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Long before Christopher Reeve showed audiences that a man could fly, the cinematic legacy of Superman had already gotten a jump start from all forms of media. The strikingly fluid animation of the early '40s Max Fleischer cartoons made it feel as if you were watching an issue of "Superman" come to life. They were impressive feats for the time and, even today, still look pretty phenomenal, capturing the weight and scale of a powerful superhero living among the people. Later that same decade, Superman's first live-action appearances on the big screen arrived in the form of two serials ("Superman" and "Atom Man Vs. Superman"). Kirk Alyn, who largely went uncredited as the titular superhero, may have become an animated figure when it came to flying, but on the ground, people got to see an actual person in the suit. It would be two years after Alyn's last appearance as the Man of Steel,...

Years in the making! The glory of MGM on parade! Enough studio resources to film twenty pictures were expended on this paean to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. It’s really Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s Technicolor valentine to itself, showing off the studio’s enormous stable of musical talent, along with various of its comic performers. Arthur Freed and Louis B. Mayer’s notion of ‘something for everyone’ results in weird stack of grandiose musical numbers and mostly weak comedy. The biggest draw is the incredible color cinematography that peeks through in three or four jaw-droppingly elaborate musical spectacles. The picture is a workout to find the artistic limits of the Technicolor system.

Ziegfeld Follies

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...