Fanny Brice is herself, though she isn't on screen enough to vitalize this lavish, tedious musical biography; it goes on for a whopping three hours, but through some insane editing decision she's cut off in the middle of singing "My Man."

| Jul 28, 2022

Too glib for real life, it is persuasive for all that -- possibly just because of that.

| Feb 18, 2022

The representation of this greatness is done with such consistent loud-pedalling that the picture lacks climax as much as it needs relief.

| Dec 2, 2021

For sheer lavishness, attention to detail, honesty of purpose, The Great Ziegfeld is to be commended. Where the picture falls down -- hard! -- is in its fulsomeness.

| Dec 2, 2021

Of course, it's swell to look at -- or swollen -- like a glorified goldfish; but then, if you examine it, its tail falls right off. One might perhaps keep it in a glass case -- which is more than you could do with this dead whale here.

| Dec 2, 2021

Luise Rainer, the Viennese actress, is a risen star as Ziegfeld's first wife, Anna Held. Gay as a butterfly, temperamental as an April day, she is the outstanding actress in the film.

| Dec 2, 2021

Its cast is skillfully selected. Although Powell does his tremendous task well, I am sure Luise Rainer as Anna Held will be as long remembered.

| Dec 1, 2021

Luise Rainer as Anna Held does one of the most difficult of interpretations. The character has been much softened and Miss Rainer is full of charm in the role.

| Dec 1, 2021

Whether one considers this their incredibly elaborate scenes to be expensive nonsense or genuine visions of beauty, it can hardly be denied that by their own standard they are as well done as could be expected.

| Dec 1, 2021

It is only fitting and proper that The Great Ziegfeld... should be as magnificent, as picturesque and as crammed with ingenuity and talent as the combined money and talent of Hollywood could provide.

| Nov 30, 2021

Grand, glorious, gigantic and gorgeous... It is too bad Ziegfeld couldn't have seen his biography according to Hollywood, MGM, and Mr. Stromberg.

| Nov 30, 2021

The Great Ziegfeld exacts not the slightest weariness in the running. On'the contrary, it is matter for astonishment that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have managed to maintain such a high degree of interest throughout this episodic story.

| Jan 24, 2020

The producers are to be congratulated on every phase of the beautiful production except their lack of courage cutting the film.

| Feb 17, 2015

Drags in places and deosn't even try for a true-to-life portrait of the great theatre entrepeneur but it's shiny and big spectacle with impressive choreography.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 19, 2011

Pretentious, packed with hokum and as richly sentimental as an Irving Berlin lyric, it is, as such, top-notch entertainment.

| Feb 17, 2009

Considering the recent screen standards in book musicals with five numbers for 100 to 110 minutes of running time this Metro Santaclausing of numbers becomes virtually a double-feature filmusical.

| Jan 28, 2008

If the picture overcrowds its screen, at least we must admit it is an impressive kaleidoscope; and probably nothing short of that could reflect the gaudy career of America's foremost showman.

| May 20, 2003

It's amazingly dull, even with William Powell in the lead and guest appearances by the likes of Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice, so of course it won the Best Picture Oscar for 1936.

| Jan 1, 2000