Released on April 25, 1941, Ziegfeld Girl was a commercial hit, and grossed $3.1 million worldwide. The film has been noted as a significant entry in Lana Turner's filmography, elevating her profile and "launching her on a path towards mega-stardom."[5]
As happens every year, Florenz Ziegfeld is seeking new talent for the latest edition of his lavish Broadwayrevue, the Ziegfeld Follies. Three women, Sandra Kolter, Susan Gallagher, and Sheila Regan are among those selected to join the cast of glamorous "Ziegfeld girls", and become friends.
Sandra, a European beauty, is spotted and recruited while accompanying her violin virtuoso husband Franz to his audition for the show's orchestra. Franz is rejected because his musical skills are too good for the job, and Sandra becomes a showgirl over Franz' objections in order to earn needed income, causing a rift between the couple. Sandra quickly becomes a star and attracts the attentions of her singing co-star, Frank Merton. But after learning that Frank is married to a wife who loves him, Sandra reconciles with Franz and abandons her career to support him on a concert tour.
Susan, a seventeen-year-old from a theatrical family, is discovered performing a vaudeville act with her aging father. Although Susan is less physically beautiful than the other showgirls, her enormous singing talent lands her a featured role. Her father, not wanting to thwart her career, encourages her to stay in the Follies while he continues traveling on the vaudeville circuit alone. Susan worries about her father and eventually convinces the producers to give him a part in the show, where he proves to be a surprise hit.
Sheila, a working class elevator operator from Flatbush, Brooklyn, is torn between her love for truck driver Gil Young and her suddenly wealthy life as a showgirl, including a Park Avenue apartment, press coverage, and expensive gifts from rich male fans. After she turns down Gil's marriage proposal, he joins a bootlegging gang and ends up in prison. Sheila becomes a depressivealcoholic and is fired from the show after a drunken fall onstage. Seriously ill and unable to sustain her luxurious lifestyle, she moves back into her family's modest Flatbush home. Gil, newly released from prison, visits her and pledges his love, although he knows she is dying. Despite her precarious health, Sheila goes alone to the opening night of the latest Follies show, where she collapses in the theater. Sandra and Franz rush to her side as Susan, now a star, sings from the stage.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) began developing Ziegfeld Girl in 1936, the same year they released The Great Ziegfeld, another film focusing on the Ziegfeld Follies which proved to be a commercial hit for the studio.[6] In May 1938, MGM announced that the project was being readied for production.[6] Unlike the prior film, Ziegfeld Girl focused primarily on the female performers of the show.[6]
Casting
In July 1938, The Hollywood Reporter noted that that Joan Crawford, Eleanor Powell, Margaret Sullavan, and Virginia Bruce were being considered to star in the film.[7] However, when production was delayed by approximately two years, the cast was changed, with Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner appearing in the principal female roles alongside Powell.[7] Powell was forced to drop out of production due to illness, after which Ann Miller was considered.[8] The production was further delayed, after which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer casting Judy Garland in the role of Susan Gallagher.[9]
Turner's character, Sheila Regan, was based on Lilliane Lorraine, an actual Ziegfeld follies star.[7] According to Turner, her role in the film was expanded during production, and she was recurrently "handed new scenes not in the original script."[10] She would later comment that the role was the first that got her truly "interested in acting."[11]
Filming of Ziegfeld Girl began approximately in October 1940.[6][13] The filming and recording process was completed by March 1941.[14] To effectively capture the sequence in which Turner's character, Sheila, collapses on a staircase, twenty six takes were completed before director Leonard was satisfied.[15]
In the original cut of the film, Sheila dies in the theater in the finale, but the ending was re-cut to leave her fate ambiguous after test audiences responded unfavorably to her character's death.[7]
Musical numbers
Judy Garland singing "Minnie from Trinidad" in Ziegfeld Girl
"Overture" – played by Orchestra and sung by Chorus
"Laugh? I Thought I'd Split My Sides" (music and lyrics by Roger Edens) – sung and danced by Judy Garland and Charles Winninger
A musical number sung by Garland, "We Must Have Music", was deleted from the final film in an effort to condense the running time.[15] Only a fragment survives, as it was used in the MGM shortA New Romance of Celluloid: We Must Have Music (1942).[16][17]
Release
Loew's Inc. released Ziegfeld Girl in the United States on April 25, 1941.
According to MGM records, the film earned $1,891,000 in the US and Canada and $1,210,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $532,000.[3]
Critical response
Ziegfeld Girl was favorably reviewed by critics, with Lana Turner receiving particular notice for her portrayal of Sheila Regan.[15] In a review published by Kinematograph Weekly, it was noted: "The part is [Turner's] big chance and she takes it. All the hopes, disillusionment and the follies of youth are crystallized in her vital, memorable, glamorous and appealing performance.[21]
The New York Times's review of the film uniformly praised the performances of Garland, Lamar, and Turner, but conceded that the film "emerges as another conventional musical show, only bigger...Ziegfeld Girl is another whirl on the same gorgeous merry-go-round, but with the horses slowing down."[22]
The closing scene in which Turner's inebriated character descends a grand theatre staircase before falling at the bottom of the steps has been described as "one of the most memorable climaxes ever put on film."[15]
Eliot, Mark (2006). Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. New York: Random House. ISBN978-1-40005-222-6.
Glancy, H. M., ed. (1992). "MGM Film Grosses, 1924–1948: The Eddie Mannix Ledger". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 12 (2). Los Angeles, California: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study: 127–144. ISSN0143-9685.
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