Ziegfeld Follies (DVD)
APPROX. 117 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1946 - MPA RATING: NR
" ...an elaborate showcase for the exceptional musical and comedy talents of MGM's biggest stars, with no messy story line or characterizations getting in the way.
Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.
Lena Horne is up next with a sultry, sexy rendition of "Love," and then Red Skelton shows us what can happen "When Television Comes," a fairly prescient bit of funny business considering that Skelton's TV show premiered in 1951. It's basically a one-man comedy act in which a TV announcer gets tanked on the booze he's peddling.
Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer return in "Limehouse Blues," one of the darkest and most naturalistic of the musical sequences, and also among the most entertaining. Then it's Judy Garland (it couldn't be an MGM musical without Astaire and Garland) in an amusing skit about a pompous movie star.
Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly team up for the very first time in a film in the song-dance-and-patter routine "The Babbitt and the Bromide," by the Gershwins. They poke fun at each other, and it's nothing short of wonderful.
Things come to an anticlimactic close with Kathryn Grayson singing "Beauty," not the strongest number on which to end the show, but there are some lovely stage decorations. The whole thing concludes rather abruptly, though, with no closing remarks from Ziegfeld, who disappears entirely after the introduction. Oh, well....
Video:
The picture quality varies from scene to scene. When it's good, it's very, very good, and when it's not, well, it's not as good. The screen size is, of course, a 1.37:1 ratio of the day, reduced slightly to 1.33:1 to fit a standard TV screen. The Technicolor print is in exceptionally good condition, but there are a few places where it cries out for a frame-by-frame restoration. My main concern is that there are too many instances of minor age deterioration--lines, specks, flecks--and a bit more grain than I would have expected. Otherwise, the colors are brilliant, thanks to a high-bit-rate transfer, the costumes and sets looking rich and lush, and the definition excellent.
Audio:
The audio engineers have made the sound available in a newly remixed and remastered Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and in the original 1.0 monaural. In stereo, the sound does fill out the front speakers nicely and even seeps into the rear channels on occasion using DD Pro Logic. Understandably, the early stereo mix is not as full or as smooth as today's state-of-the-art sonics might be, and there is a touch of background noise noticeable at higher output, but it is still plenty good enough. Although it tends toward harshness in the upper frequencies, the midrange accuracy is fine and the stereo spread satisfying.
Extras:
Befitting a big, fancy motion picture, WB have packed it with a passel of extras. The first item is a new featurette, "Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches," fourteen minutes of commentary, interviews, and reminiscences about the making of the film, using new and archival footage and comments from actors, writers, and biographers. Interestingly, they say the film was readied in 1944 but didn't get released until 1946 because the studio was worried it was too long. It was subsequently edited from three hours to the present 117 minutes, but they never say what became of all the cut material.
Next up is a vintage "Crime Does Not Pay" short subject, "The Luckiest Guy in the World," twenty-one minutes, starring Barry Nelson, the fellow who would go on to become the world's first James Bond in a television production of "Casino Royale," predating Sean Connery's portrayal of 007 by over half a dozen years. The third and fourth items are two classic MGM cartoons, "The Hick Chick" and Tom & Jerry in "Solid Serenade." Then there are three audio-only bonus outtake songs: "If Swing Goes, I Go Too," "There's Beauty Everywhere," and "We Will Meet Again in Honolulu."
The extras wrap up with nineteen scene selections, but no chapter insert; a Ziegfeld movies trailer gallery that includes "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936); "Ziegfeld Girl" (1941), and "Ziegfeld Follies." English is the only spoken language option, but there are subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Classic Musicals Box Set:
"Ziegfeld Follies" is available separately or in a big box set of five MGM musicals from Warner Bros. called "Classic Musicals From the Dream Factory." The other titles, also available separately, are "Till the Clouds Roll By" (1946), "Summer Stock" (1950), "Three Little Words" (1950), and "It's Always Fair Weather" (1955).
Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.
Learn more about our rating system »
