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I first saw this film at the old Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan back in the Sixties. The theater was showing a triple Ziegfeld feature: The Great Ziegfeld, Ziegfeld Follies and Ziegfeld Girl. It ran over 8 hours and I was blinded by the sun as I emerged from the darkened theater.

It was all worth it because as the cliché goes, they really don't make them like that any more.

Seeing it today or even in 1967 one probably wonders why one doesn't see Mr. Ziegfeld in this film. He's a shadowy genius and his two aides Paul Kelly and Edward Everett Horton are in operational charge of his shows in Ziegfeld Girl.

My answer is that William Powell who made such an impression as the great Broadway producer in The Great Ziegfeld five years earlier was probably not available for this film, that Louis B. Mayer had him committed to other projects. And Mayer probably decided that no other player would stand comparison.

Anyway this film is the story of three women who are picked for the Ziegfeld Follies. Three beauties as it were; Lana Turner, Judy Garland, and Hedy Lamarr.

Lamarr has her fling with success and a fling with married singer in the show, Tony Martin. After that she decides to work on her own marriage to violinist Philip Dorn.

Garland of course has real talent and she has the success similar to what she normally has in her 'let's put on a show' movies with Mickey Rooney. Like in her own life, her character is a child vaudeville trooper and her dad is played by Charles Winninger. The family name for Garland and Winninger is Gallagher. And this plot device allows Al Shean to revive his old vaudeville act with Winninger. Shean himself was a Follies veteran with his late partner Ed Gallagher and the two of them had a great patter number, Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean and it was revived very nicely here with Winninger pinch hitting.

Turner is the quintessential girl from Brooklyn who's discovered while operating an elevator for the Follies. She's a girl with a taste for the material things that her truck driver boyfriend James Stewart can't provide. She gets them though, fame, wealth, expensive grown up toys for girls; but at a big price.

Except for the Gallagher and Shean number the musical chores here are carried out by Garland and Martin. Judy's numbers are nice, especially Minnie from Trinidad. But the hit of the film was sung by Tony Martin with You Stepped Out of a Dream. That song was the last lyric written by Gus Kahn who was one of the great Tin Pan Alley lyricists back in the day. Kahn died after this film was completed.

Fans of Judy Garland who are still legion will love this film. Fans of musicals in general will find it very entertaining.

Three girls get a chance to being new Ziegfeld girls. Elevator girl Sheila Regan (Lana Turner) with boyfriend Gilbert Young (James Stewart) finds herself pursued by a millionaire. Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland) has to abandon her vaudeville act with her father. Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) is a mystery woman from overseas.

The cast is filled with legendary names. That alone makes this an interesting movie. Each girl's story is compelling to some extent. At least, it's interesting to watch the legendary beauties. The least interesting is the actual Ziegfeld Follies. It's only a line of beauties walking down the stairs in costumes. The song and dance for the three is mostly walking around. It's not much of a song and dance play. Judy Garland doing vaudeville with her show business father is far more interesting. Of course, she is perfectly comfortable with that. Lana Turner gets to play opposite Jimmy Stewart and has the juicier story. Hedy Lamarr has the least compelling story which ends with simply walking away. All in all, it's a great star watch and a functional musical.

Very odd MGM musical that mixes huge production numbers with depressing, heavy-handed melodrama. The main characters are played by Judy Garland (great and full of life), Jimmy Stewart (looks and acts miserable), Hedy Lamarr (incredibly beautiful but vacant), and Lana Turner (pretty good until she goes bad and REALLY overdoes it). Everybody looks fantastic...even Turner when she falls apart.. The production numbers are astounding with unbelievable costumes (this film really should have been in color). They're very long but never dull...the standout numbers are "You Stepped Out of a Dream" and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows". The one problem is the melodrama is really overwrought and overdone. It drags the movie down and makes it seem much longer than it is (there's no reason for this to be dragged out over 2 hours). Still, see this for the songs and costumes.

