Just what I expected

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Unless you are a largely uncritical fan of Lamarr, Garland or Turner or of musicals in general, this is not a good film to start with; unlike the zippy, racy, fast-paced films Busby Berkeley did with Warner Brothers in the early 30's (42nd Street, the Gold Diggers films),or the dazzling Technicolor Fox Musicals of the 1940's. this MGM effort suffers from an excess of melodrama and not enough music. MGM ruled musicals in the 1950's with major films like Singin' In Rain and The Bandwagon.Fortunately, Ziegfeld Girl does feature a bang-up, all-out, dazzling fur and feathers number "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" worth the more than two-hour drudgery of largely humorless soap opera, and it's sung by the late Tony Martin, featuring Hedy Lamarr as dazzling as she was ever going to look; unfortunately this number is early in the film, and there's a great deal of angst with Lana Turner hitting the skids as her truck-driving boyfriend (a miscast Jimmy Stewart, looking more than a little uncomfortable), mopes around the edges until she sobers up; This is not a bad film, merely, as frequently happens with MGM, in need of some judicious cutting; Garland is great fun in the "Minnie From Trinidad" number with dancers dangling dozens of bananas as arm decor, and Dan Dailey impressive as a deadbeat boxer; one wishes for more Eve Arden, as always, and one also wishes for the dazzling color of Ziegfeld Follies a few years later.

I don't know if it was the gathering dusk outside, or the feeling of contentment that crept through me, or maybe the fact that I just couldn't move my butt out of the chair, but while I was watching "Ziegfeld Girl" I went into a trance. I became aware of it while Judy was doing that silly, delightful Caribbean number near the end. When she was lifted way up in the air by all those long bamboo poles brandished by hunky guys a "wow!" dropped from my lips. As much as I chuckled at the outlandishly tacky costumes in the musical sequences and the inherent Hollywood goofiness of it all I was totally captivated. The story - three young women (Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr) dream of making it big on Broadway. The musical numbers - Busby Berkeley extravaganzas. Nothing new or original here. Yet as the movie unfolds it becomes clear that this is no musical comedy, but a darker look at the forces that shape the lives of the three women, particularly Lana Turner's character. This is Turner's movie, and she is dazzling. I couldn't take my eyes off her. James Stewart's portrayal of her shunned boy friend, a punk who can't betray his heart no matter how hard he tries, is a pleasant surprise. Eve Arden is on hand doing her usual shtick as a hard-bitten showgirl displaying her bracelets like wearable trophies.Edward Everett Horton plays Noble Sage, a theatre man who has seen it all. His early prediction of the three paths open to showgirls has the eerie feeling of a seer looking into a crystal ball. Judy achieves success and the big time, Hedy gets the white picket fence, and Lana is doomed to self-destruct. Her slide into alcoholism is presented with astonishing detail and clarity. Her maid, subtly portrayed as a woman of questionable breeding, is her chief enabler. Lana Turner, young, beautiful and shiny, is touching as a woman who compromises everything but tenaciously holds onto the little flame that is her own true self. The movie becomes more dark and strange in the final sequence, which cross-cuts between Lana's last descent down the theatre's grand staircase and the extravagant dream-like number before a starry sky on-stage where hushed, dirge-like poetry bemoaning the final curtain call floats ominously outward. It has an unexpected touch of grand guignol, it's melodramatic to the hilt, and I loved it. Staircases, the movie's predominant motif and dramatic device, serve the story well. Whenever Lana Turner got on one I held my breath. "Ziegfeld Girl" has been criticized for not being in colour. I can't imagine it, and wouldn't want it, in anything other than its beautiful black-and-white tonalities.

There is little that I could add to most of these reviews in terms of judging the quality of the movie.However, a couple of minor points have been missed.For one thing, one reviewer, who compared Tony Martin unfavorably to Frank S. and Dick Haymes, is comparing apples to oranges. Tony Martin was a relic of the 1930s in his classical singing style; it was already becoming obsolete by the time this movie was completed. By contrast, Frank and Dick Haymes were crooners—a very different kind of singing.Several reviewers have expressed a desire to see this movie in color, because of the dazzling costumes. The thing to remember is that we're seeing the film today on very different film than what it was originally printed on. Nitrate stock—the film that was used in 1941— showed blacks that were really black, and whites that were bright white, not shades of gray. This would have produced a very different visual experience for the audiences of 1941. For those viewers, the costumes, rather than merely appearing beautiful, would have been blindingly spectacular.It is unfortunate that the original nitrate prints have almost certainly disappeared forever.

What looked like the big-budget spectacles that MGM normally churned out in the 1940s turned out to be a big train-wreck. 'Ziegfeld Girl' is definitely one of MGM's worst of the musical bunch. Judy Garland, fresh off of The Wizard of Oz, outshines her co-stars Lana Turner (playing a drunk showgirl who over dramatically falls down the stairs) and Hedy LaMarr (who all but gazes at the ceiling) as the showgirl who makes it in the Follies (Mr. Ziegfeld is never seen... HM I wonder why?). Jimmy Stewart plays Lana's mobster boyfriend. Yes, you read that right, Jimmy Stewart as a mobster. He's as unconvincing as Lucille Ball playing a Gypsy Rose Lee like stripper in one of her early movies. Combine all these with over-the-top Busby Berkeley numbers (with costumes that look like they were stolen from Lady Gaga's dressing room) including one with Garland that predates his nutty "Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat" with Carmen Miranda. The finale with inter-splicings of The Great Ziegfeld must be seen to be believed. Overall, very underwhelming.