shanmonster | Review: Ziegfeld Follies

It took me two evenings to slog through it, but I've finally finished watching Ziegfeld Follies. Mostly, I find it hasn't aged well. The majority of the comedy acts consist of rapid-fire one-liners accompanied by gurning. The one exception to this was the piece by Fanny Brice, one of the original Ziegfeld Follies performers. Although her comedy was heavy-handed, her timing was spot-on, and her slapstick quite funny, in a ridiculous sort of way. As for the rest of it, I suspect you have to be ninety years old and/or stoned right out of your mind to make you giggle.

Parts of the show were absolutely bizarre. Lucille Ball (before her I Love Lucy days) marches out in a froufrou pink feathery outfit, then makes like a dominatrix--cracking a whip repeatedly at a bevy of scantily-clad cat girls. That was decidedly surreal. So was the scene with the barren, bubbly wasteland inhabited by seductive, lounging women. It felt like a Ren and Stimpy moment.

My favourite parts of the show were Judy Garland's song about the inventor of the safety pin (although the rest of the act was too over-the-top for my tastes), and any time Fred Astaire danced. I'm intrigued at the apparent carelessness and nonchalant grace of his movements. He does a backwards spinning leap onto a step, and it looks like a lazy movement. With Jackie Chan, even the ease with which a wall is easily scaled is marked with a certain frantic energy. With Fred Astaire, I almost expect him to fall asleep--but I mean this in a good way. His ease of movement is so natural, he probably could dance somnambulistically.

I think my favourite performance of his was the one with Gene Kelly. Watching the two of them dance together was quite slashy. Ahh, if only men danced together like that more often on film. The only other time I can recall seeing it done so well was in the opening scenes of Ken Russell's Valentino.