Zielfeld Girl: Walking the Road to Fame?

 

 

 

Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

Directed by Robert Leonard

MGM/Loew’s, 132 minutes, Not rated.

★★★★

 

Like numerous classic films, Ziegfeld Girl has backstories that might not be familiar for contemporary viewers. Florenz Ziegfeld never appears in the film. He wasn’t needed; early 20^th century audiences would have known all about the Ziegfeld Follies. (Think a better-costumed version of Radio City’s Rockettes.) Ziegfeld was famous for his lavish dance and music productions. The film accurately records that a new Ziegfeld production was an anticipated event in big cities. Depression era films frequently spotlighted the disconnect between show biz opulence and the financial hardships of ordinary Americans. To be chosen for a big Broadway show was like winning the lottery.

 

Ziegfeld Girl often seems an extended infomercial for the Follies. It was! Plus, a semi- sequel to the 1936 film Ziegfeld Follies. The storyline follows rather common Depression era tropes. It is a bit like Ruby Keeler’s hoofer-to-star arc in 42nd Street of  a cast trying out for a show, each one of them hoping for instant fame. If you don't know that film, 42^nd Street think of more recent films such as A Chorus Line.  Ziegfeld Girl has three young women waiting to be discovered: Sandra Kolter (Hedy Lamarr), Sheila Regan (Lana Turner), and Susan Gallagher (Judy Garland). Garland played a 17-year-old, which wasn't too much of a stretch because she was 19 at the time. She was cast because of her enormous success in The Wizard of Oz two years earlier. Not surprisingly, she plays a naive minor considered to be an extra or go-fer because she wasn't particularly pretty or glamorous by Ziegfeld standards.  And then they heard her sing!

 

Most of the characters in this film were exceptionally well known at the time the movie was released. Jimmy Stewart played Sheila's boyfriend Gil Young, a working-class truck driver and sometimes bootlegger. Philip Dorn was Lamarr’s husband Franz, and the cast also included Dan Daly, Edward Everett Norton Jackie Cooper, and Eve Arden. The lesser-known Charles J. Winninger appeared as Susan's father, a faded vaudevillian, and upstaged some of the more famous actors. He was charming as Susan's father/chaperone who wheedles his way onto the stage. He sings “Mr. Gallagher Mr. Shean,” a 1922 vaudeville hit, with none other than Al Shean himself. If Shean’s name rings no bells, know that he was an uncle to the Marx brothers.

 

Roles seen in other films from the 30s and 40s appear in Ziegfeld Girl. Lana Turner for example, is a girl from Brooklyn who is seduced by rich older men who keep her at a level of luxury she'd like to get used to. Of course, this puts a strain on her relationship with Gil. Tony Martin plays Frank Merton a melodramatic singer. I confess that his voice drives me crazy, hence I fast forwarded his songs, as I always do in Marx Brothers’ films in which he appears. Nonetheless, the individual stories of Ziegfeld Girl were quite moving. Many Ziegfeld shows featured large casts of women who did very little other than walk down stage stairs wearing elaborate costumes. One often needed little talent other than beauty and the ability not to fall over. Hedy Lamarr is one such individual, though she was always put in the front because of her sultry attractiveness. Movie husband Franz is a very interesting character; he too tried out for the Follies–as a pianist–but was rejected because he was too good. After all, you don't want to draw audience attention away from the bevy of beauties parading in front. How does Franz reconcile with the fact that his wife is the center of the male gaze?

 

I made a comparison to A Chorus Line and this film was really quite a lot like it. One watches to find out how the central characters resolve their various obstacles, including personal dilemmas. I wouldn't call it a brilliant movie–Herbert Stothart’s score was one of the film’s few Oscar nominations-–but it was a boffo hit in 1941. One of the great pleasures of watching it today is to see how a talented cast can hold our attention despite a thin script, and even if you don't get all of the period inferences. And I admit, Hedy Lamarr looks mighty fine in her star headdress.

