Ziegfeld Follies

(Vincente Minnelli, Lemuel Ayers, Roy Del Ruth, Robert Lewis, Merrill Pye, George Sidney, and Charles Walters, US 1946, 110 min., 35mm)

Vincente and Judy. William Powell, once again as Florenz Ziegfeld, looks down from the heavens and orchestrates a grand Technicolor musical-comedy review in the tradition of his glorious stage shows. The magnificent assemblage of MGM contract performers includes Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Lena Horne, Red Skelton, Esther Williams, and best of all, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in their only on-screen pairing until That’s Entertainment in 1974.