The Great Ziegfeld with Rachel Hall

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was still very much a contemporary force in American entertainment when this was made. His late wife Billie Burke even had a hand in the casting of this movie, which was an enormous artistic and financial success for MGM. But what does that all add up to now? This three-hour biopic serves mainly to highlight two things -- that Ziegfeld was a "special effects" genius in his day (costumes and staging) to a degree that still astonishes today, and that his life was a mind-numbing roller coaster of money. There's very little heart in the movie despite the numerous romances, and if it weren't for the dazzling excerpts of his follies, this would rightfully never be remembered today. Join me and Rachel Hall as we try to figure out what kind of drugs people were taking in the 1930s.

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