There are actually three girls who get into the Ziegfeld Follies in this b/w MGM feature. Judy Garland of course has a fabulous voice (especially when singing 'I'm Always Chasing Rainbows' so quietly); Lana Turner has false poise; and Hedy Lamarr looks stunning.

As the men in their lives, we have James Stewart, Jackie Cooper (all grown up!), Ian Hunter, Dan Dailey, Tony Martin … plus Charles Winninger as Garland's father and vaudeville partner of Al Shean (playing himself).

The Follies numbers look good, but the film cries out for colour. Imagine how overblown, preposterous, and perfect it would have been then. As it is, it is a pleasant distraction, nothing more, and I found it quite distracting when towards the end some sequences were obviously taken from 1936's 'The Great Ziegfeld'!

Lana Turner, Heddy Lamar, and Judy Garland get into the Ziegfeld Follies and promptly go to pot in this backstage soaper about the pitfalls of celebrity.

Lana is a saucy elevator operator who aspires to marry Jimmy Stewart--until a Ziegfeld talent scout sweeps her up. She soon turns into a fast-living, mean-tempered lush. Heddy accompanies violinist husband Philip Dorn to an audition; he doesn't get the job, but she gets snatched up to become a beauty queen. Offended by her admirers, Heddy's husband believes she is unfaithful and leaves her. Judy has worked her way up through the ranks of show business and is hired for her way with a song--but Ziegfeld doesn't want to the hire other half of her act, Judy's father Charles Winninger. How can she desert her father?

To say the actors are typecast is a gross understatement, and in truth Heddy is merely there for decoration and Judy tucked into the film for the occasional musical number. The film really belongs to Lana Turner, who--although somewhat wooden--has the most interesting role of the three, and to James Stewart, who like Lana is a good boy gone bad. Will Lana and Jimmy reform and get back together? Will Heddy be able to convince Philip that her love is true? Will Judy's father ever forgive her? Even though the movie is hokey and a bit overlong, it is still rather fun to watch--and such numbers as "Minnie From Trinidad" are lots of fun. But this is not one of MGM's great musicals by any stretch of the imagination, and it is pretty much for die-hard musical fans only.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

The story of three girls who join the fabulous Ziegfeld Follies. One makes it big, one goes back to her husband, and one goes bad, Hollywood style.

It's too bad this movie was shot in black and white, most of the high points are the, uh, amazing production numbers. I mean, you haven't lived until you've seen a showgirl wearing a school of tropical fish or a flock of parrots. Or Judy Garland in an Xmas-tree tinsel dress. Also a big Judy Garland production number, "Minnie from Trinidad".

Other than the music and costumes, the fun is watching Lana Turner go BAD. Garland and Lammar are less than interesting away from the stage (blame the script), but Turner's rise-and-fall is classic bad-girl camp. (You know she's hitting the skids when men start giving her *fake* diamonds) And of course she dies of Old Movie Disease at the end, the kind that reunites you with your true love and leaves your hair and makeup perfect.

As somebody who loves musicals and would see the likes of James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner in anything, checking out 'Ziegfeld Girl' was definitely something that held my interest in viewing.

'Ziegfeld Girl' is a decent if uneven film, after viewing it. It is less than great but a long way from a disaster. Where 'Ziegfeld Girl' particularly falls down is in the paper thin and preposterous story that is often little more than an excuse to string along the musical numbers and such and the very over the top melodrama that belongs in a leaden and out of date soap opera.

Love Stewart to bits, in fact he is one of my favourite actors but somehow this role didn't seem right for him and Stewart just seems too amiable and clean cut for a character that is somewhat more than that. Lamarr is breath taking in beauty but has little to do and looks lost for some of the film. Tony Martin sings beautifully but is pretty mannered and wooden.

However, the production values are very pleasing on the eye, it isn't Technicolor (and one at times can't help thinking that 'Ziegfeld Girl' could have been even better with it) but still beautifully photographed and the costumes are just splendid. The musical numbers are lovely and full of energy, with the ones making the most impression being "You Stepped Out of a Dream", "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" and "Minnie from Trinidad". The choreography is graceful and exuberant, particularly in "Minnie from Trinidad".

