THE GREAT ZIEGFELD
TCM, 8 p.m. ET
TCM’s salute to
“Star of the Month” William Powell continues – and concludes – with this
last batch of samples from Powell’s lengthy cinematic resume. Starting
the evening is this lavish 1936 biographical musical drama, in which
Powell stars as legendary stage showman Florenz Ziegfeld. Myrna Loy, who
launched the Thin Man movie series opposite Powell two years
previously, plays opposite him again. This
time she portrays Billie Burke (who, in real life, was three years away
from playing Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz when this film was made). And there are other stars to watch as well: Fanny Brice, later immortalized by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, plays herself. Playing himself, also, is Ray Bolger, who was about to join Burke in the Oz
cast (as the Scarecrow). And co-starring, as Ziegfeld associate
Billings, is Frank Morgan, who shortly would play the title character in
guess which movie? (That’s right: The Wizard of Oz.) And if you’ve seen the Broadway show Follies, the lavish costuming and presentation of “The Ziegfeld girls” is what that musical was striving (quite successfully) to evoke.
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