Ziegfeld Follies

The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue, ...more

Revues are a tricky thing o pull off on film (which is why most producers try to hedge their bets but tacking a plot onto a filmed revue, thereby making it satisfying neither as revue nor as a scripted show), but Ziegfeld Follies manages it beautifully. That's not to say it is by any means perfect, for there are definitely some "lows" mixed in with the "highs." But that's the nature of the revue format. It's also true that what one person considers a "low" may very likely be a "high" for ...more