Judy Garland steals the show here in a role that suits her like a glove. Lana Turner has the meatiest role and performs the heck out of it, emoting believably while resisting temptation to overdo it. Nice to see Charles Winninger and Edward Everett Horton.

All in all, not great but with much to enjoy. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Oh, to be a Ziegfield girl. $75 a week and the chance to make it to the moon. But, sometimes that shooting star hits the ground with a thud.

Three beautiful women - The fantastic Hedy Lamarr, Judy Garland (A Star Is Born, Judgment at Nuremberg), and Lana Turner (Peyton Place) - are members of the troupe. Their stories off-stage are told interspersed with Garland's beautiful singing and Busby Berkeley's (Gold Diggers of 1935, Gold Diggers of 1937, Varsity Show) outstanding choreography.

The costuming was magnificent, but wasted in a BW production.

It is the drama off stage that really makes the film interesting as Lamarr and her violinist husband have a falling out over her taking the job while he is unemployed, Garland is trying to make it big and help her Vaudevillian father, and Turner just wants to live the life of glamor, not noticing that her boyfriend (James Stewart) is ruining his life as she is ruining hers, but for different reasons.

An interesting look at life in the city during the 20's.

For some reason Ziegfeld Girl has been panned and patronized by the critics, when in fact it was the last of a series of glorious black & white musicals turned out in the 1930' and early 1940's and one of the best.

Don't listen to the critics who say the musical numbers and the melodramatic story don't work well together. This well-directed musical does an unusually efficient job of melding them together. The "backstage" story itself is probably one of the best with more believable characters and situations than usual. I thought it better than that of the more highly rated 42ond Street. Don't listen to the hard-faced feminist doctrinaires who can't stand seeing women and men and their families portrayed as real human people instead of the social-engineered zombies they would prefer. When someone says this movie would have been been better if in color, cover your ears as if you were being subjected to a stream of blasphemous cursing. Ziegfeld Girl is a gem of sensuous, luminous, black & white cinematography. The costumes and the choreography were wonderfully designed for black and white, and both work better than those of any subsequent color musical.

Jimmy Stewart got top billing in this movie, and he admittedly dominates all of the modest amount of screen time he has. But this is fourth-billed Lana Turner's movie when it comes to the dramatic side of the story. In addition to being at her most glamorous, she turns in a bravura performance as the poor kid from Flatbush rising to stardom and riches only to descend into despair and alcoholism. Hedy Lamarr, billed ahead of Lana, doesn't have much to do except to look beautiful, but she could do that better than any other actress. Nevertheless, don't listen to the critics who say she couldn't act. Check out some of her other movies, such as Dishonored Lady (see my review) and Algiers. Never mind, when the musical numbers start, the show is all Judy Garland, Tony Martin, and Busby Berkley's musical direction. Especially Judy. She has never been cuter or more charming, both in her singing and her not inconsiderable acting talent. The lovable Charles Winninger, playing her hammy, vaudevillian father, is a nice foil for Judy dramatically as well as musically. Some people have found the early musical number performed by the two the best of the show. You can listen to them! But there are plenty of other good numbers.

If you would like two hours and twelve minutes of engrossing, thoroughly entertaining, glittering, spectacular entertainment as only MGM in its golden years could dish out, watch Ziegfeld Girl. They don't, couldn't, and wouldn't if they could make 'em like this any more.

Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr, and Judy Garland each have the honor of being a "Ziegfeld Girl" in this 1941 film also starring Jackie Cooper, James Stewart, Dan Dailey, Tony Martin, Ian Hunter, Edward Everett Horton, and Eve Arden. Mr. Ziegfeld is never seen, but this is a story of three gals who make it into his show and what happens to them as a result. Sandra (Lamarr) is offered a job; since she and her violinist husband (Philip Dorn) need the money, she takes it, only to lose her husband. Susan (Garland) gets in the show, but it means leaving her partner and father (Charles Winninger) behind. And Sheila, engaged to Gilbert (Stewart) succumbs to the temptation of a rich man (Hunter) who gets her a beautiful apartment on Park Avenue and lots of jewels.

