Movie Review: Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

A musical drama, Ziegfeld Girl examines the consequences of sudden fame on the lives of three women thrust into the spotlight.

It's the 1920s, and legendary Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (who is never seen) is recruiting girls for his next big "Ziegfeld Follies" show. Sheila Regan (Lana Turner) is spotted working as a department store elevator girl. She is in love with her truck driver boyfriend Gil (James Stewart), but anyway joins the show. Young vaudeville performer Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland) is also recruited, although she is reluctant to leave her father Pop (Charles Winninger), a long-time vaudevillian, behind.

Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) is supporting her husband and classical violinist Franz (Philip Dorn) as he desperately seeks employment when she is offered a role in the Follies. Franz cannot accept his wife wearing skimpy outfits and parading in front of strangers, and leaves her.

The three girls make their debut, and their lives change forever. Sheila attracts the attention of the wealthy Geoffrey Collis (Ian Hunter), and embraces an alcohol-fuelled and lavish but shallow lifestyle, leaving Gil behind. Her brother Jerry (Jackie Cooper) befriends Susan, who has to adapt her singing style to appeal to more sophisticated audiences. And Sandra starts a relationship with the show's lead singer Frank Merton (Tony Martin), although they are both married.

Ziegfeld does not appear in a movie carrying his name, the black and white cinematography takes away from the spectacle, the running time of 132 minutes is too long, the sappy melodrama sometimes drips off the screen and some of the song-and-dance numbers include recycled footage from The Great Ziegfeld (1936).

And yet, Ziegfeld Girl still works remarkably well as an elaborate and multi-faceted drama about the price of fame. MGM unfurls the full glamour treatment in showcasing burgeoning stars Stewart, Garland, Lamarr and Turner in the lead roles, and the film is a whirlwind look at the shockwave of stardom as experienced by women offered an opportunity of a lifetime but no guarantees about the consequences. The performance number do cause bloat, so director Robert Z. Leonard compensates by maintaining fairly zippy pacing in the narrative scenes, and teases out the dilemmas facing the women. For all three, the abandonment of their pre-fame man is a turning point.

It's almost possible to sympathize with Sheila as she luxuriate in her Park Avenue apartment, admiring her numerous evening gowns and expensive jewelry, and drowning her guilt at abandoning Gil in copious amounts of alcohol. Although her story is the most prominent, Susan and Sandra also get plenty of screen time. Sandra is more pragmatic, choosing a job and salary with the Follies over poverty and starvation with Franz. And 17 year old Susan has perhaps the most difficult separation to endure: her father will carry on his touring vaudeville show without her, and she will have to unlearn most of what he taught her.

Ziegfeld's shows are lovingly recreated in the musical numbers directed by Busby Berkeley, including the traditional descending-the-stairs moments and the ridiculous over-the-top costumes and head wear. But the movie's highlights are the unexpected nuggets on the sidelines of the main show: Susan salvaging her audition by quickly understanding the need for subtlety in delivering I'm Always Chasing Rainbows; and later her dad getting his unexpected chance to shine in Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean.

Ziegfeld plucked girls from obscurity, taught them how to prance on-stage, and gave them a shot at accelerated stardom. The bright lights were enlightening for some, but blinding for others.

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The Movies Of Judy Garland

All movies starring Judy Garland and reviewed on the Ace Black Blog are linked below:

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)

Easter Parade (1948)

Summer Stock (1950)

A Star Is Born (1954)

Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)

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The Index of Movie Stars is here.

Movie Review: Summer Stock (1950)

A lightweight musical romance, Summer Stock ambles along with happy music down on the farm, and never threatens to be anything other than a routine vehicle for the talents of an energetic Gene Kelly and a mostly unconvincing Judy Garland.

Jane (Garland) is struggling to keep her farm financially viable. She borrows money and a tractor from local businessman Jasper Wingait (Ray Collins), who wants to make sure that his dorky and allergy-prone son Orville (Eddie Braken) marries Jane.

Returning to the farm with her new tractor, Jane is shocked to find showman Joe Ross (Kelly), sidekick Herb (Phil Silvers) and their large troupe of singers and dancers setting up in her barn to practice for a new musical show. Joe is the boyfriend of Jane's flighty sister Abigail (Gloria DeHaven), who is hoping to be the star of the production. Jane and Joe initially clash but soon make up, and despite Herb and the dancers nearly wrecking the farm, the show begins to take shape. Inevitably, a romance also starts to blossom between Jane and Joe, much to the horror of Orville and Jasper.