 

 

 

Rob Weir

 

 

 

 

Boomtown: Hollywood Looks art the Oil Boom

 

 

Boomtown (1940)

Directed by Jack Conway

MGM, 119 minutes, Not-rated

 

Boomtown spotlights Hollywood heavyweights Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr. Tracy was miffed that he got second billing, but the unexpected 1934 hit It Happened One Night launched Clark Gable’s star higher in the sky. Colbert, Gable’s costar in 1934, took a role originally written for Myrna Loy.

 

Some history helps understand this comedy/drama better. The novel that led to the script was set in Texas, but producers and director Jack Conway wisely changed the locale to Oklahoma. Remember studying the Trail of Tears in U.S. history? It involved the expulsion of 60,000 Native Americans from five Southeastern states in the years 1830-50. Some 13-16,000 lives were lost in the forced-march to lands in “Indian Territory,” allegedly theirs forever. If you’ve seen Killers of the Flower Moon or read the book, you know that “forever” didn’t last the 19^th century. Land rushes led whites to move into Indian Territory and statehood for Oklahoma* in 1907, just as an oil boom occurred. Coincidence?  

 

Boom Town is an oil-slicked Western that bypasses this sad history, but it’s historical in presenting a frenzy analogous to the California gold rush. Entrepreneurs, outcasts, and dreamers poured into Oklahoma hellbent on making a fortune. In many ways oil strike towns were more like the Wild West than the cattle drives of American myth. In both gold and oil instant towns, corporations and those who had money to invest carried off the biggest hauls. A few oil independent “wildcatters” also struck it rich–enough to keep more settlers coming. “Big John” McMasters (Gable) and “Square John” Sand (Tracy)–called “Shorty” by McMasters–are wildcatters with a record of dry holes and not much jingle in their pockets. They meet in a boom town and decide to double their chances by teaming up. They pull a swindle on equipment seller Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan) for their futile first big attempt and have to skedaddle just ahead of the sheriff.

 

They scrap together enough money to pay off most of what they owe, but con Aldrich one more time. Luckily, they strike a large deposit. Not so fortunately, McMasters meets Betsy Bartlett (Colbert) at the bar of a hotel and the two have instant chemistry and  marry. Sand thought of her as sweet on him, but accepts his fate. He does, however, take a protective stance toward Betsy. When he catches McMasters dancing very closely with a barroom floozy, the two quarrel to the degree that they flip a coin over the oil field. Square John wins, but Betsy would rather be broke with Big John, and they ride off in search of another strike.

 

Things happen in a boom/bust cycle in which one has a strike while the other pumps (ahem) sand. Then the cycle reverses. That’s generally followed by another partnership, another spat, and another split. This continues until McMasters commands many wells and is so wealthy that he is courted to set up his business in New York. He even invites Sand to oversee parts of what becomes a vertical empire (bottom to top control over oil, equipment, refineries, outlet, and delivery transportation). In his New York office he also acquires a snarky, snappy, and very sexy secretary, Karen Vanmeer (Lamarr). He’s all Oklahoma libido and she’s all New York schemer. This time poor Betsy feels outclassed and hopeless. A close encounter with a pill bottle leads to a conspiracy between Betsy and Sand to ruin Big John via the Sherman Antitrust Act.

 

All of this sounds more serious than it is. Boomtown plays the rivalry for laughs more than regrets. Gable and Spencer are like two battling brothers who deep down take honor, friendship, nonchalance, and risk-taking more seriously than money. Above all, Square John wants Betsy to be happy. In some ways, the cast of Boom Town does for oil what the Marx Brothers did for Florida land speculation in The Cocoanuts.

 

A word of caution: This is at core a male-bonding film in which most women are “girls.” Lamarr’s role is that of a temptress and is unique in that she’s ruthless, not carefree. Gable and Colbert never made another film together. Read between the lines and you’ll figure out why.

 

Rob Weir

 

* Oklahoma derives from Choctaw words that mean “red people.” The “sooners” of sports team names is shameless. They were whites who moved into Oklahoma illegally in advance of lands opened in 1890.