The Great Ziegfeld
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Infobox Film 'The Great Ziegfeld' is a 1936 film. Although Florenz Ziegfeld provides a plot thread for this movie, it's really meant to showcase a series of spectacular musical productions. It takes many key liberties with Ziegfeld's life. Florenz and Anna are married when they actually had a common-law relationship, and Anna is a French native when she was actually Polish. The film includes original music by Walter Donaldson and Irving Berlin (whose work was featured in the Follies of 1918, 1919, and 1920.)
The film makes another historical goof: Rhapsody in Blue is heard as part of the 1917 Follies (so dated by the cameo by Will Rogers, who was in that production in real life); the song was written in 1924, and was never featured in the Follies.
In its cast were William Powell (as Ziegfeld), Myrna Loy (as Billie Burke), Luise Rainer (as Anna Held), Nat Pendleton (as Eugen Sandow), Frank Morgan and Virginia Bruce. Ziegfeld performers Fanny Brice and Ray Bolger played themselves. Dennis Morgan, in an uncredited role, performed "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" (which, like Rhapsody in Blue, was never in a Follies).
The movie won three Oscars:
- Academy Award for Best Picture - Hunt Stromberg, producer
- Academy Award for Best Actress - Luise Rainer
- Academy Award for Best Dance Direction - Seymour Felix - For "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody".
It was nominated for an additional four:
- Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis
- Academy Award for Directing - Robert Z. Leonard
- Academy Award for Film Editing - William S. Gray
- Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay - William Anthony McGuire
External links
Template:Start box {{succession box | title=Academy Award for Best Picture | years=1936 | before=Mutiny on the Bounty | after=The Life of Emile Zola }} Template:End