Themes: Life in the Arts, Ladder to the Top, Rise and Fall Stories
Main Cast: James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, Tony Martin
Release Year: 1941
Country: US
Run Time: 131 minutes
Plot
All that MGM's Ziegfeld Girl lacks is Technicolor; otherwise, the film has talent and "sock" entertainment value in abundance. The story focuses on three showbiz hopefuls-Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner-and the efforts to attain the lofty status of "Ziegfeld Girl." Garland is compelled to leave her family vaudeville act; she bids her dad Charles Winninger a tearful farewell, and later falls in love with Turner's brother Jackie Cooper. In her bid for success, Lana forgets all about her faithful boyfriend James Stewart, who turns to bootlegging to come up to the financial stature of Lana's new beau, socialite Ian Hunter. Lamarr nearly dumps her impoverished violinist husband Philip Dorn as she climbs the ladder of success. There are happy endings in store for two of the three female leads, but we'll let you watch the film yourselves to find out who wins and who loses. Featured in the cast are Tony Martin, Edward Everett Horton, Eve Arden, Dan Dailey, and, in a poignant cameo as a wardrobe woman, the "ever popular" Mae Busch. Song highlights include "Minnie from Trinidad", "You Never Looked So Beautiful Before", "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", "Laugh? I Thought I'd Split My Side", "Caribbean Love Song", "Whispering", "Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean" (performed by Charles Winninger and the surviving half of the Gallagher-and-Shean duo, Al Shean-who happened to be the Marx Bros.' uncle), "You Stepped Out of a Dream" and "You Gotta Pull Strings." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
When fourth-billed Lana Turner reached the bottom of those Ziegfeldian stars to the strains of Nacio Herb Brown and Gus Kahn's lilting "You Stepped Out of a Dream" she found herself a full-fledged star. The writers, of course, had done the novice actress untold favors by creating for her the show's only full-bodied character, the one bright spot in what essentially is an overproduced bore saddled with a screenplay as hackneyed as they come and rare sub-par performances from Judy Garland (at her giddiest worst) and James Stewart. The story hardly improved with age and when it came time to film Jacqueline Susann's updated version, now whimsically called Valley of the Dolls (1967), there was no longer anyone around with Lana's special brand of manufactured glamour and the whole enterprise appeared as stale and old-fashioned as -- well, as Ziegfeld Girl. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Set in the 1920s, the film tells the parallel stories of three women who become performers in the renown Broadway show the Ziegfeld Follies. It was intended to be a 1938 sequel to the 1936 hit The Great Ziegfeld, and even recycled some footage from the earlier film.
The Silent Command •Heritage •Judge Not; or The Woman of Mona Diggings •Secret Love •The Crippled Hand •The Love Girl •Little Eve Edgarton •The Plow Girl •The Eagle's Wing (with Rufus Steele) •On Record •A Mormon Maid •The Primrose Ring •At First Sight •Princess Virtue •Face Value •The Bride's Awakening •Her Body in Bond •Modern Love •Danger, Go Slow •The Scarlet Shadow •The Delicious Little Devil •What Am I Bid? •Big Little Person •The Way of a Woman •The Miracle of Love
