TheLittleSongbird There is a lot of talent on display in Ziegfeld Follies, including some of MGM's finest, and while it is a very uneven film there's a lot to enjoy. Those expecting a good story or comedy that makes one laugh will be disappointed, but those who love great production values, even better music and dancing and some great performances will find a lot of pleasure.Ziegfeld Follies is practically plot less(being more of a comedy and musical revue and nothing else), and does suffer from some uneven pacing. Most of the time the film zips along nicely, but some segments like Love and the La Traviata segment I wish were longer(lovely, beautifully performed scenes but too short) and a lot of the comedy sketches do go on for too long, which sags the pacing. Most of the comedy scenes don't work, with the exceptions of the amusing if slightly over-the-top Fanny Brice sketch and Pay the Two Dollars. Keenan Wynn's however is grating and embarrassingly out of place and Red Skelton's is a little overplayed and goes on for too long.However, the Technicolor is glorious and the costumes and sets dazzling in rich colour. Limehouse Blues and especially This Heart of Mine, with its beautiful framing, are particularly strong in this regard. The film is very charming and was clearly done with a lot of heart and affection, and while it's uneven a lot of it entertains. It's solidly directed, the songs are spirit-rousing and exquisitely beautiful, Love and This Heart of Mine being the standouts. The choreography has a lot of energy and very accomplished in moves and execution. Esther Williams' water ballet while not one of the film's most memorable moments is very nicely done, but the heart-stopping Pas De Deux for This Heart of Mine and the amazing energy of The Babbitt and the Bromide.Of the numbers, while Limehouse Blues was fun, Lucille Ball's number was interesting and Ball is more tolerable than usual and Love was beautiful, three stood out. One was Judy Garland's very witty The Great Lady has an Interview, which shows that Garland had some good comedy acting chops. Two was The Babbit and the Bromide, interesting for being the first time for Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly to dance together, and while it doesn't see either man at their best it's a superbly danced and exuberant routine. The third one, and my personal favourite, is the heavenly This Heart of Mine, a perfect marriage of visuals, music and dancing.In conclusion, patchy, with the lack of story, uneven pacing and flat comedy, but very enjoyable, thanks to how good it looks and sounds and how well it's performed on the most part. Not a must see, but definitely worth a look at least once. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Dalbert Pringle If you ask me - I'd say that Ziegfeld Follies was a perfect example of just how much Hollywood was so blindly in love with itself in the year 1945.This gaudy, garish, and clunky, post-WW2 time-waster could only appeal to the most die-hard fans of pure Tinseltown schmaltz, and no one else.Incompetently directed by that silly, flamboyant queen, Vincente Minnelli, Ziegfeld Follies was an unbelievably irksome mess of 15 short acts which either consisted of comedy, dance or song.Even though this utter piece of junk featured such big-name stars as Lena Horne, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Red Skelton, it was truly some of the absolute worst entertainment I've seen from that era of movie-making in a mighty long, long time.

ackstasis How does one describe 'Ziegfeld Follies (1946)?' Well, I suppose the simplest description is that it's almost a live-action musical version of 'Fantasia (1940).' The film consists of a number of individual, self- contained musical numbers and comedy sketches, a tribute to the extravagant stage shows of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., which were inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris and ran between 1907 and 1931. William Powell, recreating his title role from the biopic 'The Great Ziegfeld (1936),' plays the master showman who, from his heavenly suite in the hereafter, decides to stage one final Follies using the stars of today. Certainly, by the 1940s, M-G-M had assembled such an astonishing selection of musical talent that their motto became "More Stars Than There Are in the Heavens" – the real-life Ziegfeld would have been licking his lips with anticipation! Fred Astaire naturally headlines the film, but he enjoys the support of an overwhelming (and eclectic) assortment of talented dancers, singers, comedians, directors, musicians and choreographers, the likes of which had never been seen before or since.William Powell opens the film, as Ziegfeld, with his brief reminiscences on a lifetime in entertainment, utilising a rather bizarre style of stop-motion animation. However, once the music gets started – and, true to form, the Follies commence with a tribute to the American girl – we are treated to some of the most vivid and spectacular musical numbers ever devised. The world of Ziegfeld is often unaccountably weird: Lucille Ball cracking whips at dancers in feline costumes; Fred Astaire donning Oriental make-up; Lena Horne singing a fiery tribute to the fatal powers of love and lust. Judy Garland chimes in with a dead-on Katharine Hepburn impression, before performing a song that sounds suspiciously like cinema's first rap rendition. It all has the flavour of a dream, suggestive of something both fantastic and eternal. Even the out-of-place comedy sketches (Keenan Wynn eating a telephone, Victor Moore arrested for "expectorating" on public transport, Red Skelton as a drunken television host) take place in hyper-stylised surroundings, adding an element of abstract absurdism. Astaire's three major performances are the highlights: "This Heart of Mine" and "Limehouse Blues" teamed him with the graceful Lucille Bremer. In the former, Astaire plays a sophisticated jewelery thief who charms, and subsequently falls in love with, a beautiful lady, the pair dancing and swirling elegantly on rotating floors and hidden conveyor belts. In the latter, Astaire improbably plays a proud Chinese labourer whose impossible yearning for Bremer finds life only in an atmospheric dream ballet, serving a similar purpose to the ballet in Gene Kelly's 'An American in Paris (1951).' Astaire's final, and most memorable, appearance sees him paired with Gene Kelly in "The Babbit and the Bromide," the first of only two occasions on which stars danced together, the other in 'That's Entertainment! Part II (1976).' And so, with Kathryn Grayson singing and floating gracefully through mountains of bubble bath, 'Ziegfeld Follies' draws to a close – the awakening from a long, colourful and timeless daydream, a stage performance beamed down from above.

L. Denis Brown I missed this film when it was first released just after the war ended, but I noted the incredible array of stars featured and decided to watch it whenever a suitable opportunity offered. However it dropped out of attention before this occurred, and it was only very recently that I noticed it was scheduled to be screened again by TCM on television. I therefore took the opportunity to see it at last. After watching for a few minutes I felt I knew exactly what was being shown - it was an overlong and very tedious T.V. advertisement for MGM Studios that took the form of unrelated sequences featuring the various stars they had under contract. Whether it was more acceptable on the big screen I do not know as I never saw it there, but even if it were to be shown in a local cinema again I would certainly not be prepared to pay good money in order to find out.On television, the longer it ran the clearer it seemed that my initial impression was precisely correct. The only link provided between the various sequences was the attempt to parade them in the form of a Broadway show devised in Heaven after his death by Ziegfeld himself - presumably so that we were encouraged to think of him as remaining an honorary member of the MGM Studio team. The various stars who were "encouraged " to take part in this travesty of a film probably felt quite ashamed of their part in it. It was nominally directed by Vincente Minnelli, but history appears to indicate that he should not be too severely blamed. I understand that he had no part in directing the totally disastrous first segment, and he was only responsible for some of the others, even during these he has been reported to have been on a very tight rein. He too I am sure would prefer his no doubt enforced role in this film to be quickly forgotten.Out of kindness to the talented and hardworking participants who clearly tried very hard and deserved much better, I will rate this at 3. For a film buff this is almost certainly justified by the sequence starring Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly dancing together. I believe this is the only film in which this occurs and, apart from the great opportunity to admire the incredible timing they both showed, it was extremely interesting to be able to compare their very different techniques at such close quarters. But the rest is best quickly forgotten.