Ziegfeld Follies is a musical comedy from 1945 with an all-star cast and a great ensemble of directors. The story is about the late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell, The Thin Man), who is looking down from the Heavens, wishing he could have one last follies. He knows who he would use and what the follies would include. With grand imagination, he envisions the follies with various musical numbers, comedy sketches and other artistic performances
Ziegfeld Follies has several segments with various directors, which are as follows:
Lemuel Ayers directed the segment “Love”
Roy Del Ruth directed the segment “A Sweepstakes Ticket”
Robert Lewis directed the segment “Number Please”
Vincente Minnelli directed “This Heart of Mine”, “Limehouse Blues”, “A Great Lady Has an Interview”, “The Babbitt and the Bromide”, and “Beauty”
George Sidney directed “Here’s to the Girls”, “Pay the Two Dollars”, and “When Television Comes”
Merrill Pye directed the segment “A Water Ballet” but was uncredited
Charles Walters directed the segment “A Great Lady Has an Interview” and was also uncredited
Ziegfeld Follies arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers. The 1088p AVC encoded picture quality for this Technicolor release is spectacular with strong, bright vivid colors. The costumes and outfits worn throughout are simply dazzling. The scenery is rich in textures, indoor and exterior shots are just a pleasure to watch as the boost in contrast has made everything that much sharper.
Warner applies English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 mono and stereo for the audio options. Both sound excellent with no drop-offs, hissing, pops or crackles detected. Dialog and music numbers come in perfectly clear for both audio options. You cannot really go wrong with either selection. The musical numbers tend to be a bit more robust in stereo. English SDH subtitles are offered for this package.
Warner has included a vast number of supplements for their Blu-ray.
We get a live-action short, The Luckiest Guy in the World: Crime Does Not Pay. There is a pair of cartoons, The Hick Chick and
Solid Serenade. An Embarrassment of Riches is a 15 minutes making-of featurette with film historians John Fricke, James Givin, and Hugh Fordin and performers Gloria de Haven, Cyd Charisse, and Kathryn Grayson.
Also included is an audio only extra, which are audio outtakes: “Here’s to the Girls” (alternate take) “Liza” “Honolulu”, “A Cowboy’s Life”, “E Pinched Me” “I’m a Indian” , “Start Each Day with a Song” , Leo the Lion Speaks , “There’s Beauty Everywhere” James Melton finale version, “Love” in Spanish .
A theatrical trailer rounds out the supplemental package.
Depending on your taste in musicals, you will either love it to death or find it a tedious going. Musical lovers should enjoy this release, to not only for the film, but the wonderful high-definition release provided by Warner Archive. Recommended!
Ziegfeld Follies
Directors – Lemuel Anders, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, Vincente Minnelli, Merrill Fye, George Sydney, Charles Walters
Cast- William Powell, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball
Country of Origin- US
Distributor –Warner Archive Collection / Warner Brothers
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date-7/13/21