Broadway Melody of 1940 dance clip

Ziegfeld Girl is terrific entertainment

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Star loaded 1941 film Ziegfeld Girl is an enjoyable film. It stars Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner. Like I said star loaded. The film centers on three different girls who become Ziegfeld girls, which they hope mean fame and money. Judy is Susan Gallagher, one half of a musical variety act with her old school dad (played by the fabulous Charles Winniger) that play at very small locales just to earn some money. Well Susan gets the call that the great Mr. Ziegfeld is looking for new girls and she is all happy for her and her dad. But Ziegfeld just wants Susan and not dad. So tension arises from that situation but good old dad doesn't stand in her way. Susan becomes a Ziegfeld girl and her dad carries on the show by himself. Hedy plays Sandra Kotler, a married woman whose violinist husband Franz is struggling to make a name for himself. At the audition for acts for The Ziegfeld show, Franz is overlooked but Sandra is picked to be a ZG, much to Franz's displeasure. They end up separated for awhile and Sandra becomes close with the show's male vocalist Frank (played by Tony Martin). And finally there is elevator girl Sheila Regan (Lana Turner) who has a boyfriend trucker named Gill (Jimmy Stewart with a thick Brooklyn accent). Sheila is the type of girl from the wrong side of the tracks with a hard working family. Once she gets picked, she makes the biggest transformation of all the girls. She lets the fame and money go to her head and breaks up with Gill and starts romancing a much older and richer man. All the girls personal issues play out against the backdrop of the Ziegfeld musical shows. Judy Garland gets to belt out a few good numbers. But its actually Charles Winniger who has the best musical number: a song and dance number with an old vaudeville partner that leaves the audience amazed. Hedy Lamarr is strictly here for decoration, not that there's anything wrong with that. Her scenes with Franz are her best though. Jimmy Stewart is good as Gill, a nice change of pace from playing the good guys..he ends up in jail for bootlegging after being dumped by Sheila. His Brooklyn accent is thick, but somehow he loses it by midway through the film. The standout in this film is Lana Turner as Sheila. Whoever may have question Ms. Turner's acting ability will be put in check by her performance here. It deserved some type of award for her hard take on this girl who becomes her own worst enemy. Towards the end, Sheila will have hit rock bottom and Turner nails it with a riveting performance. Ms. Turner may have been known for her beauty, but here she proves she can act with the best of them. There is also solid support from veterans Edward Everett Horton, Fay Holden and Eve Arden. Typical Eve gets in several good zingers. So, Ziegfeld Girl is a marvelous film, not really a straight forward musical, more of a drama that has a few musical numbers in it with solid performances by a talented cast. And one knockout performance by Lana Turner. I enjoyed every minute of it.

ON THE TOWN (1949)

ON THE TOWN (1949) A wonderful musical, about three sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin) on a twenty-four hour shore leave, looking for adventure and romance.They go on a sightseeing tour of Manhattan. On their list: the Empire State Building, Central Park and Rockefeller Center, Ozzie and Gabey quickly becoming bored of sightseeing and want to check out the beautiful women of New York. The three sailors see a poster of Ivy Smith, "Miss Turnstiles"(Vera Ellen) for the month of June, thinking that she is beautiful girl he has ever seen. They tell her life story in a dance number. They can not believe that they find her, as soon as they arrive at the subway station, where Ivy is posing for a photo shoot. Gabey poses with her for a photograph. she quickly disappears. Gabey, Chip and Ozzie follow Ivy in a taxicab driven by Brunhilde (Betty Garrett), who has eyes for Chip. With the poster of Ivy's as their only information, Gabey and his friends look for her in places where she might be working. Brunhilde, takes the sailors to look for Ivy at the Museum of Natural History, where Ozzie meets Claire (Ann Miller), an anthropologist, who quickly joins them in the search. When they break into a dance, Ozzie and Claire accidentally knock over a dinosaur skeleton at the museum. They run for their lives, but the police are hot on their trail. The group splits up and search for her separately, agreeing to meet later that evening at the Empire State Building. Alone at last with Chip, Brunhilde takes him to her apartment, only to be disturbed by her quirky, roommate, Lucy(Alice Pearce).Gabey eventually finds Ivy in a dance studio, and they make plans to go on a date later that evening. Ivy promises to return from her date in time to make her performance as a coach dancer at Coney Island, because she owes her dance instructor a lot of money for her lessons. Chip, Brunhilde, Ozzie, Claire and Gabey meet at the top of the Empire State Building, where they hide Ozzie from the policemen who are still looking for him. When Ivy arrives, the three couples begin their night ON THE TOWN. The evening comes to an abrupt halt when Ivy disappears without explanation, leaving behind only a note. His friends try to cheer him up by quickly having Lucy fill in for for Ivy. Gabey has a few drinks and thinks about his new love, Ivy. Will the two love birds find each other again?I loved the fact that this movie was filmed on location. I really enjoyed the dance numbers. For me they seemed to go with the plot instead strictly for entertainment. I also, loved the dance number where the guys dress up in Hiram costumes and sing like girls..In her screen debut, Alice Pearce (the roommate with the sneezing problem). Alice is also known as the first actress to play the nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz on the show Bewitched (1964).
http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=16834&titleId=355
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Soundtracks:
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"I Feel Like I'm Not out of Bed Yet"
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung by Bern Hoffman

"New York, New York"
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung and Danced by Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin
"Miss Turnstiles"
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Danced by Vera-Ellen and chorus



"Prehistoric Man"
(uncredited)
Music by Roger Edens
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung by Ann Miller
Danced by Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Betty Garrett


"Come Up to My Place"
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung by Betty Garrett and Frank Sinatra

"Main Street"
(uncredited)
Music by Roger Edens
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung by Gene Kelly
Danced by Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen

"You're Awful"
(uncredited)
Music by Roger Edens
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung by Frank Sinatra and Betty Garrett

"On the Town"
(uncredited)
Music by Roger Edens
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung and Danced by Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Ann Miller,
Betty Garrett and Vera-Ellen

"Count on Me"
(uncredited)
Music by Roger Edens
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Sung by Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Jules Munshin, Ann Miller,
Alice Pearce and Gene Kelly.

"A Day in New York"
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Danced by Gene Kelly, Vera-Ellen, Carol Haney and dancers

"That's All There Is, Folks"
(uncredited)
Music by Roger Edens
Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Danced by Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin