--- title: "The Great Ziegfeld" year: 1936 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-great-ziegfeld" fi1m_score: 64 critics_score: 76 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-19T23:11:10.869060+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T23:11:34.681603+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Directed by Robert Z. Leonard · 3h 05m · MPA NR · Music, Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 76 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* Three hours of a man spending other people’s money on staircases, and the staircases are the good part > Robert Z. Leonard’s three-hour life of Broadway’s showman is lavish where it counts and slack everywhere else. The ‘A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody’ number and Luise Rainer’s telephone call are worth the evening; much of what surrounds them is not. ## Synopsis Chicago, 1893. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell) is working the midway at the World’s Fair with a single attraction, the strongman Sandow (Nat Pendleton), and losing the crowd to his rival Billings (Frank Morgan), who has a dancer in the tent next door. Ziegfeld has no money, a father, Dr. Ziegfeld (Joseph Cawthorn), who teaches classical music and despairs of him, and an idea: let the society ladies come up and feel Sandow’s muscles. It works. He follows Billings to Europe, signs the Parisian singer Anna Held (Luise Rainer) from under his nose with promises he cannot pay for, brings her to New York and marries her. Then he starts thinking about a row of girls and a staircase, and a revue with his own name on it. ## Review Florenz Ziegfeld put more women on more staircases than any man in the American theatre, and Robert Z. Leonard’s film, produced by Hunt Stromberg from a screenplay by William Anthony McGuire, sets out to do two things. It wants to tell his life, from a Chicago midway to a Broadway with his name over the door, and it wants to put his shows on screen bigger than he could ever have built them. It manages the second. The first it gets round to when it remembers, and at 185 minutes there is a great deal of remembering to do. William Powell plays Ziegfeld as a man who never has money and never appears to need any, and he is the best reason to stay with the early stretch. The Chicago section, with Nat Pendleton’s Sandow flexing for the ladies while Frank Morgan’s Billings watches his own audience walk next door, is the film at its most relaxed. Morgan spends the picture having acts stolen from him and forgiving the thief over a drink, and his slow double-takes are worth more than most of McGuire’s dialogue. The dialogue, it should be said, is the sort where people announce their feelings to the furniture and then leave. Luise Rainer arrives as Anna Held with a Parisian accent, a tower of curls and a wardrobe from Adrian that makes her look like something Ziegfeld has ordered rather than met. Rainer knows this and plays against it; her Anna is vain, quick to tears and shrewder than the men give her credit for. Late in the film, and we will not say where or why, she makes a telephone call in which she congratulates a man on his happiness while her own face comes apart. It moved us more than we expected, and we are honest enough to say the film had not earned it. Rainer earned it, alone, in one shot, with a receiver. The numbers are what the money went on, and it shows. Five cinematographers are credited, Ray June, Oliver T. Marsh, Karl Freund, Merritt B. Gerstad and George J. Folsey, and the centrepiece, ‘A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody’, is built around a set shaped like a wedding cake, a spiral of steps rising out of frame, with Dennis Morgan as the singer at its foot and what seems like the entire studio payroll draped along the tiers in Adrian’s silks. The camera climbs with them in one long movement and the curtain keeps rising to show another level. We sat up. It is the one moment in the film that makes Ziegfeld’s appeal plain without anyone having to explain it. Fanny Brice plays herself, and her audition, in which she is hired before she has finished the song and does not quite believe it, is the funniest stretch of the three hours. Ray Bolger, also as himself, gets a dance built on falling over and standing up again. Arthur Lange’s music does its job in the theatre scenes and goes quiet and reverent whenever the story does, which is often. The trouble is everything between the numbers. McGuire tells the life as a sequence of announcements: a show opens, a show closes, a cheque bounces, a new woman is discovered, and the film cuts from one to the next as if turning pages. Myrna Loy, who was Powell’s best partner in other films, arrives late as Billie Burke and is given almost nothing to do except be gracious about it. By the third hour we were checking our watches, and then we were annoyed at a film that could stage a wedding cake the size of a house but could not find ten minutes to cut. The backstage musicals Warner Bros. were making in the same years had less money and far more speed. Here the biography is the interval between the spectacles, and the spectacles are the point. Watch it at home, where you can pause, and skip forward with a clear conscience when the announcements begin. It is a U certificate, and the staircase will still be there when you get back. *Fi1m score 64, published 19 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (8) - **Los Angeles Times**, Edwin Schallert (90/100, inferred): The review highlights the film's spectacular quality and beautiful musical numbers during its premiere, noting it sustains interest despite its length and out-Ziegfelds Ziegfeld in production values. It singles out the monumental 'A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody' sequence for praise as a highlight of splendid musical entertainment. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/story/2022-09-20/from-the-archives-the-great-ziegfeld-film-premiere-revives-thrill-of-other-days) - **The New York Times**, Frank S. Nugent (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a thoroughly Ziegfeldian production in its opulence and reverential approach to its subject, with strong performances and spectacular musical numbers. He singles out the lavish staging and the 'A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody' sequence for particular praise while noting the three-hour length could have been trimmed in places. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1936/04/09/archives/the-great-ziegfeld-metros-lavish-biography-of-a-showman-opens-at.html) - **Radio Times**, Tony Sloman (4/5): This sumptuously mounted MGM musical biography of Broadway's most flamboyant showman is perhaps slightly too long for today's tastes, but it thrilled cinema-goers at the time and won the best film Oscar. Luise Rainer also won the first of two successive Academy Awards as best actress for her performance here as Ziegfeld's wife, Anna Held, and her famous telephone scene is a lesson in screen acting. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-htna2j/the-great-ziegfeld/) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (70/100, inferred): The critic notes that the film drags in places and doesn't aim for biographical accuracy, but praises its shiny spectacle and impressive choreography. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/great-ziegfeld-review/) - **The New Yorker** (70/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a respectful and scrupulous Hollywood tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld, noting its three-hour length and gigantic chorus numbers as a lavish period piece of Broadway history. It praises the document-like recreation of Ziegfeld's world and standout bits including Fannie Brice's scenes. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936/04/18/1936-04-18-079-tny-cards-000017705) - **Variety**, Abel Green (70/100, inferred): The critic calls the film the last gasp in filmusical entertainment and an outstanding picture with undeniable box office appeal, praising its cohesive direction, production numbers, and William Powell's performance as Ziegfeld. It singles out the 'A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody' number and overall lavish mounting while noting the excessive footage as its main shortcoming. [Read](https://variety.com/1936/film/reviews/the-great-ziegfeld-2-1200411276/) - **Eye for Film**, Chris (70/100, inferred): The critic finds much of the film awful due to shambolic dialogue and an uncharismatic lead, but two elements elevate it. The Oscar-winning performance by Luise Rainer stands out, along with a breathtaking cinematic recreation of the Ziegfeld Follies that exceeds expectations. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-great-ziegfeld-film-review-by-chris) - **Consequence**, Blake Goble (65/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an entertaining but forgettable ode to excess and showmanship centered on its lavish production numbers, particularly the elaborate eight-minute wedding cake sequence. While praising its opulent spectacle and whimsical 1930s style, the piece notes it feels naïve by modern standards and has largely been forgotten despite its Best Picture win. [Read](https://consequence.net/2016/02/forgotten-best-pictures-the-great-ziegfeld/) ## Details - **Director:** Robert Z. Leonard - **Director:** Robert Z. Leonard - **Screenplay:** William Anthony McGuire - **Cinematography:** Merritt B. Gerstad, George J. Folsey, Ray June, Karl Freund, Oliver T. Marsh - **Editor:** William S. Gray - **Music:** Arthur Lange - **Costume design:** Adrian - **Producer:** Hunt Stromberg - **Cast:** William Powell as Florenz 'Flo' Ziegfeld Jr.; Myrna Loy as Billie Burke; Luise Rainer as Anna Held; Frank Morgan as Billings; Fanny Brice as Fannie Brice; Virginia Bruce as Audrey Dane; Reginald Owen as Sampston; Ray Bolger as Ray Bolger - **Runtime:** 3h 05m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 8 April 1936 - **Genres:** Music, Drama, Romance - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $5 million ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AT, BG, CZ, DK, ES, FR, GB, LT, NL, NO, PL, RO, RS, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1937: Best Director (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Production Design (nominated); Best Story (nominated); Best Actress (won); Best Picture (won) ## If you liked this - *42nd Street* (1933), Fi1m 82: The same Broadway, a fraction of the budget, and twice the pace — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) - *Funny Girl* (1968): Fanny Brice’s own story, with Streisand doing the audition properly - *Topsy-Turvy* (1999), Fi1m 88: Mike Leigh on Gilbert and Sullivan: how a show actually gets made — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/topsy-turvy.md) - *Les Enfants du Paradis* (1945): Paris theatre life in the 1820s, with the melodrama earned - *Ziegfeld Girl* (1941): The chorus line’s side of the story, with Judy Garland on the staircase --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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