The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. looks down from Heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.1h 50min | Comedy, Musical | 13 August 1945 | Color
Director: Vincente Minnelli (opening credits)
Stars: below
Dance Directors:
Robert Alton ... dance director
Roy Del Ruth ... additional choreographer
Eugene Loring ... additional choreographer (Traviata, onscreen)
Charles Walters... additional choreographer (Interview, onscreen)
In the Tap! Appendix for Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, their only dance together on film (ch17; except for a tiny bit of soft shoe on a That's Entertainment installment.)
The bubble dance (ch18) is discussed in the featurette as being somewhat dangerous: the bubbles got out of control, dancers lost their way and felt as though they were suffocating.
This may be the only post-1929 pure revue film with NO connecting story between segments, only the premise that Ziegfeld from heaven has wished a new Follies into existence.
Segments:
- ch1,2. Overture, Credits
- ch3,4. Ziegfeld memories and wishes, by William Powell
- ch5. Here's to the Girls, by Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Lucille Ball w/live horses and chorines, dir. George Sidney
- ch6. continuation, Bring on Those Wonderful Men, by Virginia O'Brien
- ch7. A Water Ballet, by Esther Williams, dir. Merrill Pye
- ch8. Number Please, by Keenan Wynn, dir. Robert Lewis (onscreen)
- ch9. Libiamo from La Traviata, by James Melton and Marion Bell
- ch10. Pay the Two Dollars, by Victor Moore and Edward Arnold, dir. George Sidney
- ch11. This Heart of Mine, by Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer, dir. Vincente Minnelli
- ch12. A Sweepstakes Ticket, by Fanny Brice with Hume Cronyn and William Frawley, dir. Roy Del Ruth (onscreen)
- ch13. Love, with Lena Horne, dir. Lemuel Ayers (onscreen)
- ch14. When Television Comes, by Red Skelton, dir. George Sidney (onscreen)
- ch15. Limehouse Blues, by Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer, dir. Vincente Minnelli
- ch16. A Great Lady Has an Interview, by Judy Garland, dir. Vincente Minnelli, Charles Walters
- ch17. The Babbitt and the Bromide, by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, dir. Vincente Minnelli
- ch18. Beauty, by Kathryn Grayson, Cyd Charisse (bubble dance) dir. Vincente Minnelli
- ch19. Exit Music
I'm glad to have Fanny Brice in a full color, lengthy skit. The earlier black and white recordings of her are not so clear, and not so close-up. She really acts with her whole body: she can curl her upper back to look hunched in profile. I hope I remember that when I watch B.Streisand in Funny Girl ('68) to compare what she does.
MGM, dir. Minnelli et al; 8-