A colourful song and dance film with no ambitions except to be a colourful song and dance film, Summer Stock is directed by Charles Walters with the innocent enthusiasm of an amateur high school play. There is no depth in any of the 109 minutes, nor any intention to inject any. This is simplistic feel-good entertainment which just about achieves its modest objectives.

Summer Stock proved to be Garland's final movie for MGM. The studio finally ran out of patience with her disruptive lack of reliability, and her contract was terminated.

Towards the end, long after most of the plot elements have been discarded and after the movie settles down to a series of unconnected climactic musical numbers, Summer Stock does boast Garland performing Get Happy. Filmed several months after the rest of film wrapped, Get Happy finds Garland looking noticeably slimmer, having received treatment for the weight issues which clearly hamper her throughout the rest of the film.

And Get Happy is a standout 150 seconds. While the male support dancers deliver aggressive choreography, Garland not so much dances as moves with angular and pinpoint precision, dressed in the distinctive and enduring image of black jacket, black hat, and dark tights. It's an appropriate farewell performance for the studio that made her a star, and a reminder of her abundant talent.

The rest of the film has some sporadic enjoyable moments, including Kelly's solo tap dance accompanied by a creaky floorboard and an old newspaper, and the clever collision of old and new dancing in the Portland Fancy number. But Summer Stock also serves up plenty of forgettable musical numbers, and romantic entanglements that fail to generate any heat. Eddie Braken and Phil Silvers try for funny but achieve irritating instead, and the plot about putting on a show in the rural middle of nowhere is remarkably limp even by genre standards.

Yielding many weeds but also some delicious produce, Summer Stock ploughs a mixed field.

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Movie Review: Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)

A family musical set in the lead-up to the 1904 World's Fair, Meet Me In St. Louis is a heartfelt story of suburban normalcy with excellent performances, gleaming colours and Judy Garland at her artistic peak.

The middle-class Smith family of St. Louis is anticipating the arrival of the World's Fair, now a matter of months away. Anna (Mary Astor) keeps the household humming, her husband Alonzo (Leon Ames) is a respected lawyer, and his father, referred to only as Grandpa (Harry Davenport), is the resident curmudgeon. Daughter Rose (Lucille Bremer) is waiting for her beau Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully) to propose, while her younger sister Esther (Garland) is trying hard to attract the attention of John Truett (Tom Drake), the boy next door. Precocious youngest daughter Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) idolizes her older sisters.

Alonzo drops a bombshell by suddenly announcing that he has accepted a new lucrative position with his firm to head up the New York office, forcing the entire family into an unpopular move. Rose and Esther scramble to firm up their romances, Tootie finds a whole pile of new trouble on Halloween night, and as a wistful Christmas approaches, the family prepares for major change.

The genius of Meet Me In St. Louis emanates from weaving musical magic around typical family life. The Smiths are not any different than any other middle class household, and they are occupied with the routine challenges of preparing meals, falling in love, managing work, growing up and anticipating the upcoming arrival of a major event in their fair city. The most dramatic moments befall tiny Tootie on Halloween night, and even then most of the turbulence is in her imagination. Otherwise life is just ordinary.

And from the narrative of daily life director Vincente Minnelli creates a joyful low-key musical tapestry, the short songs naturally and beautifully embedded in the story to enhance key moments. The musical highlights include The Trolley Song as the family heads out to check out the fairgrounds months before the big event arrives in town, and Esther singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to try and cheer up a disconsolate Tootie.

The essence of the film is captured in a scene of enormous yet calm power.  Minnelli finds the glowing heart of the family when Anna sits at the piano and joins Alonzo in singing You and I, the rest of the family quietly reconvening in the living room to eat cake, minutes after they had splintered in anger after Alonzo's moving-to-New-York surprise. It's a moment of movie magic that defines love and trust within a close knit family.

Judy Garland, at 22 years old, was probably at her peak for Meet Me In St. Louis. Looking radiant in every scene, she acts and sings with understated confidence. Esther is the hinge point of the family, growing into a fine adult while still young enough to relate to her younger sisters, and Garland effortlessly carries Esther's burden of proactively managing the family equilibrium while planning her own flirty pursuit of John Truett.

Filmed in shiny colours and with an infectiously charming attitude, Meet Me In St. Louis is an irresistible invitation.

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Movie Review: Easter Parade (1948)

A musical stacked full of singing and some dancing, Easter Parade is mildly enjoyable as a talent show but awfully thin on the ground in terms of plot and characters.

Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) has a falling out with dance partner Nadine Hale (Ann Miller), when she accepts a starring role in a big-budget Ziegfeld-produced musical. The furious Don vows that he can turn any girl into a dancer to replace Nadine, and he plucks singer Hannah Brown (Judy Garland) out of a cheap diner routine and starts training her as his new partner.

With Nadine's career enjoying the spotlight, Don and Hannah struggle to establish themselves. Hannah falls in love with Don but he still has feelings for Nadine while his friend Johnny (Peter Lawford) lusts after Hannah.

Easter Parade had a troubled production, Astaire coming out of a short-lived screen retirement to replace Gene Kelly after Kelly had broken his ankle, and Ann Miller rescued from B movie obscurity to replace Cyd Charisse, after Charisse broke her leg.

With an endless parade of songs by Irving Berlin, Easter Parade is not as much a movie as a disjointed stage show. The 14 musical numbers are thrown at the screen in exhaustive fashion, the plot elements treated as rude interruptions between costume changes. The film reveals its intentions early, as Astaire gets to perform the opening two numbers, Happy Easter and Drum Crazy, before a single word is spoken, director Charles Walters signalling that the characters and story are very much a secondary concern.

When the personalities behind all the singing are sketchily introduced, they are unusually unlikable. Don Hewes is obsessed with his dancing and treats Hannah with disdain, using her to get back at Nadine. Garland does deliver the most engaged performance, but there is no chemistry between her and Astaire, and any reasons for Hannah to fall in love with Don start and stop at childish infatuation. Don never convincingly reciprocates any feelings, leaving the central romance a lopsided jumble.

Nadine is portrayed as cold and manipulative, Miller stuck with a plastic smile throughout, while Johnny is abandoned with no character development whatsoever, Lawford stranded as a the blandest of second-fiddle lovers.

The enjoyment does come from the better musical numbers, all making use of sparking colours. Drum Crazy is an energetic Astaire romp through a toy store, Miller rocks the joint and steals the movie with machine gun tap dancing in Shakin' the Blues Away, while Astaire and Garland enjoy their best moments in A Couple of Swells.

Easter Parade is a musical overburdened with the music, not lacking in talent but skipping too many ingredients essential for a well-rounded movie experience.

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Movie Review: Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)

A powerful drama examining the culpability of German society in enabling the extremism of Hitler's Nazis, Judgment At Nuremberg is thought-provoking filmmaking at its best. A star-studded cast glows as a courtroom confrontation sheds light on the insidious rise of evil.

It's 1948, and Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) has been recruited out of retirement in the state of Maine to preside over an American-administered post-war trial in Nuremberg, Germany. The defendants are four German civilian judges accused of crimes against the population before and during the war. By not taking a stand against the Nazi laws discriminating according to race and mental competency, the judges are accused of enabling suffering, sterilization, and death.

The most prominent of the defendants is Dr. Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster), an internationally renowned intellectual and published author on the topic of justice, with an impeccable pre-war reputation. Janning refuses to acknowledge the authority of the court and maintains a stony silence as the trial starts, not wanting to legitimize a trial of German citizens presided over by Americans on German soil. The other defendants are less prestigious, and perhaps more susceptible due to less than pristine pasts.

The American prosecutor Colonel Tad Lawson (Richard Widmark) is committed and confrontational. A veteran of the war and several prior court cases, he mounts an aggressive attack on the acquiescence of the judges. By applying and upholding the Nazi laws, the judges normalized state brutality, and Lawson draws a direct link to the resultant mass atrocities at the death camps.

In addition to presenting stacks of documents as evidence, Lawson humanizes the victims and calls to the witness stand two civilian casualties of the Nazi laws: Rudolph Peterson (Montgomery Clift) was accused of being mentally incompetent and suffered accordingly, while in an infamous case, Irene Wallner (Judy Garland) was accused of having sexual relations with a Jew named Feldenstein.

Tasked with the unenviable duty of mounting a defence is young German lawyer Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell). He adopts the stance that society as a whole cannot be found guilty of following the laws imposed by fanatical rulers. Rolfe holds his ground against Lawson's ferocious legal arguments, deflecting a succession of accusations and emphasizing that the defendants were fulfilling their civic duties in applying the laws of the land.

