Ziegfeld Girl is comparable to Stage Door, so if you liked one, go ahead and rent the other. Both stories follow a handful of girls who want to make it on the stage and show how they deal with the ups and downs of show business. In this 1941 film, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and Hedy Lamarr are the three hopefuls, each with their own unique personalities and perspectives. With a huge supporting cast, James Stewart, Jackie Cooper, Tony Martin, Charles Winninger, Edward Everett Horton, Eve Arden, Fay Holden, and Dan Dailey, you're in for a treat if you like star-studded backstage musicals. Movies like Ziegfeld Follies, Words and Music, and Till the Clouds Roll By all cater to that genre, and while it is fun to see a bunch of famous people for five minutes in the same movie, usually the script and story falls a little thin. This one isn't the worst in the world-trust me, I've seen some doozies-so if you want to rent it, it won't hurt you.

I was expecting more from this, because it has a promising cast and the same director as *The Great Ziegfeld*, which MGM had released five years earlier.Granted, the premise is hackneyed: three young women are accepted into the Follies and have to deal with the problems that come with fame, especially fame for appearing in a (for its day) skimpy costume. But, with the exception of Garland's character, the others don't get any good dialogue, no chance to become more than cardboard characters.At one point, we see Al Sheen do (parts of) his famous vaudeville routine with Charles Winninger replacing his old colleagues Pat Gallagher. Part way through we cut away to an uninteresting moment of drama, rather than getting the whole of what could have been one of the highlights of this film.The musical numbers here are often lavishly staged, but not in an interesting manner. If you compare it to MGM's *The Great Ziegfeld*, you can see the difference. That is especially true of the last number, which reuses the wedding cake set used so spectacularly at the end of *The Great Ziegfeld*. The way it is filmed is bland, however, and nothing like the breathtaking finale in the previous picture.Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr both look beautiful in this picture, but they are largely just window dressing here.In short, a pretty but disappointing picture.

Having previously watched this film in the early part of this century, I have to admit right away that when I just saw this again right now that I forgot much of what happened in it other than Judy Garland's numbers and her story as well as Lana Turner's. Both of them give fine performances about rising to fame in the Ziegfeld Follies while Hedy Lamarr was okay with what she did here though her story isn't given as much attention which was just as well. Top-billed Jimmy Stewart was also good as Ms. Turner's on-and-off boyfriend who ends up doing something illegal in order to be in the same social strata as her. Oh, and I loved that number Charles Winninger and Al Shean did near the end in which they did a song complete with funny jokes. Mr. Shean, by the way, was a relative of the Marx Brothers. So on that note, I highly recommend Ziegfeld Girl. P.S. The reason I reviewed this just now was because since I've been commenting on the Our Gang series-and individual films outside of that featuring at least one player from there-in chronological order, this was next on the list as Jackie Cooper here played Ms. Turner's brother and Judy's boyfriend. He did okay with what he had here. Oh, and Stewart joined the military after completing this. When he returned to Hollywood five years later, his next film would be my all-time favorite, It's a Wonderful Life...

What looked like the big-budget spectacles that MGM normally churned out in the 1940s turned out to be a big train-wreck. 'Ziegfeld Girl' is definitely one of MGM's worst of the musical bunch. Judy Garland, fresh off of The Wizard of Oz, outshines her co-stars Lana Turner (playing a drunk showgirl who over dramatically falls down the stairs) and Hedy LaMarr (who all but gazes at the ceiling) as the showgirl who makes it in the Follies (Mr. Ziegfeld is never seen... HM I wonder why?). Jimmy Stewart plays Lana's mobster boyfriend. Yes, you read that right, Jimmy Stewart as a mobster. He's as unconvincing as Lucille Ball playing a Gypsy Rose Lee like stripper in one of her early movies. Combine all these with over-the-top Busby Berkeley numbers (with costumes that look like they were stolen from Lady Gaga's dressing room) including one with Garland that predates his nutty "Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat" with Carmen Miranda. The finale with inter-splicings of The Great Ziegfeld must be seen to be believed. Overall, very underwhelming.