There are lots of comments using the word 'unusual' to describe the book's lack of spontaneous musical numbers. I think that can be forgiven since the whole business is a backstage melodrama of the Ziegfeld dynasty. The film's predecessor "The Great Ziegfeld" was presented the same way: a biography proper, but with integrated musical numbers presented as examples of the Ziegfeld shows. In this case, the players are exotic beauty Lamarr, in love with her own husband but briefly tempted with the spoils of success (and a possible dalliance); working-girl Turner in the showier role of ambitious-girl-gone-bad; and Garland- the true, explosive talent of the group. (Note she is not given the glamorous presentation of the other two, but presented as the vulnerable and heartbreaking singer that she always was.) Her best moment- and the film's best scene- is the performance of "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows-" cleverly staged as an audition nearly wrecked by Garland's vaudeville dad; the song is a springboard to her maturity throughout the film. All of these plots progress fine, but too slowly- and when it is all over it feels more like 3 hours instead of 2. (I also wish it had been filmed in color to better show off the spectacular costumes.) The ending of the film is fairly ambivalent; you don't know the outcome of Lana Turner's character, and that's probably on purpose. The last spotlight is only on Garland, and even that has been achieved with a bit of trick photography from the earlier film "The Great Ziegfeld."
Review of Ziegfeld Girl