With the courtroom frequently the scene of heated exchanges between Lawson and Rolfe, Judge Haywood struggles to determine how justice can best be served. With the Berlin blockade revealing the belligerent Soviets as much more of a relevant threat than the defeated Germans, Haywood's task is not made any easier when he meets and starts to socialize with Frau Bertholt (Marlene Dietrich), the widow of a German military commander.

Inspired by actual post-war trials, Judgment At Nuremberg is a rollercoaster ride through the evolution of societal forces. Written by Abby Mann, the script maintains an exquisite balancing act as the prosecution and defence take turns to make their case, every thrust parried with a counter-thrust, the moral pendulum swinging from one side to the other.

With Tracy providing sage oversight, Widmark and Schell are well matched and both demonstrate vehement intensity as the legal battle unfolds. But Schell adds a sublime layer of fragile humanity to the role of Hans Rolfe, an intelligent man fully aware that he is representing losers in the courtroom of the victors, yet determined that the German people not be uniformly indicted for the actions of their leaders. Unexpectedly rising to the top of a stellar cast, Schell won the Best Actor Academy Award.

Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland, in her first major film role since 1954's A Star Is Born, add a large curiosity factor. Both battling personal substance abuse demons and barely able to perform, they nevertheless pull out affecting performances as tormented and damaged victims coming back to confront the men who judged them. They both deservedly received Supporting Actor nominations.

Director Stanley Kramer's cameras find plenty of energy in the grand Nuremberg courtroom. Frequently the cameras maintain fluid motion centred on the witness chair, and end their movement by unexpectedly capturing witness and defendant in the same frame, the accuser and accused caught within the same box. Kramer also elegantly resolves the obstacle of simultaneous courtroom translation without ignoring its reality.

Outside the court, Nuremberg is a dichotomy of destruction and rebirth, entire city blocks reduced to rubble by Allied bombing, but some neighbourhoods, markets and restaurants now thriving again mostly on American money. Judge Haywood finds the locals mostly differential to their American vanquishers, and struggling with deep feelings of humiliation and confusion over a dream of restoring nationalistic self-belief turned into a nightmare of devastation.

Dr. Janning finally breaks his silence and eloquently yet emotionally outlines how individual responsibility can be subjugated by the rising tide of immense pride fuelled by intoxicating power. Judgment At Nuremberg asks all the difficult questions, offers no easy answers, and delivers poignant commentary on the dilemmas inherent in a society drifting towards extremism in the name of national reawakening.



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Movie Review: A Star Is Born (1954)

Judy Garland's grand comeback movie and an inside look at the studio system golden era, A Star Is Born is an engrossing if over-long near-classic. With her powerfully emotional singing and acting, Garland dominates the movie as the singer on the way to stardom, but James Mason also gives an affecting performance as the drunken star actor who helps to launch her career.

Esther Blodgett (Garland) has worked her way from humble beginnings to become a singer with a respected jazz band.  She meets Norman Maine (James Mason), a popular movie star who is now perpetually drunk and embarking on a precipitous career decline. The constant interventions of studio publicist Matt Libby (Jack Carson) are needed to keep Norman from utterly embarrassing himself.

Norman hears Esther sing and inspires her to aim for stardom. She takes his advice, leaves the band, and joins the studio system as a budding starlet. Norman brings her to the attention of studio boss Oliver Niles (Charles Bickford), and Esther's movie career takes off.  She marries Norman, who starts to find new roles harder to come by. With Esther quickly establishing a large fan base and finding adulation at every turn, Norman hits rock bottom and becomes an outright drunk. Esther is torn between the requirements of her career and caring for the man who believed in her.

Garland's first film in four years, and her first since leaving MGM, is a troubled triumph. Directed by George Cukor, A Star Is Born was his first colour production and Warner Bros.' first CinemaScope film. It is a grand, colourful and energetic experience, a genuine drama, true romance and potent musical rolled into one, finding elements of memorable passion and tragedy.

While the story of one star on a breathtaking rise and another in a steep descent meeting in a fortuitous romance is compelling, A Star Is Born is sometimes too much of a Garland commercial, constructed by Warner Bros. as star ahead of film. To a point it is deserved positioning, but on a couple of key occasions story momentum is foolishly sacrificed to give Garland yet another song and dance number.

Responding to exhibitor concerns about the long running length, Warner Bros. initially butchered the movie by editing out 30 minutes of good scenes and keeping in much of the bloat. Cukor was horrified and all but disowned the movie. With the restored version, complete with some still images filling in for eternally lost footage, clocking in at just under three hours, the flab is unfortunately prominent. The worst excess is the Born In A Trunk sequence of musical song and dance numbers, a prolonged movie within a movie that occupies 20 minutes at the heart of the film, and descends into a laborious retrospective of Esther / Judy's humble beginnings, bringing the dramatic story of A Star Is Born to a screeching halt.

