The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

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Flo Ziegfeld`s midway attraction isn`t drawing flies. "How`s business, Ziggy?" a rival taunts. This winner of 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture provides the career-chronicling answer. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.`s business was good (with Broadway`s legendary Follies and more), bad (including times the showman could scarcely rub two nickels together) and rarely lacking optimistic excess.

The Great Ziegfeld casts William Powell at the head of a lustrous cast including real-life Ziegfeldians and Hollywood favorites (particularly Best Actress Oscar winner Luise Rainer). Key creative personnel from Ziegfeld shows are on board. And musical numbers (like A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, which earned Seymour Felix the Best Dance Direction Oscar) meld Ziegfeld lavishness with cinematic pizazz. Great? You bet!