This is a decent story with good music, gorgeous singing by Garland and Tony Martin, and fantastic costumes galore. The beautiful Lamarr is fabulous looking but doesn't have much to do in her role, Garland is vivacious as Susan, and Turner is a knockout and does a good job as Sheila. The supporting performances are all good, with Dailey doing an early turn as a prize fighter and Winninger as Susan's father, stuck in his Vaudeville mindset.

My big problem with this film is the code, which makes it predictable, because we all know what happens to a slut.

Nevertheless, despite some slow spots, this is an entertaining film, reminiscent in its way of "Valley of the Dolls" with Turner in the "Neelie O'Hara" role.

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.

My grandparents saw the original Ziegfeld Follies back in the old days and always raved about the showmanship and glamour that was demonstrated. Both the Great Ziegfeld from the mid-1930's and this film give some depth and insight into the days of the glorification of women. "You Stepped Out of A Dream" had more beautiful women in one production number than I have ever seen and probably will ever see. Oh, to have lived when the Ziegfeld shows were popular. And who can even begin to approach the beauty of Hedy Lamarr!

Audiences queuing up for this expensive MGM mega-production expecting a sequel to that studio's Best Picture-winner of 5 years earlier must have gone into toxic shock when confronted with what unravelled on the screen. Was Louis B. Mayer asleep at the dailies? What in God's name is poor Jimmy Stewart doing in this farrago, looking like he has ulcers the few times he appears on screen during the interminable 132-running time? But for sheer gall, or studio lunacy run amok, "Ziegfeld Girl" certainly merits watching. The lugubrious tale of 3 young beauties hand-picked by Flo Ziegfeld (mercifully off-screen) to be groomed for Ziegfeld Girl stardom, the film isn't even a musical (a few lavish production numbers occasionally intrude on the histrionics, but the only truly magical musical moment occurs when Judy Garland, in one of her first "adult" roles--and stealing the film with a warm and endearing performance--sings the evergreen "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" as it has never been sung before or after). Instead, "Ziegfeld Girl" seems to be (I'm not quite sure about anything regarding this loopy extravaganza) about the personal perils and pitfalls awaiting talented but naive young ladies trying to make it into show business. Viewed from this perspective (and certainly NOT L.B.'s intention), the film's moralistic warning seems to be--stay home! Only one of the girls makes it to the top with her sanity intact (ironically, the role played by Garland, who would go on to become MGM's prime mistreated sacrificial lamb), another (Hedy Lamarr, at her most ravishingly gorgeous) chucks it all and goes back to her husband, and the third, high-strung emotionally-unstable shopgirl Lana Turner (also at the peak of her beauty, and delivering a touching, subtle performance) can't handle the pressures of stardom, takes to the bottle, and comes to a tragic end (I think--evasive editing makes it unclear whether she dies at the end or just keels over from the battering inflicted on her by the invisible Mr. Ziefeld). In retrospect, in real life, Garland & Turner should have switched roles. This curio must have run way over its considerable budget when the grand finale is shiftily edited to incorporate the conclusion of the most lavishly eye-popping spectacle from "The Great Ziegfeld." A definite curio--was this Louis B. Mayer's subconscious warning to all his female contract players what working for MGM ultimately had in store for them? More stars than there are in hell? Worth watching (and scratching your head over).

If you're a Ziegfeld Girl, you're on top of the world. With many luminous shots of Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner and a few Judy Garland numbers thrown in, this film chronicles the three stars' meteoric rise to fame in the Ziegfeld follies; some handle it better than others. Jimmy Stewart and Eve Arden also appear.