In another sequence Esther in her living room recreates an entire international medley of dances for Norman, presumably to demonstrate the big scene in her latest film, but it's just another shallow excuse to showcase Garland at the expense of reasonable patience.

Better are some of the sharper highlights that are more properly integrated into the narrative, Garland's spirited rendition of The Man That Got Away in a closed jazz club under Mason's watchful gaze marking her return to form with a large exclamation mark.

Given the context, Mason is excellent alongside Garland, bringing to life Norman Maine as a mostly happy drunk, free falling from the top of the heap with a smile on his face as all he worked for passes by in a blur, Norman content that he launched the career of Esther with one of his final lucid acts. Jack Carson and Charles Bickford fill in the details of a studio system obsessed with manufacturing and promoting talent, interested in the well-being of actors and actresses only insofar as the stars deliver the goods to the studio's coffers. Bickford's studio boss Oliver Niles does, however, demonstrate some humanity towards Maine in the former star's darkest hours.

A Star Is Born ends with melancholy sacrifice, two people rising above careers and exhibiting pure caring for each other. One star is born, one star falls out of the sky, but the essence of two souls meant for each other transcends life's challenges.

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Movie Review: The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

A colourful musical celebration, The Wizard Of Oz is a vivid children's fantasy. The film has many moments that are now cringe-worthy, but also enough innocence and good intentions to create a few warm memories.

Young Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto live on a Kansas farm, with Aunt Em (Clara Blandick), Uncle Henry (Charley Grapewin), and a few friendly farmhands (Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr). Humourless neighbour Almira Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) does not appreciate Toto's behaviour, and threatens to take the dog away, traumatizing Dorothy. A twister moves in and causes havoc, transporting Dorothy, Toto and their farmhouse to a crash landing in the land of Oz.

In Oz, Dorothy meets small people known as the Munchkins, and with the help of Glinda the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke) sets off along a yellow brick road on a journey to Emerald City to visit the Wizard of Oz, who can get her back to Kansas. Along the way she meets a Scarecrow (Bolger) who needs a brain, a Tin Man (Haley) who wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion (Lahr) who seeks courage. With her three new friends, Dorothy has to fend off the evil Wicked Witch Of The West (Hamilton) and secure an audience with the reclusive Wizard.

With over-the-top performances, The Wizard Of Oz often resembles a kids' show at the local theatre company. The heroic cuteness provided by Garland and Toto is appealing to the young, while the ugly Wicked Witch and her bizarre flying monkeys are good for many nightmares among the impressionable.

Some aspects of the film have aged quite poorly. The entire sequence with the Munchkins is a lot more vexatious than fun, the annoying voices of the little people and their stiff presence reeking of a local production drifting towards catastrophe. The costumes and make-up of the Scarecrow and particularly the Cowardly Lion are pure vaudeville.

But there is an innocent sense of adventure and humour permeating throughout the film, and with the use of colour in its infancy, director Victor Fleming plays with the new medium to make the land of Oz positively pop. The Kansas scenes are filmed in sepia-toned black and white, while Oz is animated in brilliant colours, from the yellow of the brick road to the dominating green of Emerald City, and all the costumes in-between. As can be expected when new technology is still being unpacked, Fleming also takes things too far, a horse continuously changing colours crossing the border from amusing to ludicrous.

In terms of the music, Over The Rainbow is just over two minutes of movie bliss, delivered by Garland from the farm and into legend. The rest of the songs and dances are short and mostly aimed at the very young or those who find clumsy walking, tripping and skipping down an artificial pathway amusing.

The message of self-reliance and believing in personal abilities is clear, but L. Frank Baum, who wrote the book on which the movie is based, always claimed that the story carried no deeply hidden meanings. However, the search for Oz as the salvation for all that ails Dorothy and her friends remains a strong metaphor for seeking help by blindly turning to the imperiously imagined powers of religion. Oz is hiding behind all sorts of sound and fury, but his truth is revealed to be much more basic, and Dorothy and her friends find elucidation within themselves. Whether intended or not, for adults The Wizard Of Oz is more enjoyable as a sharp criticism of blind belief in ill-defined higher powers, and a reminder to find the remedies within while checking behind the curtain of any dubious saviours.

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