BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

SnoopyStyle Three girls get a chance to being new Ziegfeld girls. Elevator girl Sheila Regan (Lana Turner) with boyfriend Gilbert Young (James Stewart) finds herself pursued by a millionaire. Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland) has to abandon her vaudeville act with her father. Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) is a mystery woman from overseas.The cast is filled with legendary names. That alone makes this an interesting movie. Each girl's story is compelling to some extent. At least, it's interesting to watch the legendary beauties. The least interesting is the actual Ziegfeld Follies. It's only a line of beauties walking down the stairs in costumes. The song and dance for the three is mostly walking around. It's not much of a song and dance play. Judy Garland doing vaudeville with her show business father is far more interesting. Of course, she is perfectly comfortable with that. Lana Turner gets to play opposite Jimmy Stewart and has the juicier story. Hedy Lamarr has the least compelling story which ends with simply walking away. All in all, it's a great star watch and a functional musical.

mark.waltz The three girls here are Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner and Judy Garland. Turner is discovered, not sipping sodas but running an elevator. One of Ziegfeld's scouts finds Garland performing with her father in burlesque. Hedy Lamarr happens to be there just because her boyfriend is auditioning for a place in the orchestra. These three girls are all chosen as Ziegfeld girls, and while the glamorous Lamar and Turner both have leading roles in the musical number, Garland is featured in the chorus. One will make it to the top of the wedding cake; another will retire to be a wife, and the third will end up in tragedy.This is an unofficial sequel to The Great Ziegfeld with the focus on the girls rather than the man behind the scenes. He is absent here, but the plot is something similar to some of the subplots from the original. Legengs of real life Ziegfeld girl scandals are still being talked about today with Turner an amalgamation of several real life Follies girls.Garland, who would later stand out in the supporting role of Marilyn Miller in the 1946 Jerome Kern musical bio Till the Clouds Roll By, is perky and sweet, but her character is no different than any of the roles that she played opposite Mickey Rooney. Here, she gets Jackie Cooper instead. Lamarr remains a beautiful block of ice, which leaves Turner to get the best scenes as a self- destructive train wreck.Musically, this is just as lavish looking as its predecessor and Tony Martin provides the voice for the Follies leading man who makes a play for Lamarr even though he's marriedLamarr does get to liven up in a confrontation with the wife that takes a different turn. James Stewart also has a rather thankless part as Turner's boyfriend who ends up involved with gangsters. Smaller roles played by Charles Winninger, Edward Everett Horton and Eve Arden are brief but memorable. Dan Dailey has a nir as a low-class brute who abuses the down on her luck Turner. Garland explodes finally in her big production number, Minnie From Trinidad, where she dances with a chubby but talented hoofer and appears to be propelled high up on a platform with only bamboo poles lifting it.This propelled Turner into stardom and showed that she was more than just another blonde beauty. She really gives her all acting wise. Some elements make this seem forced and an artificial view if the Fillies, but as directed by Robert Z. Leonard, it is a worth-while follow up to the original.

tavm Having previously watched this film in the early part of this century, I have to admit right away that when I just saw this again right now that I forgot much of what happened in it other than Judy Garland's numbers and her story as well as Lana Turner's. Both of them give fine performances about rising to fame in the Ziegfeld Follies while Hedy Lamarr was okay with what she did here though her story isn't given as much attention which was just as well. Top-billed Jimmy Stewart was also good as Ms. Turner's on-and-off boyfriend who ends up doing something illegal in order to be in the same social strata as her. Oh, and I loved that number Charles Winninger and Al Shean did near the end in which they did a song complete with funny jokes. Mr. Shean, by the way, was a relative of the Marx Brothers. So on that note, I highly recommend Ziegfeld Girl. P.S. The reason I reviewed this just now was because since I've been commenting on the Our Gang series-and individual films outside of that featuring at least one player from there-in chronological order, this was next on the list as Jackie Cooper here played Ms. Turner's brother and Judy's boyfriend. He did okay with what he had here. Oh, and Stewart joined the military after completing this. When he returned to Hollywood five years later, his next film would be my all-time favorite, It's a Wonderful Life...

earlytalkie Here is MGM glitter at it's best. The Ziegfeld Girl gives us three of the top female stars at MGM at the time. For Judy Garland fans, she acquits herself musically with three songs. The adorable "Laugh, I Thought I'd Split My Sides" performed with Charles Winninger at the beginning, "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" simply sung beside a piano, and the Busby Berkeley staged "Minnie From Trinidad". Lana Turner had the biggest role of her carrer up to that time, and she is very good in the role of the good girl gone bad. Hedy Lamarr is breathtakingly beautiful in a sympathetic role. Everyone looks gorgeous in the Ziegfeld-style costumes in the elaborate "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" number sung by Tony Martin. Even Eve Arden, who supplies her usual welcome wisecracks, gets to parade down the stairs in a gorgeous Ziegfeld outfit. A beautiful extravaganza with a story that will hold your attention. This storyline has been compared in some other reviews to "Valley of the Dolls", and yes, superficially the story could be compared to that, but it is done so much better here, with the resources of MGM giving plausibility to both story and acting. Nobody did it better than MGM in those days. "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" has to be one of the most beautiful black-and-white musical numbers ever filmed. An eye-filling spectacle.