Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

Lana Turner, Judy Garland, and Hedy Lamarr star in this showgirl ’sploitation flick that tries to cash in on the glamor and drama of The Great Ziegfeld (it actually recycles footage from that film’s dazzling musical numbers), but ends up a chintzy lurid and poorly-written propaganda piece about what happens to women who dare to abandon their paternalistic yoke and enter showbiz.

The whole plot (or should we just call it the moral) is spelled out 20 minutes into the film in an opening night speech: “…You’re Ziegfeld Girls… Some of you will end up with your name in lights (close up on Judy Garland). Some of you will end up with a husband and kids (close up on Hedy Lamarr). And some of you are going to end up…, well, not so good…. But don’t blame it on the Follies…” Some peptalk!
…more about Ziegfeld Girl

Glorifying the American Girl (1929)

It’s nice to hear Mary Eaton speak frankly to her boyfriend (a dreamy Edward Crandall) about wanting to live a little and see what she can do before settling down and raising children. He’s visibly hurt, but not petulant or insulting (like every boyfriend/husband in Ziegfeld Girl and The Dolly Sisters). He does wait for her and seems genuinely supportive of her success…, but eventually settles for available girl-next-door Gloria Shea — who actually is treated pretty badly by the film: abandoned and hit by a car! That’s what chasing love gets you….

Eaton discovers her beau has moved on just before she goes out for the finale in the Follies, and you see the emotions hit her as she struggles under the weight of an enormous headpiece that cascades around her like a fountain. Ok, so it’s not exactly deep, but at least she doesn’t die of alcohol poisoning or get slapped around like in the exploitational Ziegfeld Girl.
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The Dolly Sisters (1945)

The Dolly Sisters bears little resemblance to the real life twins whose scandalous affairs and gambling wins made them the toast of Jazz age society and Ziegfeld’s darlings. And it’s hard to tell whether this campy musical is intentionally tongue-in-cheek or just ends up that way through melodrama, hammy acting, and over the top costumes, but it should inspire drag and retro-burlesque queens for all time!

June Haver and Betty Grabel pass themselves as 10 year olds with baby doll dresses and lollipops…. “Lipstick, Powder, and Rouge” features showgirls introducing themselves as various items in a make-up kit, including a woman with a giant lipstick on her head and “Peggy Powderpuff” who takes it rough…. “Le Darktown Strutters Ball” is a jazz standard used as a bizarre send up of The Folies Bergere’s fascination with everything Le Negre, and puts blue-eyed showgirls in blackface festooned with watermelon hats, dice, and money! Eek!

Both actresses are gorgeous in tailored gowns and sculpted hairstyles. Haver is delicious as the ball-busting Rosie and her bitchy glares make her even more beautiful, while Grabel as the lovestruck Jenny shamelessly steals every scene with her “active listening” constantly moving her head like a pigeon and blinking her large eyes during everyone else’s lines. John Payne is hunky in a uniform but hissably bad for dumping Grabel at the train station when she chooses her career over love, and you’ll howl with laughter during a tearful confession at the hospital after Grabel is in a “disfiguring” car accident with bandaged face and false eyelashes. Later she exclaims “Luckily I didn’t have any scars!”.

Ziegfeld Follies (1946)

So…, MGM plans to make a huge sequel: a new Follies to feature the greatest stars and directors in Hollywood! Fred Astaire verses Gene Kelly! Judy Garland at her finest! Ravishing Ziegfeld Girl Lucille Ball! Fannie Bryce, Red Skelton, and Virginia O’Brien appear for comedy! An underwater Esther Williams number, and Cyd Charisse in a soap bubble ballet!

PRODUCER: We’ve signed William Powell to play Ziegfeld again!
MINION: But Sir, Florenz Ziegfeld died at the end of The Great Ziegfeld.
PRODUCER: Right! So…, we’ll open with William Powell in Heaven putting together the next Follies!
MINION: Do you think moviegoers will believe Ziegfeld went to Heaven, Sir?

Goldwyn Follies (1938)

Ziegfeld’s Follies has a little bit of everything and something for everyone (except plot). The good thing about a follies is that they showcase a variety of talent, each to their best, and then move along before a singer has to dance or a dancer has to act…. Best of all, a pretty girl can just stand there and be beautiful while elaborate scenery and costume swirl around her like an animated tableau.

When Ziegfeld lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929, he closed a successful run of Eddie Cantor’s Whoopie and sold it to Samuel Goldwyn for much needed cash. Ziegfeld’s elaborate staging was left intact and he got producer credit, making everyone happy and turning a profit. Several more Cantor vehicles would be passed from Ziegfeld to Goldwyn, Broadway to Hollywood, so after Ziegfeld’s death Goldwyn had as much right as anyone to try creating his own Follies.

Looking for what he called “Class”, Goldwyn enticed an exciting couple who’d made their fame on the London Stage in On Your Toes: the exotic Vera Zorina of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and her soon-to-be husband choreographer George Balanchine. Zorina was born in Berlin, a ballet prodigy by the age of 4, but picked the Slavic sounding name out of a list when she joined Ballet Russe and learned to speak Russian to seem more exotic. She couldn’t really act and had no experience in comedy, not much of a sunny Hollywood beauty either. Her real talents were on the stage as a dancer where her athletic body and a sort of aloof intensity said everything.
…more about Goldwyn Follies