Three girls, brash Brooklynite Sheila Regan (Lana Turner), earnest daddy's-girl Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland), and exotic beauty Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr) follow different paths when they become the titular characters, the living props (and sometimes entertainers) that adorned the stages in the Ziegfeld's extravagant Follies. The central story is the rise and fall of Sheila, who abandons her working-class boyfriend (a miscast Jimmy Stewart) for high-roller Geoffrey Collis (Ian Hunter) before falling from grace (literally and figuratively) and bottoming out hustling drinks in seedy speakeasies. Turner is pretty good but the toggling between her being slapped around by a bitter ex-palooka (Dan Dailey) or struggling to maintain poise when deathly ill, and the over-the-top froth on the Follies' stage was a bit jarring. While the girl from Flatbush's star was waxing and waning, Hedy Lamarr wanders around dreamily, dealing with temptation and the needs of her violinist husband Franz (Philip Dorn), untimely finding a trite epiphany through an ex-showgirl fearful of losing her man. Meanwhile, talented songbird Susan deals with her father's reluctant realisation that his Vaudeville-style of show is passé (until, of course, he's given a change to 'put on a show' in front of the tux-and-gowned crowd at the Follies). There are a couple of good song and dance routines including Garland's poignant rendition of 'I'm Always Chasing Rainbows' (her second hit in as many years involving rainbows and bluebirds) and an energetic rumba showpiece 'Minnie from Trinidad'. The great secondary cast is full of familiar faces (and voices) including former child-star Jackie Cooper as Sheila's concerned brother, Eve Arden as an experienced gold-digger, and Edward Everett Horton as Noble Sage, the unseen Ziegfeld's lieutenant (I can't hear Horton's voice without thinking about 'Rocky and Bullwinkle'). The film is overlong and some of the side-plots dispensable (Jimmy Stewart mobbed up and in the can for bootlegging??). Other than a couple of highlights, the music and production numbers don't compare to 1936's 'The Great Ziegfeld' or some of the 1930's 'Gold Diggers' films and, while frothily entertaining at times, 'Ziegfeld Girl' lacks the timeless charm of the best of the genre.
Review of Ziegfeld Girl