This is a women's musical, and there is a fair amount of talk about what a woman wants and what makes her happy. Although the film takes it for granted that most women will find fulfilment by being someone's wife, there is room for an alternative: of the three aspiring showgirls, one knows that she really only wants a husband's love, and one has to hit bottom before she realizes it; the third has no need for it whatsoever.

I found this movie kind of boring. It lacked a good script. I thought it lacked something else: a plot! While there's a lot of good musical numbers, I must say this movie didn't entertain me one bit!! I liked Judy Garland in this movie but I think Lana Turner "overacted" in this movie which makes the movie kind of funny instead of serious. I found her character dull. Her character doesn't do anything to help make the movie batter. Judy Garland was better in this movie, even though she looked like she didn't want to be in it, and she sure as hell deserved to be handed a way better script than this cheesy and boring movie. The only musical number to standout was Minnie from Trinidad, which had great costumes.

Three girls, brash Brooklynite Sheila Regan (Lana Turner), earnest daddy's-girl Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland), and exotic beauty Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) follow different paths when they become the titular characters, the living props (and sometimes entertainers) that adorned the stages in the Ziegfeld's extravagant Follies. The central story is the rise and fall of Sheila, who abandons her working-class boyfriend (a miscast Jimmy Stewart) for high-roller Geoffrey Collis (Ian Hunter) before falling from grace (literally and figuratively) and bottoming out hustling drinks in seedy speakeasies. Turner is pretty good but the toggling between her being slapped around by a bitter ex-palooka (Dan Dailey) or struggling to maintain poise when deathly ill, and the over-the-top froth on the Follies' stage was a bit jarring. While the girl from Flatbush's star was waxing and waning, Hedy Lamarr wanders around dreamily, dealing with temptation and the needs of her violinist husband Franz (Philip Dorn), untimely finding a trite epiphany through an ex-showgirl fearful of losing her man. Meanwhile, talented songbird Susan deals with her father's reluctant realisation that his Vaudeville-style of show is passé (until, of course, he's given a change to 'put on a show' in front of the tux-and-gowned crowd at the Follies). There are a couple of good song and dance routines including Garland's poignant rendition of 'I'm Always Chasing Rainbows' (her second hit in as many years involving rainbows and bluebirds) and an energetic rumba showpiece 'Minnie from Trinidad'. The great secondary cast is full of familiar faces (and voices) including former child-star Jackie Cooper as Sheila's concerned brother, Eve Arden as an experienced gold-digger, and Edward Everett Horton as Noble Sage, the unseen Ziegfeld's lieutenant (I can't hear Horton's voice without thinking about 'Rocky and Bullwinkle'). The film is overlong and some of the side-plots dispensable (Jimmy Stewart mobbed up and in the can for bootlegging??). Other than a couple of highlights, the music and production numbers don't compare to 1936's 'The Great Ziegfeld' or some of the 1930's 'Gold Diggers' films and, while frothily entertaining at times, 'Ziegfeld Girl' lacks the timeless charm of the best of the genre.

ZIEGFELD GIRL (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1941), directed by Robert Z. Leonard, is basically a sequel in name only to the Academy Award winning three-hour blockbuster of THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936) starring William Powell, also directed by Robert Z. Leonard. Though the Ziegfeld character is mentioned numerous times in the story, his character never appears. An attempt for another musical blockbuster like its predecessor, it fails mostly in styles and orchestrations being more 1941 modern than to the time and era prior to Ziegfeld's death in 1932. Had it been titled ZIEGFELD FOLLIES of 1941, or even THREE BROADWAY GIRLS, then this modernized version to an original story by William Anthony Maguire would have been sensational. Even without these merits, the film itself is quite entertaining, bearing a huge impressive cast headed by James Stewart, actually in a supporting role to the major lead performers of Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner, with well-staged choreography by Busby Berkeley. Of the three for the show, Garland shines with her vocals while Turner gives the meatiest performance. For Viennese born Lamarr, another star attraction foreign in character as well as in musicals, she does not sing nor dance. She becomes a star attraction by simply sitting and listening motionlessly to her leading man singing to her, and nothing else.

