland that predates his nutty "Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat" with Carmen Miranda. The finale with inter-splicings of The Great Ziegfeld must be seen to be believed. Overall, very underwhelming.