The Great Ziegfeld (1937) manages to do many things at once, and not all of them well. Firstly, it tells a highly fictionalized story about the life of Florence "Flo" Ziegfeld (played by William Powell), one of the most successful theater entrepreneurs of all time. Although the names of many of the principals were changed to avoid lawsuits (Ziegfeld was dead only five years before the film was made), it hits all of the highs and lows of his life in more or less the same order, and he ends up with Billie Burke (played stiffly by Myrna Loy), who was a real-life 'consultant' on this film.
What the film is most known for is its dedication to putting a ton of money on screen in musical numbers, virtually recreating the experience of attending a Ziegfeld Follies. The elaborate sequence "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody", of a number based on an Irving Berlin tune that was featured originally in Ziegfeld's 1919 Follies, was the most expensive film sequence ever filmed to that date, with a cost estimated at $220 thousand dollars (4 million modern bucks). As many as 180 performers were involved in the sequence that begins with "Rhapsody in Blue" and concludes with Virginia Bruce descending a staircase that wraps an enormous rotating wedding cake. Warner had Busby Berkeley, and RKO had Rogers and Astaire, but MGM evened the score with this blockbuster, which grossed the equivalent of $86 million modern bucks worldwide.
The film is criticized by modern critics, however as being overly long (clocking in at just under three hours), overacted (although Luise Rainer won a Best Actress Oscar for her emotive performance), and filled with cliches (the film also won Oscars for Best Dance Direction and Best Picture, beating critics favorites Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and My Man Godfrey, which also starred William Powell). Still, modern audiences can enjoy the elaborate, if dated dance numbers, and the exotic costumes designed by Adrian, who went on to design the costumes for The Wizard of Oz (among other films). Another Oz connection is a performance by a pre-Oz Ray Bolger (who later played the Tin Man). There is also included a shortened performance by Fanny Brice, who would later feature as the subject of another biopic, Funny Girl (1968), in which she was played by Barbara Streisand. Funny Girl was also an extremely long movie. Maybe you just can't tell this sort of story without telling it at length.
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