Supposedly set during the roaring twenties, "The fabulous era - when Florenz Ziegfeld glorified the American Girl, and New York wore her over its heart like an orchid - while she lasted." The plot centers upon three young girls from different walks of life: Sheila "Red" Regan (Lana Turner), a department store elevator girl living with her parents (Edward McNamara and Fay Holden), and younger brother, Jerry (Jackie Cooper), who is selected by Noble Sage (Edward Everett Horton) to report to Florenz Ziegfeld productions for a upcoming job as a chorine. Problems persist when her boyfriend, Gilbert Young (James Stewart), a truck driver who loves her, fears he will lose her in the process to millionaire Geoffrey Collis (Ian Hunter) and luxurious life; Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland), 17-year-old daughter of a vaudeville has-been (Charles Winninger) who breaks up their partnership so she could have real success on her own; and Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr), married to struggling violinist Franz (Philip Dorn), who feels himself a failure when finding himself forced to obtain a job beneath his dignity. With Sandra's beauty attracting the attention of Ziegfeld's associate, Sage, she becomes the real breadwinner and romance attraction to lead singer, Frank Melton (Tony Martin), married to a former Ziegfeld girl (Rose Hobart) of years ago. Others in the cast include: Paul Kelly (John Slayton, stage manager); Eve Arden (Patsy Dixon); Dan Dailey Jr. (Jimmy Walters); Felix Bressart (Mischa); Bernard Nedell (Nick Capalini), with Mae Busch and Joyce Compton, among others.

Production numbers include: "Laugh, I'd Thought I'd Split My Sides," "You Stepped Out of a Dream," (pleasingly sung by Tony Martin); "Whispering," "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," "The Caribbean Love Song," "Minnie From Trinidad," "Gallagher and Shean" (wonderfully performed by Charles Winninger and Al Shean); "Ziegfeld Girl," and THE FINALE: "You Gotta Pull Strings," "You," and "You Never Looked So Beautiful Before." Of the tunes, Judy Garland stops the show with her long but highly entertaining number of "Minnie from Trinidad." The finale consists of production number montages lifted from THE GREAT ZIEGFELD to new playback 1940s style orchestration.

Overall, ZIEGFELD GIRL (which should have been titled ZIEGFELD GIRLS since it revolves around three girls), is quite impressive, even down to Lana Turner's binges and notable staircase scene. Who knows how much longer the director's cut was before the song or story edit process took place for its present 134 minute time frame? Available on video cassette and later DVD process, ZIEGFELD GIRL can be seen and enjoyed occasionally on cable television's Turner Classic Movies channel. (***)

Unless you are a largely uncritical fan of Lamarr, Garland or Turner or of musicals in general, this is not a good film to start with; unlike the zippy, racy, fast-paced films Busby Berkeley did with Warner Brothers in the early 30's (42nd Street, the Gold Diggers films),or the dazzling Technicolor Fox Musicals of the 1940's. this MGM effort suffers from an excess of melodrama and not enough music. MGM ruled musicals in the 1950's with major films like Singin' In Rain and The Bandwagon.

Fortunately, Ziegfeld Girl does feature a bang-up, all-out, dazzling fur and feathers number "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" worth the more than two-hour drudgery of largely humorless soap opera, and it's sung by the late Tony Martin, featuring Hedy Lamarr as dazzling as she was ever going to look; unfortunately this number is early in the film, and there's a great deal of angst with Lana Turner hitting the skids as her truck-driving boyfriend (a miscast Jimmy Stewart, looking more than a little uncomfortable), mopes around the edges until she sobers up; This is not a bad film, merely, as frequently happens with MGM, in need of some judicious cutting; Garland is great fun in the "Minnie From Trinidad" number with dancers dangling dozens of bananas as arm decor, and Dan Dailey impressive as a deadbeat boxer; one wishes for more Eve Arden, as always, and one also wishes for the dazzling color of Ziegfeld Follies a few years later.