Glorification

Ziegfield Girl is another in a long line of showbiz movies where a gal makes it big, only to lose the ones she loves (and probably dies!). I've seen it in Three Broadway Girls (aka The Greeks had a Name for It), The Glorification of the American Girl, Funny Girl, and a bunch of others, I'm sure.

In this one, there are 3 girls: Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner. If you want to know how they come out:

• Garland almost loses her vaudeville-era dad who's too old-fashioned for the Follies. He turns out to be half of Gallagher and Sheen, so that's OK.
• Hedy Lamarr's out of work classical violinist husband cuts her off when she becomes a rich showgirl. But he graciously takes her back when she quits.
• Lana Turner prostitutes herself, loses her truck driver boyfriend Jimmy Stewart who starts running booze and goes to jail, loses her sugar-daddy, gets drunk and falls off the stage, and almost dies. When she is completely degraded, Jimmy Stewart takes her back.

Why did show business hate show business so much? Why didn't people who saw this movie start a movement to shut down Ziegfield's theater of pain? Did they enjoy imagining the suffering of these showgirls and their families?

I'm not much of a Judy Garland fan, so I won't critique her performance. Hedy Lamarr's beauty stands out even in this crowd, but her role isn't too much of a stretch. It is young Lana Turner who burns up the screen here. She really sinks her teeth into the role (without chewing the scenery).

The balance of plot to music strongly favors the music. When the extended musical number starts, Busby Berkeley drops the LSD into your eyes and takes you away. Not as trippy as some of his work, but out there.