Random Music

The Great Ziegfeld

OK well this is the Year of the Musical and I decided I would work my way through my collection. I have a huge amount of musicals on DVD some of which are well loved and have been watched many many  times, previously in VHS format, and some I have yet to see.  I have been collecting for a while and have been stock piling for the days which are now here - days of leisure and choosing what I want to do.

So last night I popped in this DVD of The Great Ziegfeld and really I have to say it was pretty dire.  The acting and pace was positively funereal and as this film weighs in at nearly three hours long, I was beginning to wilt by the time I got to the end.  I think I got this film mixed up with the Ziegfeld Follies which has a huge cast list, was made by MGM, and has the only time Astaire and Gene Kelly danced together.  Sadly, it is not available here in the UK so I will have to just be patient and see if it turns up one day.

Flo Ziegfeld of course was the one who discovered Fanny Brice and put her on Broadway (see Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl - a great musical bio of her life), and was responsible for huge and lavish productions and his Ziegfeld Girls were well known.  The most famous scene in this movie is the big production number, A Pretty Girl is like a Melody, filmed on a revolving set.  Totally kitsch, over the top and quite mind boggling, it is stunning and, apparently, was filmed in One Take which is pretty hard to beat.  Worth having just for this alone and being able to watch this on a 32" wide screen TV was pretty good I can tell you.

But apart from the musical numbers, cannot recommend this movie.  As I said, slow and some of the acting quite cringe worthy.  OK it was made in 1936 and I should not be overly critical.  It is of its time and the set pieces well worth watching.

The Stephen Sondheim musical, Follies, was based on the life of Ziegfeld and this is a show well worth seeing. My ex was in it back in the 90s when it was revived and brought to London and there were huge show stopping numbers a la Ziegfeld which just took one's breath away so I can imagine the impact they must have had back in the 1920s.

Not sure what musical to watch next - I have a Doris Day box set awaiting me so perhaps I will choose one from there.

"Can't act, slightly bald, also dances"

Yes this was how Fred Astaire was described after a film test.  Surely there can never have been a more inaccurate and mistaken judgment on a genius ever made (well, Decca turning down the Beatles might come close I suppose), and whoever it was, he must have cringed when he saw the wonderful and utterly magical Mr A dancing his way into superstardom.
 

In my possession is a book entitled 'Astaire Dancing' by John Mueller.  It was bought for me many moons ago as a birthday present by my then husband (yes every now and then he got it right!) and is a frame by frame dissection of all of Fred Astaire's dance routines in all his movies.  This is one book that I will never part with and it is totally addictive.   I used to put one of the Fred movies on and then try and watch the dance routines along with the book. This is just an example of the description:

"At the end of the phrase Astaire explores some of the dramatic potential of the ballroom position. If the dancers outstretched hands become separated and the man pulls his hand back, the woman to close the position must pull herself in toward his body.  The sly eroticism implicit in this ploy is more fully developed in later duets, such as in (and then the picture references are listed). Next side by side and with hands touching they dance a loping, lilting percussive phrase that plays with, and sometimes, against the music. Then Astaire sends Rogers into a spin and collects her upstage......"

This was part of the breakdown of the Cheek to Cheek routine and simply fascinating to read but almost impossible to watch and read at the same time.  Yes, I can spot the spin and certain phrases, but then I just get carried away by the sheer beauty and grace of what I am watching and the book is abandoned to be returned to later.

Easier now, in the days of DVD, to stop and check but I still tend not to do it as I cannot bear to interrupt the dancing.   All his films with Ginger Rogers were remastered and reissued a few years ago and I bought them and consigned my threadbare VHS videos to the bin.  I have also tracked down many of Fred's other films, all now happily  available, some of which I have never heard of and never seen so plenty of joys in store.

Over the Christmas period the BBC showed, for the third time such was its popularity, last year's Prom at the Albert Hall, featuring music from the MGM musicals and it reminded me once more just how much I love this genre.  Over the Christmas period Kathryn and I watched An American in Paris (Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Howard Keel and Eleanor Powell) and loved them all over again.  I have so many DVDs awaiting my attention and I have decided that 2010 is going to be my Year of the Musical and I will write and review each one on Random Music as I watch them.  Should be fun as I revisit some of these marvellous films.

Just to show once again, how simply wonderful Fred is here are two links for you to watch and marvel at. The first is from Swingtime and the second, Cheek to Cheek from a film called The Gay Divorcee (which title provokes hoots of laughter nowadays of course) - over 60 years old but simply timelessly marvellous.

Heaven, I'm in heaven..............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYHZh-xnqhE